Johnson's Auto repair of Duluth

02/05/2026

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In 1948, Harry Truman ran for president and asked General Motors if he could use their cars on the campaign trail. GM executives looked at the polls, assumed Truman would lose, and flatly said no.

Truman didn’t forget.

After pulling off one of the biggest upset victories in U.S. political history, he retaliated in a very presidential way: GM cars were banned from the White House. Instead, Truman turned to Ford’s luxury division and ordered a fleet of Lincoln Cosmopolitans, effectively making Lincoln the official car of the presidency for years. It was a deliberate snub—power, prestige, and payback all rolled into one.

But history has a sense of humor.

At the time, Ford didn’t yet have a reliable automatic transmission of its own. So the 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Truman rode in proudly was equipped with a Hydra-Matic automatic transmission… supplied by General Motors.

In other words, while Truman believed he was sticking it to GM, every smooth gear change beneath him was powered by GM engineering. The badge said Lincoln. The shifting said Detroit irony.

Politics, pride, and pistons—sometimes history really does write itself.

11/27/2025

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11/25/2025

11/25/2025

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71 years ago on Nov 23, 1954 in Flint, Michigan the town turned out big for the 50 Millionth General Motors car that rolled off the assembly line, this being the Golden '55 Chevy. All plating and stainless trim was plated with 24kt gold and the car was paraded down the main streets of Flint in celebration in front of 200,000 people! GM built two cars ahead of the actual 50 millionth, one used as a 'Motorama Car' for promotions leading up to the big parade and that car was later damaged extensively in a fire with little left of it. Another gold Bel Air called the 'Movie Car' was used in promotional video production by GM and that car seemingly disappeared. GM also sent out 5000 Gold Cars (less the 24kt plating!) to dealers after the parade, all 4 doors and with traditional stainless trim and chrome bumpers. There are survivors of these special cars in existence. The actual parade car was placed in a convention hall just after the parade in Flint and a grand dinner was held for VIP's. After the big event - the car vanished without a trace and the mystery of what happened to it remains today. In 2022 Tri Five Chevy enthusiast Joe Whitaker, Dave Snodgrass and Steve Blades pooled their resources and re-created an authentic reproduction using sheet metal parts from our club sponsor Golden Star Classic Auto Parts of this long lost special '55 Chevy complete with gold plating, correct interior from Ciadella Interiors and gold paint along with date correct parts down to the spark plugs! The car was sold in auction in 2024 and now resides locally at Sam Pack's collection in Farmers Branch.

11/14/2025

Lucky Bird

22.9K likes, 872 comments. “In this video we save a woodpecker that had to have felll into the stacks somehow 😳 At least it’s free now!”

11/07/2025