The Automotive industry is a hard place to survive as a brand. With constantly changing technology to stay on top of and consumer demands and trends that that shift every year, most automakers pour massive amounts of effort into researching what is necessary to keep afloat.

Generally though, in the American car market, the Big Three of Ford, Chrysler, and GM have managed to be pillars of the industry, pushing on through tough times, and adapting their business for the easy times. Across the world, dynamics like this exist, in Japan for example, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan hold up their car industry.

But these are multi-billion dollar businesses that can afford to spend massive amounts of money on R&D as well as marketing. Throughout history, smaller car brands have come and gone due to a lack of funding. In America especially, the history of the car industry contains rather odd stories of hopeful businesses producing cars, but failing and ending up almost entirely forgotten by the world.

So, read on, to see 10 of these American car brands that nobody seems to remember today:

10 Kurtis Kraft

Via Pinterest

Some of the most advanced sports cars of the post-WWII era, Frank Kurtis founded Kurtis Kraft in the '50s, and produced some wonderful cars that don't deserve to be forgotten.

Having had success in motorsport, producing cars that won almost every Indy 500 race from 1950 until 1955, Frank Kurtis knew how to build a fast car. Even then, he'd been producing custom cruisers and race cars for decades prior. Culminating Kurtis' efforts, he began making his first production car in 1949 - the Ford V8 powered, fiberglass bodied Kurtis Sports Car.

Via Hagerty

Kurtis Kraft would go on to be formalized as a company, and pump out the insane Kurtis Kraft 500S sports car starting in 1953.  Essentially a race car for the road, the Kurtis Kraft 500S was a true monster. Unfortunately, Frank Kurtis left the company in 1956, shockingly though, his later career saw him building engine starters for the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane in 1963.

9 Woodill Motor Company

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When it comes to 1950s American made, European inspired, V8 powered fiberglass body sports cars, the Corvette is what most people think of first.

But, Woodill Motor Company beat Chevy to the punch, producing the Wildfire sports car starting in 1953, launching just before the Corvette, and using the same formula that made it such a success.

Via Silodrome

But Woodill wouldn't enjoy the success Chevy did with the Corvette. This was only natural though, as Woodill was a small, unproven brand competing with a giant of the industry. Woodill would go on to sell just 24 Widlfires before their demise, a shame as the Ford V8 powered sports car was absolutely stunning, and as sporty as the original Corvette was.

8 Riker Electric Vehicle Company

Via Classic Driver

No, the "Electric" in the name is not just for show, this Riker indeed an electric car - made in New York from 1897-1902.

It may be unbelievable, but before the car industry got its footing with gasoline-powered cars like the Ford Model T, electric ones were considered a viable and reliable option - 110 years before Tesla even existed.

Via Car Talk

Unfortunately for brands like Riker, mass-produced gasoline cars became the vehicle of choice for consumers as gasoline became cheaper to produce than electricity, with mass-produced gasoline cars like the Model T leading to the downfall of early EVs like the Riker. Riker Electric Vehicles was later sold off by the brand's president - Andrew Riker - and has since been almost entirely forgotten, a shame in today's world filled with reverence for EVs like Tesla.

7 Bocar

Via American Car Collector

Founded by Bob Carnes in Colorado during 1959, Bocar was a personal venture that aimed to produce some wild and exotic looking sports cars that were safer than any other sports car on the road, as well as affordable for the average person.

Culminating the results of Carnes' experiments, the Bocar XP-5 went on sale in 1959 and was perhaps one of the greatest low-volume American sports cars of its time. Using VW suspension, and a Corvette sourced V8, the XP-5 was a proper race car for the road.

Via Petrolicious

After selling 15 XP-5s, Bocar moved on to evolve the wonderful little sports car, updating it into the XP-6, and even producing a radical track-only race car - the Bocar Stilleto.

As incredible as Carnes' efforts were, and as amazing a car as the XP-5 was, Bocar saw a tragic and undeserved end in 1961, when a fire destroyed their factory.

RELATED: Race Cars For The Road: The 10 Coolest “Homologation Specials” That Were Sold To The Public

6 Stout Motor Car company

Via Concept Carz

Half a century before Dodge released the caravan, a radical airplane inspired car known as the Stout Scarab would technically become the world's first minivan.

Founded by William Bushnell Stout, an aviation engineer, and creator of America's first aviation magazine, Stout brought his airplane know-how into the car industry to create the strange-looking car dubbed the Stout Scarab in 1932.

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Properly ahead of its time, the Stout Scarab carried a plethora of advanced (for the '30s) features like independent pneumatic suspension, and a configurable interior. But this advanced nature meant it was massively expensive, and only 9 Scarabs were sold before production ceased.

5 Avanti Motor Company

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A tragic story of a fantastic car born in the wrong time, the Studebaker Avanti was an attempt to save the dying Studebaker company. While Studebaker is remembered by many, what most people don't know is that the Avanti was brought back to life as its own company.

One of the most advanced cars of its time, the Studebaker Avanti was a sales failure, and only lasted for a couple of years. But the gorgeous design and incredible refinement were too good to go to waste, and the Avanti Motor Company was founded by investors and Studebaker's former Chief of Engineering Eugene Hardig in order to make new Avantis, free from the Studebaker name.

Via Curbside Classic

Avanti Motors remarkably lasted from 1965 until 2006, undergoing several changes of hand for the company, as well as revisions to the car. The final models were built on top of  Ford Mustangs, and soon after went defunct, almost 50 years after Studebaker met its end.

RELATED: Ugly Ducklings: 10 Cars That Were Unloved When New, But Are Appreciated Today

4 Playboy Automobile Company

Via Old Cars Weekly

No, this carmaker was not named after the magazine, in fact, Hugh Hefner himself admitted to using this obscure car company as the inspiration for his magazine's name.

Founded in 1946 by a team of experienced auto industry professionals, including a Packard dealer and Pontiac engineer, their goal was to create a stylish, luxurious, and most importantly - affordable car for the American masses.

Via Old Cars Weekly

Producing nearly 100 prototypes, the Playboy cars attracted plenty of attention but were never meant to be sold to the public, instead being shipped to auto shows to attract investors for eventual production and public sales. But, none came, and Playboy went belly-up, only remembered today as the name of an adult magazine

3 Sebring-Vanguard

Via Classic Auto Mall

Ever wonder why electric cars have such a negative stigma to them? Well, look no further than the rather awful CitiCar, an electric box that was made to get from point A-to-B, and do not much else.

Sebring-Vanguard's only car, the CitiCar debuted in 1974, and contributed to EV evolution in both good, and bad ways. On one hand the CitiCar helped bring electric cars into light as a viable car to be sold in America, on the other hand, it was awfully unrefined, with only a 35 mile range, 28 MPH top speed, and an incredibly sparse interior.

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Despite all this, Sebring-Vanguard found decent success with their CitiCar, selling more than 2,200 of the little electric wedges before going bankrupt in 1978.

RELATED: Here Are The Weirdest American Production Cars Ever

2 Shay Motors Corporation

Via GR Auto Gallery

Ford enthusiasts may recognize this car as a 1920s Model A, and they'd be correct. Shay Motors had an interesting history as a replica car builder, albeit one authorized by Ford themselves.

Founded in 1978 by Harry Shay, Shay Motors dedicated themselves to producing high-quality replicas of Model T and Model A Fords from the '20s. Having worked in the auto industry, and Ford Motors, previously, Harry Shay received permission from Ford to carry out the replica building.

Via Car and Classic

But Shay Motor's lucky break would be more than just permission, instead, Shay marketed the replicas as ways to attract customers to Ford dealers. And his marketing was a success, selling over 10,000 cars in their first years of business. Unfortunately, the good times wouldn't last, and Shay Motors declared bankruptcy in 1982.

1 Terraplane

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An upscale car maker selling one of their desirable models as its own brand is nothing really revolutionary in the car industry today, but back in the '30s, Hudson was ahead of their time when forming the Terraplane brand.

Initially sold under the Hudson name, the Terraplane was an affordable, high-performance car that saw great success. Sold for around $565 when new in 1934, the Terraplane was ahead of its time in offering a stripped-down performance experience that the average buyer could afford, just think about '60s muscle car legends like the Plymouth Roadrunner that followed the exact same formula.

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Almost 280,000 Terraplanes were sold while the brand existed, marking the majority of sales for their parent company Hudson. But, as a result, Hudson decided the Terraplane brand should be killed off in favor of labeling the successful car a Hudson starting in 1938. Once the Terraplane brand was gone, so were the massive sales, and Hudson themselves went defunct 16 years later, in 1954 - but are well remembered among classic enthusiasts as a brand, unlike the mostly forgotten Terraplane name which they decided to kill.

NEXT: The Sad Story Of How American Luxury Cars Fell Off The Radar