Lansing became a major center of automobile manufacturing beginning in 1897, when the Olds Motor Vehicle Company formed as Michigan's first operating motor vehicle company. In 1899 investors moved the company to a new factory in Detroit and renamed it Olds Motor Works, though engine production remained in Lansing. A 1901 fire destroyed the Detroit factory, and in 1903 the Oldsmobile Curved Dash became the first gasoline-powered vehicle in the world to be mass produced on an assembly line. Ransom Eli Olds left Olds Motor Works in 1904 and founded REO Motor Car Company, while Olds Motor Works built vehicles in both Detroit and Lansing until consolidating back in Lansing in 1905. Oldsmobile merged with General Motors in 1908, and in 1915 REO introduced the REO Speedwagon, the forerunner of today's pickup truck. Lansing also hosted Duplex Truck from 1918 to 1975 and Durant Motors, which produced Durant and Star autos there from 1920 to 1931. During World War II, Oldsmobile's Lansing assembly lines shifted to military production, including ammunitions, aircraft machine guns, tank cannons, various forgings, and aircraft engine parts, while the REO auto plant manufactured military trucks and projectile bomb fuses. In 1949 the first Rocket V8 engine came off the assembly line, Oldsmobile introduced the Cutlass in 1962 and its first front-wheel drive car, the Calais, in 1985, and General Motors later began production at Lansing's Grand River Assembly plant in 2001 and Lansing Delta Assembly plant in 2006. General Motors ended the Oldsmobile brand in 2004, closing the longest-surviving American automobile line, and closed Lansing Car Assembly in 2005, ending operation at the longest-operating automobile factory in the United States. Through innovation and the hard-working spirit of its people, Lansing continues to be a leader in the automotive industry.