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It seems appropriate while we celebrate the last vestiges of summer on this Labor Day weekend that we also acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the recreational vehicle, also known as the RV. The summer season and RVs go hand in hand, and people have motored across America in mobile homes since 1910. RV historians say that year was when just a few companies began building the precursors to what we now know as recreational vehicles, thus marking the birth of the RV industry. Those companies include Pierce-Arrow from New York (above, 1910 Touring Landau), the Los Angeles Trailer Works and Michigan’s own Auto-Kamp Trailers of Saginaw.

The RV industry has survived wars, tough economic times and oil crises and still come out no worse for wear. Credit the American spirit of adventure, our love of travel or maybe just the unique freedom one experiences while traveling without a tether to your permanent residence.

If I’m waxing too poetic about what some consider to be just ill-constructed boxes of balsa wood on wheels, know that I am an RV owner myself (right, 2011 Forest River Sunseeker) and have known the joys of sitting around a campfire in the forest roasting s’mores one minute and playing Rock Band in an air-conditioned living room the next. It may sound like sacrilege to hard-core outdoorsmen who like sleeping on the ground, but it makes perfect sense to an RV enthusiast.

So, in honor of the RV’s 100th birthday, we’ve assembled r a gallery chronicling its history courtesy of the RV industry’s centennial website. Enjoy the trip through time.

[Source: NY Times, RVcentennial.org]

Happy 100th birthday to the RV originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It might be hard to believe, but Alfa Romeo is a century old. Check that – A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, or Lombardy Car Manufacturing Company) is 100, having been established in 1910. That was the year that a group of Milanese enthusiasts decided they could build cars better than the stuff they were getting from foreign automakers. ALFA wasn’t very successful at first – at least not financially – but during World War I, the company was taken over by a young engineer, Nicola Romeo, and the rest, as they say, is history. 100 years later, we have some of the most incredible and memorable sports and racing cars of all time wearing the cross-and-serpent or the Quadrifoglio.

At the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday, the automaker received a warm welcome, with two dozen or so of their most significant models on hand for the festivities – many from the factory museum. Those 24 cars represented just a small sample of the sports and racing cars that made the company famous – everything from one of their first 1910 A.L.F.A. 24-hp Torpedo model, to the bio-mechanical 2010 Alfa Romeo Pandion Bertone Coupé.

It was a great gathering of incredible cars to honor this legendary automaker as it enters its second century, a century that will thankfully see its return to the United States market. It’s hard to say if today’s models will stand the test of time like the classics gathered at Pebble, but we think that the 8C Competizione will look sensational out there on the 18th fairway in 40 years, just like it does today.

Photos Copyright (C)2010 Drew Phillips, Frank Filipponio / AOL

Monterey 2010: Pebble Beach honors Alfa Romeo on its 100th birthday originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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