Henry Ford famously said (or is said to have said) anyone can have any color of his car they like, as long as it’s black. The simplicity and similarity of Ford’s automobiles was their strength: mass production, the assembly line and standardized parts allowed him to turn out thousands of vehicles at relatively low costs. Those same features were also Ford’s downfall: people yearned for some variety, some uniqueness in what they drove. Ford’s company was floundering, and the company officers brought in Henry Leland to try and revive the brand.

On this day, August 22, in 1902, Henry Leland renamed the Ford Motor Company to “Cadillac” in honor of the city of Detroit’s founder, French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

Leland made his mark on Detroit in 1908, when Cadillac won the coveted Dewar trophy for interchangeability of manufactured parts. His precision manufacturing method was copied by competitors and became the basis of practices still use today. Four years after the Dewar trophy, Cadillac introduced the electric self-starter and lighting systems, earning him a second Dewar trophy — which never occurred before. By 1914, under Leland’s leadership, Cadillac had the first V8 water-cooled engine — a precursor of today’s high compression engines.