(This Week in Motorhead History) Drive Home Again in Indiana

200 years ago, on December 16, 1816, the state of Indiana was admitted to the Union, and less than 100 years later a race track was built on the west side of the state capital of Indianapolis, a track which just this year observed the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

While the Indy 500 remains the world’s most famous automobile race, less well-known is the fact that in the early part of the 20th century, Indiana was the country’s second-largest automobile-producing state, second only to Michigan.

Most motorheads will recognize the names of Indiana manufacturers such as Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, and Studebaker.  Many will remember that a Marmon, also built in Indiana, won the first Indy 500 in 1911.  Still, others will recall Stutz and Crosley.

But fewer are familiar with most of the other Hoosier-built cars.  Cole, Overland, Durant, Apperson, and Muntz among them.   And a substantial number of names – more than 100 prior to World War II alone – are names that only the most devoted motorhead might know.

Studebaker, which began building horse-drawn wagons in the 1850s, built its first car in 1901 and eventually became the largest of the Indiana-based automobile manufacturers.  But Studebaker was not the first Hoosier carmaker.

A gentleman named Elwood Haynes built his first automobile in 1894, and not long afterward partnered with the Apperson brothers.  Apperson cars, made in Kokomo, lasted until 1924.  Studebaker, in South Bend, made it through 1963.  (Studebakers remained in production for a few more years in Canada.)

Even though the vast majority of the Indiana-built car brands are long since gone, and even though most people think Indiana car manufacturing ended with the demise of Studebaker, Indiana is to this day a significant automobile producer.  Subaru, Honda, and Toyota each build a significant number of cars in the state, and Chevy and GMC pickups are assembled there as well.

All of this is why the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is currently presenting a special exhibit spotlighting Indiana-built automobiles, an exhibit which will run through March 26 of 2017.  The Speedway museum, located within the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is always worth a visit, and a visit during this exhibit will be the very definition of ‘educational’ for any motorhead.

Images Selected From Wikipedia and Subaru of America