1902 – Packard Motor Car Company Is Born
When the Ohio Automobile Company was refinanced and formally renamed the Packard Motor Car Company on October 2, 1902, James Ward Packard stepped in as president and signed the marque’s future into place. The reorganized firm — sometimes referenced in its earlier paperwork as the New York and Ohio Automobile Company — concentrated on building high-quality, technically advanced automobiles and would later move its operations to Detroit. That decisive corporate name change fixed the Packard identity that customers and competitors would come to recognize; it set the company on a path from small regional carriage-built cars to the nationally known luxury marque that dominated U.S. prestige motoring in the decades that followed.
1912 – Executive Bunkie Knudsen s Born
On this day in 1912 future auto industry executive Semon Knudsen was born to William Knudsen, who himself would later become president of General Motors (1937-1940). His father gave him the nickname Bunkie, referring to the WWI term for bunk mate. They pair had a special bond, and the elder Knudsen knew how to play into his son’s interests. When at age 14 Bunkie asked for a new car, his father gave him all of the pieces to a brand new 1927 Chevrolet. Bunkie went to work assembling the car by hand, a process that cemented an interest in automobiles. Like father, like son, he would go on to become a successful executive in the industry. His automotive career began after earning an engineering degree from MIT and then taking a low level position at Pontiac in 1939.
1935 – Rolls‑Royce Announces the Phantom III V12 Chassis
Rolls‑Royce pulled the veil back on its most ambitious prewar chassis when it announced the Phantom III on 2 October 1935, introducing a V12-engine layout to the marque’s flagship line. The Phantom III’s announcement came just ahead of its public debut at the London Olympia Motor Show later that month, signaling a dramatic technical leap for a company better known for straight‑six and inline engines. Built in limited numbers and produced from 1936 into 1939, the Phantom III combined a powerful 60‑degree V12 with the traditional bespoke coachwork that made each car unique — an engineering statement that aimed to keep Rolls‑Royce at the absolute summit of luxury motoring on the eve of war.
1949 – Lee Petty Scores His First NASCAR Victory at Heidelberg
At Heidelberg Raceway near Pittsburgh on October 2, 1949, Lee Petty took the checkered flag in NASCAR’s seventh Strictly Stock race, claiming his first victory in what was the sanctioning body’s inaugural season. The 100‑mile (200‑lap) event was one of the early contests that helped define stock‑car racing’s transition from local dirt‑track spectacles into an organized national series, and Petty’s win placed him among the trailblazers of an emerging professional sport. That first triumph would become the opening chapter in a career that kept the Petty name prominent in NASCAR for decades.
1959 – Chevrolet Brings the 1960 Line, Including the Corvair, to Dealers
On October 2, 1959 Chevrolet dealers opened their showrooms to display the full 1960 model line, and for the first time many members of the public could see the rear‑engined Corvair in person. Contemporary local newspaper advertisements and notices flagged that dealer rollout, calling attention to the Corvair alongside the rest of Chevrolet’s refreshed passenger‑car range. The compact’s rear‑mounted engine and unorthodox layout made it one of Chevrolet’s most talked‑about introductions of the late 1950s, and that dealer debut was the moment prospective buyers could inspect its unusual engineering up close.
