CAR MEN AND MONEY MEN...

So tell me Jim, what other cases are there of car men and money men going different ways?

Well, the two that come to mind right away are David Dunbar Buick and Louis Chevrolet. Buick was originally a plumbing man. He had his first financial success with the invention of the process of adhering porcelain to cast iron, thus bringing the world white bathtubs for years. He later began to design and build cars. One of his innovations was the overhead valve engine. The design is standard today, but most other manufacturers never incorporated it into their designs until the 40's or 50's. Among Buick's investors were the names Briscoe, Maxwell, Dort and Durant. All of whom were heavy hitters behind what eventually became General Motors and Chrysler corporations. Though Buick was a great idea man, he was never really good at following through with things. He had a tendency to jump all over the place and never finish anything (Can someone spell R-I-T-A-L-I-N?) Eventually, Buick left the car industry and died in relative poverty and obscurity in 1929 at the age of 74, working at the information desk of Detroit School of Trades.

Louis Chevrolet was quite a famous race car driver. William Crapo Durant, had started the General Motors Corporation with the idea of consolidating as many auto manufacturers under one huge umbrella. He acquired solid firms such as Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac, however he also acquired a good number of dogs that dragged the company down. During one reorganization of debt, the investors made it conditional that Durant step down. While trying to make another go of it, Durant got together with Louis Cheverolet to start the Chevrolet motor company. Of course, as a race car driver, Chevrolet wanted to build a production version of the race cars he designed. Durant on the other hand wanted to build a low end, working man's car to compete directly with Henry Ford's model T. Durant got his way, had great success, and used that success to leverage a buy out of General Motors and take charge for the second time. In any case, Louis Chevrolet left the company named after him and eventually the car racing business after his brother, who also raced cars, was killed in a racing accident. Durant also got squeezed out of GM again for basically the same reason as before, trying to take on too much, too fast and finding the company on the edge of bankruptcy again. Like Buick, Durant did "died in relative poverty and obscurity" thing.