Welcome to Camoria Automotive’s Official Thread!
Camoria Automotive History:
Barbara “Babs” Camoria was born on May 28th, 1903 in Pennsauken, New Jersey. As a child, she became fascinated with cars, despite a society that promoted the line of work as “Men’s Work.” She graduated from Drexel University of Philadelphia in 1924, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As she grew older, continually getting rejected from automotive companies internationally for her gender, she became more and more frustrated with the male-dominated market. She worked small jobs in the mean time, working the more stereotypical jobs (secretary, maid, etc.).
It wasn’t until 1946 when Babs got her first chance at her dream. She met a man who later became her mentor:** Preston Tucker**. He himself was working on a car, the Tucker '48, advertised as The First New Car in Over 50 Years. She quickly became attached to the project, and contributed greatly to the design. She introduced to the car the concept of the pop-out window, which would not shatter in the event of a crash. This invention later went on to save a man’s life as he barrel-rolled the Tucker on a race track. Unfortunately, due to false charges of fraud, the company was shut down in 1948, with only 51 cars built. 47 last today. While this was saddening to Babs, her heart was truly broken when Preston Tucker died in 1956.
Inspired by Tucker’s failure, in 1952 Babs gathered a crew, many of which came directly from Tucker Corporation, to design a car that would re-challenge the Big 3 auto makers in America. She put her plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where Tucker was born and right outside of Detroit, where the Big 3 were located. With many years of hard work, Babs was able to unveil at the 1953 NY Auto Show, the Camoria GTC, or Grand Tour Car, pictured below. This car sampled heavily from some of Tucker’s brilliance, including her famous Pop-Out windshields, rotating headlamps, and Increased Angle Doors, so they wont hit the curb when parallel parked. For her, “The best wasn’t good enough” (Camoria, 1954). The world was immediately in love with the car. She received thousands of letters requesting to buy a car. Without trouble, Babs was able to comply to the demands, something Tucker struggled with. Having taken lessons on Tucker’s mistakes, she was able to hire a workforce, many of which were women, and acquire the steel needed to produce the cars.
Naturally, this did not come without controversy. The Big 3 did their best to provoke the public against buying a car made by a woman. They suggested it was effeminate, poorly built, and over-priced, but Babs overruled that controversy with a tremendous ad campaign, featuring the slogan: We ALL can do it!, taking from the Rosie the Riveter slogan from WWII. Thanks to this campaign, Babs was able to continue producing vehicles. She went on to dominate a tremendous niche market. The public loved that she built a car that was well-built, functional, safe, and reliable. She never cut corners, she never made do. The best wasn’t good enough.
Babs stayed on as President of Camoria Automotive until 1965, when she stepped down to usher in a new generation of executives. She did stay on as a design contributor until 1978, when she retired from the business officially. After that she spent a great deal of time touring around the US, teaching classes on design and women’s activism. Sadly, in 1992, she passed away. She was lucky enough to witness the unveiling of the 1992 Camoria GTC, which still followed her motto: The best isn’t good enough.
She is buried in a cemetery in Haddonfield, NJ. Her headstone is engraved with her motto: The Best Isn’t Good Enough
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