F

Internal GM name for the Camaro / Firebird platform. As example, the internal GM platform of names includes: F-body, J-body, W-body, and Y-body. A vehicle platform is, essentially, the internal physical structure and drivetrain that a vehicle is based on. This term is, also, written as "F-Body", "Fbody", "FBody" or others similar wrong forms.

An engine having one valve in the head and the other in the block. The position of the valves creates an "F" shape in combination with the combustion chambers.

A known Italian company whose headquarter is in Turin. The Fiat Company was formed in 1899, starting out with a small workforce with fewer than 40 employees. Within 10 years this small company in Turin was producing over 1200 motorcars a year and a workforce of around 2550. The man responsible for this remarkable turnaround was Giovanni Agnelli, Agnelli gained inspiration from his frequent visits to America and began to build Europe's largest factory in Turin.

The name FIAT is an acronym for the Italian appellation "Fabrica Italiana di Automobile de Torino" ("The Italian Factory of Automobiles from Turin").

In the duration of its history its logo changed many times. In the year of its 100-year anniversary the company's logo was encircled with a stylized laurel wreath. Fiat is the biggest European automobiles concern, maker of passenger cars, trucks, special automobiles and is involved in shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing, other kinds of automobile engineering and the making of roads. In 1969 it bought Lancia and Ferrari, and in 1986 - Alfa Romeo.

Fiat first used the five-bar logo on the Uno, in 1982, after Fiat design chief Mario Maioli - driving past the Mirafiori factory at night after a power cut - saw the giant FIAT logo on top of the plant, set against the fading light of the sky. He did a quick sketch - five bars represented the spaces he could see between and beside the letters.

Known pioneer of automobile manufacturing, born July 30, 1863, on his family's farm in Dearborn (Wayne County), Michigan. Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903, with capital from Detroit citizens, proclaiming "I will build a car for the great multitude". In October 1908, he did so, offering the Model T for $950. In the Model T's nineteen years of production, its price dipped as low as $280. Nearly 15,500,000 were sold in the United States alone.

Ford revolutionized the automobile manufacturing. By 1914, his Highland Park, Michigan plant, using innovative production techniques, could turn out a complete chassis every 93 minutes. In 1914, Ford began paying his employees five dollars a day, nearly doubling the wages offered by other manufacturers. He cut the workday from nine to eight hours in order to convert the factory to a three-shift workday. Ford's mass-production techniques would eventually allow for the manufacture of a Model T every 24 seconds. His innovations made him an international celebrity.

In the years prior to his death on April 7, 1947, Ford sponsored the restoration of an idyllic rural town called Greenfield Village.

FAMOUS FORD DICTA:

"Buy a Ford - spend the difference." "A Ford will take you everywhere except into society." "Thinking men know that work is the salvation of the race, morally, physically, socially." "Men work for two reasons. One is for wages, and one is for fear of losing their jobs." "If there is unemployment in America, it is because the unemployed do not want to work."

Ford was the nominal co-author of three books in collaboration with SAMUEL CROWTHER: My Life and Work (1922, reprinted 1987), Today and Tomorrow (1926, reprinted 1988), and Moving Forward (1930).

A part time system that transfers engine power to all four wheels. 4WD systems usually lack a center differential that allows use in dry conditions. 4WD provides superior traction compared with front or rear-wheel drive.