ADM (formerly ACM) 1950 new lineup

[Sillyworld]

Automoviles y Camiones de México (ACM) is a car company officially founded in 1946. After a modest success, a former truck and tractor company (TCN or Tracto-Camiones Nacionales) decided to sell gasoline powered vehicles and in 1945, with the financial aid of the Mexican Goverment changed its name to ACM and sell some of the first true mexican cars. In 1950, the name was changed again from ACM to ADM. Due to the stable economic develpment in the country, the company grew and became quite successful, until the 80s, when due to the economic downfall, it splited in 2 brands, remaining only as a only-trucks-and-suv's company; to be later bought by the giant Meliora Automotive.

[Sillyworld]

ACM-22

When ACM was founded, the idea of selling cars to the regular people had to wait, because the first truck designed (in a short time) was a priority. As the former TCN had vastly experience in agricultural and delivery equipment (besides of tooling and factories), the easy choice to make the company afloat was a simply truck, the ACM-22.
The idea was simple, a light and power truck to transport everything a company will need to transport, food, wood, tools, anything. With a wide range of possible buyers the success was almost secured.
The AMC-22 had a ladder steel chassis with double wishbones at the front and a leaf suspension at the back. The heart of the truck was a brand new engine, an undersquared 2,238cc inline 4 cylinder with a pusroad system, that delivered 62.2 hp @ 1,600 rpm and 110 ft-lb @ 1,600 rpm matched to a 3 speed manual transmission. The engine was so powerful (with almost 90% of the torque available at idle) that heavy duty pistons and conrods had to be used to keep the engine from blowing up.

It might look cheap, but it isn't. The market price for fruinia was $8,085 (aprox. $665 in 1946), so only a few companies could afford it, but those who could bought lots of them. A nimble as ir might look, the truck was strong, durable and quite reliable, so it was a first choice when delivery was a priority. The success of the ACM-22 help to set the fundation for the following models of this brand new company.

[squidhead]

Look at that sexy breadvan

[Sillyworld]

Look at that sexy breadvan

Because real vans have curves

[Sillyworld]

ACM-35 (1947)

The next year after the release of the ACM-22, the ACM-35 was revelead to the world. Significant bigger than the previous truck, it used a 3.5L in-line 6 (88.6 x 95.6), with pushroads and a single carb, putting down 103 hp and 171 ft-lb. It had a particulary tall 1st gear, this due to the inmense and wide torque curve, with 150 ft-lb ad idle (as with the ACM-22 engine, this one also needed heavy duty pistons and conrods). It featured a mhpherson strut system in the front and solid leaf axle in the rear, a 4x4 system with a manual locker and a 3 speed manual transmission, which allow the truck to be used in mud and on any off road condition. The interior featured a simple 3 seat cloth bench. This truck was perfect for farming families, and with a cost of $10,605 ($998 in 1947), it found a place in the heart of the hard working people... that could afford this truck, that is.

*UPDATED markets: Utility P. 119.7/92.3% -- Offroad P. 110/63.9% -- H Delivery 123.9/28.3% -- Util. Sport 95/46.2%

[Sillyworld]

ACM-35 Volcán (1948)

In 1948, two years after the first model, ACM released a new trim for the ACM-35, called "Volcán" (spanish for vulcano), it was aimed to big families (at that time, it was very common in Mexico for the families to have between 6-10 children or even more) and not only farming guys. It was also adopted to built ambulances. The Volcán shared the same engine, the powerful inline 6, with only a small modification, a second muffler to cut the noise at the cabin, making more easy to listen and to enjoy the single speaker AM radio that it had.
In the interior, it featured 7 seats (2 - 2 - 3 layout), all covered with cloth and a nice padding, making them quite comfortable. It also included carpets for every seat row. All of this for a MSRP of $12,420 (or around $1,243 in 1948). Some of them actually survived to this day, but most of them are restored or modified.

[Starfish94]

Do we get to see Meliora thread in this forum?

[Sillyworld]

You will... as soon as we get the next update with the space frame chassis!

[Sillyworld]

ACM Rivera (1948)
1948 was a good year for ACM, not only presented the ACM-35 Volcán, but also included in it's line-up the Rivera, a car designed to compite with the Chevy style-master and some of the Ford's cars. It had 2 trims, simply reffered as "coupé" and "sedán". The Rivera was build upon a ladder galvanized steel chassis, with double wishbones at front and a solid axle leaf at the rear, with a steel body. No new engine was designed for this model, using the same engines of the ACM-22 and ACM-35 in a longitudinal configuration.

The Coupe versión looked a little bit like a VW sedán, but way larger and prettier. The heart was the very reliable inline 4 cylinder of the ACM-22, a second muffler was added to reduce the cabin noise, and it added 1 ft-lb of torque. It featured a manual 3 speed gearbox with an estimated top speed of 142 km/h (88 mph). The wheels were 135/100R14 equiped with 275mm drum brakes front and rear.
Interiorwise, it had 4 seats (being a coupe, the accesibility of the rear seats was difficult) with cloth-padded seats similar to the ones in the ACM-35 Volcán, an single speaker AM radio, which was helpful in long rides. One weird thing, the car has no rear sway bar, but still was pretty comfortable and quite ease to drive. With a weight of 1074 kg, it managed to get 8.12km/l (23 mpg). Market price: $10,605 ($1,079 in 1948). Even tho was destined to conmmute and family markets, due to the lack of national cars, the Rivera Coupé was pretty good selled in different markets as well.



The sedán version, on the other hand was more expensive; market price: $12,744 ($1,296 in 1948) and it looked quite different, it was sustancially bigger than the coupé. It had a larger trunk and could fit quite comfortably up to 5 people, and it had suicidal doors, it looks very sofisticaded. As that, it was heavier as well, it weighted 1275.7 kg, so, it need a larger engine to move it around nicely. Under the hood was the inline 6 3.5L engine found in the ACM-35, with double muffler, so you can listen to its radio easily. Other than that, and the rear sway bar, the car was pretty much the same as the coupé, the same dashboard, the same seats... well, except for the fuel economy, this trim got 6.58 km/l (18.5 mpg). And as the coupé, it was sold quite nicely in different markets.

[TurboJ]

Really nice! Stylish classic cars with real-world technology and the pictures are well done too. Great that someone does the earlier years too. Keep it up

[Sillyworld]

It's nice to read a comment about my cars Yes, not many people in the forum does cars from this era. And it's fun to make cars like these, because of the restrictions of the era, you have to make things you usually don't do, like engines that give power really early, as the pieces can't rev up as much as modern cars

[TurboJ]

The Rivera coupe is my personal favourite. Nice to see not every car on here's not powered by a screaming V12
Would you mind telling what the performance is like with that 4-cyl engine? I've been thinking about doing more classic cars too so this got me thinking..

[Sillyworld]

Well, the engine is larger than the common L4 from that era (2338cc) 88x92 and it revs really low, the redline is 3,700 rpm and the gearbox is configured to be around 1,600 rpms (the most efficient point in the engine) at the gearing cruise calculations. So that make it quite slow... 0-100km in 21s and a top speed of 137.1 km/h, which is a good thing because, well, let's say that if you're doing 100 km/h and want to brake, you better open the door and throw yourself out. It does the automation track in 3:32.68 and the airfield in 2:10.24. And it pulls 0.55g in the cornering test And yet is faster than the original VW bettle


The sedan trim with its L6 reaches 163.3 km/h, and goes from 0-100km/h in 15.9s (with an equally bad braking). It pulls 0.51g and does the automation track in 3:29.67 and the airfield in 2:06.49.

[steelmaniac]

Nice cars and nice designs! I like the way you use different parts to make original-looking front ends.
Your coupé looks very goddamn nice, too.

[Sillyworld]

Thanks Now that we have the open beta available you can expect more (old car) designs soon