A working parts supplier sold Fram and Autolite for $25 million. No legislature did that. The first post in a new series about the quiet removal of the right to own anything.

The First Brands Group financial crisis has placed iconic household names like Autolite, FRAM, and StopTech in a precarious position.

YouTube video by Dick Loew Commercials

First Brands Group, the bankrupt auto parts manufacturer behind brands including FRAM, Autolite, and ANCO, is expanding a wave of layoffs and plant closures beyond Ohio, as restructuring deepens amid the inability to find funders.

PGI Northstar will also take on certain liabilities related to the brands in the deal.

The Cleveland-founded auto part company said it has started "a wind down" of its Brake Parts Inc., ​Cardone and Autolite units.

Holley, Carter, Edelbrock, Rochester, Autolite, Stromberg, and Winfield are the ones that I can name by memory Carter made the 1st 4 barrel, in 1952 for a Buick - and produced Rochesters and Webers Autolite would place a Ford tag on carburetors purchased from Carter, Holley, and Rochester; so many carburetors with a Motorcraft tag actually were made by other companies Carters foundry was so contaminated with PCBs it was turned into a EPA Superfund site a year later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Carburetor The Carb Shop has an online database to share the carbs and information that they had gathered in 5 decades of operation Autolite, Carter, Detroit, Ensign, Holley, Kingston, Linkert, Marvel, Motorcraft, Rayfield, Rochester, Schebler, Stromberg, Tillotson, Winfield, Zenith https://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Carbshop_virtual_museum.htm The Sunderman Carburetor Company offered a replacement carb for Model Ts, which had a trap-door similar to the design of some early mouse-traps. While early advertisements do not show the "Mouse Trap" data plate, at some time the name was given to this carburetor.

The Challenger 221-cid and 260-cid V-8s returned as options for 1963, the only news was the debut of the High Performance 289-4V engine (aka Hi-Po 289). This engine was based up on the small-block V-8s that had debuted in the Fairlane line in 1962, but besides being punched out to a larger displacement, it also had **cast-iron headers** , **solid lifters** , a nodular iron crankshaft, high-performance connecting rods, a wider harmonic dampener, a dual-point ignition system, Autolite 4100 series four-barrel carburetor, a hot camshaft and screw-in rocker-arm studs, among other performance goodies. These tricks brought the Hi-Po 289-cid V-8’s performance potential to 271 hp only one other four-door sedan with this engine had been produced in 1963, but it had been scrapped before it could be saved — likely for its valuable engine and drivetrain. This leaves this Hi-Po 289 Fairlane 500 as the sole surviving K-code four-door. the Hi-Po 289 was the same engine supplied to Carroll Shelby for use in Cobras https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week-1963-ford-fairlaine-hi-po-four-door I did NOT know the Hi Po 289 was a solid lifter cast iron header engine!

First Brands agreed to sell 12 brands, including Autolite, for $25M (avg ~$2.08M/brand) after losing rescue funding, Bloomberg reports Mar 27, 2026.