Manhattan on the Rocks.(Escape Roads)(1953 Kaiser Manhattan)

Byline: BROOKS BRIERLEY In the 1940s industrialist Henry Kaiser applied his formidable manufacturing talents to building very attractive new cars and making them available before the Big Three revised their lines following World War II. Kaisers sold well at first, with low-six-figure sales registrations, about the same as Studebaker in 1948.

But this great postwar automobile story began to unravel. By 1950 Detroit's new designs and engines offset Kaiser's novelty. The marque's dramat- ic 1951 redesign, created by the legendary Howard "Dutch'' Darrin, was hobbled by a ...

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