Setting The Pace (6)

Setting The Pace
Oldsmobile's First 100 years
Helen Jones Early and James T. Walkinshaw

This is the history of Oldsmobile in Lansing from when the Olds family came to Lansing in the 1800's until 1997 with John Rock saying how Olds is poised to take on the second century. Of course within 3 years GM announced Olds was done and in 2004 the last car rolled off the line in Lansing and Oldsmobile became another car in history.

The book was heavy on facts and figures, production numbers, wheel base, horsepower, building numbers. I was hard to get a flow with the book. What you gleamed from it was that Olds took pride in their work and all tried to make it better. In spite of that there were some horrible start up problems and other mistakes along the way. But in the end there was a deep association between OLDSmobile and Lansing. This was the thing I never understood.. growing up in the GM world.. where it wasn't Olds.. just GM.. many people are still very bitter about Olds going away.. and this book helps to lay some of the background behind that. It also had some of the background on the plants (most of which are now idle or being torn down).

The wonderful part of the book was the photos. LOTS of pictures both of cars, but also of the manufacturing process, and buildings. Along the way there are some great pics of what Lansing looked like in previous days.

I am not sure of the broad appeal of this book. I think it would be best enjoyed by people associated with Olds in Lansing. The book is available from GM through their website
The book was written by 2 people.. I believe Ms Early has since passed away, but Mr Walkinshaw, is an active member of the RE Olds Museum in Lansing.