Auto show, suburbs share a century of growth
As rock music blares, Suzuki's Gene Brown revs his motorcycle onto the stage before a throng of media at the Chicago Auto Show Wednesday.
But it's not the V-Strom 650 Brown's hyping. Instead it's a new line of Suzuki mid-size pickup trucks. The Equator 4x4 with 261 horsepower will retail at between $20,000 and $30,000.
"Suzuki is a way of life. It's all about exuberance," Brown says. "People who live this lifestyle are called explorers."
Meanwhile, tucked away in a corner of the vast McCormick Place showroom sits the Franklin Gentleman's Roundabout.
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Costing about $1,400 with 12 horsepower, it was a vehicle for the real explorers back in 1905.
"They didn't have great roads. They didn't have great tires," says Jay Follis of the Gilmore Car Museum in Michigan.
"You had to be an adventuring pioneer. You hit a pothole and it would toss you right out."
The auto show, which runs today through Feb. 17, marks its 100th edition this year. But Chicago wasn't the only place falling in love with the horseless carriage a century ago.
The suburbs hosted the Chicago Motor Club when it held its first Algonquin Hill Climb in 1906. The hills in the village provided a good test of the new invention, and 370 manufacturers showed off models during the seven years the event ran.
The then-weekly Arlington Heights Herald was a little skeptical of the trend.
"Let no one imagine that the horse is soon to become an object of curiosity," the Farm and Garden columnist wrote on March 23, 1906. "Horses have been steadily going up in price, which is much better than blowing up as the automobile has been doing."
For most people at the start of the 1900s, a car was "a major luxury and very expensive," said Greg Grams, president of the Volo Auto Museum.
"Then the Model T came out."
Auto revolution
Ford brought out its latest version of the popular F-150 truck at the auto show. It features a dashboard computer and navigation system with wireless mouse and printer. For the memory-challenged tradesman, there's a digital checklist of tools.
It's a far cry from the early Model T's and Model A's, produced by Henry Ford.
Roddy Barton, president of the Naper A's car club, owns two Ford Model A's.
"It's not very fast. It's not as comfortable as a modern car, and they don't brake as well," he said. "When you do 200 miles in a Model A, you know you've done 200 miles."
And even if your auto behaved, you couldn't count on the roads.
"In the 1930s, horses and buggies were still a common sight, the roads were so bad," Lombard Historical Society Director Jeanne Schultz Angel said.
In the early 20th century, the villages that cropped up around the growing metropolis of Chicago largely depended on railroads. Towns distant from railway lines remained small enclaves.
But as Ford's assembly line made cars more affordable and safer, the landscape changed.
"The second wave of suburban development was around roads," said Ann Durkin Keating, a historian at North Central College in Naperville. "It's hugely liberating."
According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, "the marriage between suburb and automobile was consummated during the 1920s," when vehicle registration nationwide went from 8 million in 1920 to 26 million in 1929.
Motoring became a pleasant pastime, and roadhouses sprouted up around the area catering to travelers. Among the hotspots were the Purple Grackle, near Elgin, and the Lincoln Tavern in Morton Grove.
"Here one sees the leaders in business and the world of accomplishment," reads an Aug. 5, 1932, Herald review of Lincoln Tavern.
"Women dressed in the latest vogue, the air laden with the perfume of flowers. As you drive in, they take charge of your car and relieve you of all responsibilities."
The need for speed
With the popularity of automobiles sprouted new industries in the region.
Companies like Elgin's Fauber Manufacturing Co., the Elgin Motor Car Co. and Champion Parts Inc. in Oak Brook played a role in the economic history of the region. International Harvester Co., now Warrenville-based Navistar International Corp. -- which is still thriving -- went from auto production to trucks.
But it wasn't just about business.
Starting with the 1895 Chicago Times-Herald auto race from Chicago to Evanston in heavy snow, fast cars caught on.
Beginning in the 1940s, the suburbs boasted attractions such as the Santa Fe Speedway near Willow Springs, the Waukegan Speedway and Meadowdale Raceway in Dundee Township, now a forest preserve.
Charles Falk, a Schaumburg physician, remembers the thrill of watching Porsches, MGs and Triumphs rev around the track at Meadowdale in the 1950s.
"People would line the track and be right up where the action was," he said. "It was heavily unsafe and it was exciting. It was a convivial atmosphere with guys with their sons and some women because the drivers had appeal."
Elgin also played host to a Road Race from 1910 to 1921 and in 1933. The 300-mile race on the outdoor track was part of the Indy 500 circuit.
The development of the expressway system gave suburbanites a chance to become race-car drivers in their own right.
The new transportation system transformed the region, turning places like Schaumburg from a quiet village of 130 in 1956 to a bustling suburb of more than 70,000 today.
It also fostered car culture. In 1990, there was one vehicle per household in Chicago, but in the suburbs that doubles, according to the "Encyclopedia of Chicago."
"You wouldn't have the suburbs without cars," said auto dealer giant Bob Rohrman.
Greater mobility and growth, though, have also brought pollution and oil dependence. Looking to the future, researchers at Argonne National Lab near Darien hope their suburban research center can reverse that trend.
Scientists are working on a plug-in hybrid car that could operate for 140 miles on a gallon of fuel.
Unlike conventional hybrids such as the Prius, this car would have a larger battery capable of running the motor for 30 miles.
"We expect to see it in the marketplace in two years," said Don Hillebrand, Argonne's director of transportation research.
"It would eliminate the need to have gasoline. The impact will be dramatic."
Start your engines
Some important details about the Chicago Auto Show.
bull; Runs today through Feb. 17 at McCormick Place, Lake Shore Drive at 23rd St.
bull; Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Feb. 16 and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. the final day.
bull; Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and children, while kids 6 and younger are free.
bull; Special events include Women's Day on Tuesday, when women pay half-price, and food drive days on Wednesday, Thursday and Feb. 15, when visitors bringing three cans of food will get half-price discounts.
bull; Information at www.chicagoautoshow.com.