Allison's 75th.

• Author: McKeand, Patrick J.
• Position: General Motors Corp. Allison Transmission Div.; General Motors Corp. Allison Gas Turbine Div.; includes related article on what's ahead for Allison - Company profile

Two divisions of General Motors Corp. in Indianapolis are celebrating the 75th anniversary of their founding this month-Allison Transmission and Allison Gas Turbine. The two divisions-both located on the Indianapolis west side-employ more than 15,000 people and had joint sales approaching $2 billion last year.

The history of their success over the last 75 years, according to Allison historians, is linked directly to the man who launched their operations in 1915. James Ashbury Allison was born in August 1872. At the age of 18, upon the untimely death of his father, he became the vice president of a prosperous Indianapolis coupon book company that his father had launched in 1885. Allison coupons were used during the construction of the Panama Canal, at Army posts all over the country and by the General Motors Acceptance Corporation for installment loans.

Allison was in the stands at the Indiana State Fair car races in 1905 when a festive Labor Day crowd cheered a victorious Barney Oldfield across the finish line. With him were his friend, Carl Fisher, proprietor of the Fisher Automobile Company, and other colleagues in the now-expanding Indianapolis automotive community-Frank Wheeler of Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Company, Harry C. Stutz of Stutz Automobile fame and Arthur Newby, principal owner of National Motor Car and Vehicle Corporation in Indianapolis.

Caught up in the zest of the competition, the four decided to arrange a 24hour race to be held on the same track later in the year. Allison was chosen to manage the affair. Its success prompted the quartet to build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909 on farmland they bought for $ 72,000. At the outset, Allison was secretary-treasurer of the Speedway and later, in 1923, became president and continued in that position until 1926 when Edward V. Rickenbacker and associates took over the project.

Allison and friends Fisher,Wheeler and Newby also assembled racing teams. On Sept. 14, 1915, they founded the Indianapolis Speedway Team Company, which one day would emerge as GM's Allison.

Allison and Fisher put up a shop in a rented building on Georgia Street in downtown indianapolis. There, they redesigned and rebuilt domestic and foreign cars for the races. After two years of frustration and failure, Allison came up with a proposal. "Let's quit fooling around," he said. "This thing of running cars out on the track for testing and then running them back to the shop three miles away is a nuisance and inefficient. Let me take over the Speedway Team Company and I'll build a real shop out near the Speedway where it will be convenient.'

All agreed, and Allison became the sole owner. The little shop out near Speedway, built and equipped with the finest tools available, was soon recognized as a center not only for honing thoroughbred race cars but also for the day-to-day business of refining the modern automobile. That shop is...