History Auto racing 1894-1942

This Hudson of which I found a photo of is unfamiliar looking to me. I am thinking that I was possibly raced in Europe? because of the design on the rear of the body.

Only Pope-Hartford and late Mercer racing cars used this type of a tail here in the US. Can anyone enlighten us about this particular car?

 

This photo has notations on it stating that it is a racing car made by the Marion Motors Company. It is dated 1905 and has some writing on the back noting the driver was Fred I. Tone (He may have been associated with the American Underslung later on). The notations also tell us the car raced at Grosse Pointe track in Detroit, Michigan as well as the Fort Erie track in Buffalo, NY.

Marion being from Indianapolis home of the Premier and also Carl Fisher has me wondering if both this car and the Premier race cars both may share the same DNA?

 

Sadly for open wheeled oval track racing there is really only the Miller Milwaukee gathering, the Indy Carburation day and five lap run and the now three day event at New Hampshire Raceway. There is also the event at the California Speedway but I an unsure if it is still running.

I have been fortunate to have been to all three and have also driven at all of them. The Miller meet is great and some wonderful cars and people always show up. There is plenty of track time but the flag man has a radar gun and the speed limit is usually around 65 MPH.

At Indy there are usually about 33 cars on pit road and the five lap run but it is usually paced and the only way to get in a good fast lap in is to hang back or be in one of the oldest cars which they put in the back.

The New Hampshire event has the best driving experience but usually only a handful of prewar cars and maybe 4-5 Offy Roadsters attend. There are also sprints and midgets attending. But the drivers that attend get to really run the cars as fast as they care to and it can be very enjoyable to see and listen to.

The Monterey Historics has quite a few oval track cars in attendance also and they really do race there so it is also enjoyable. For a serious racing fan you should really try to take it in as it is one of the best with plenty of prewar cars.

Many of the other vintage racing events allow oval track cars to run in their events but unless they are set up to turn both ways they have a handicap against the road racers.

Vintage Motorsport Magazine and website gives lots of info and dates for everything.

http://www.vintagemotorsport.com/

 

I hadn't seen a photo of Franville before but the mechanic in your photo link has a remarkable resemblance to Fernand Gabriel.

I also noticed the cosmetic changes that appear on the cars over a two year span. The cars in the postcards look to be two different models. Shepard's car sit's just a tad higher.

The Clement-Bayard of Achille Fournier at the 1906 Targa Florio. He actually wore the #1 during the race but did not finish.

 

There was a Lucia that entered the 1907 Targa Florio but did not appear.

 

Trying to identify faces from B&W photos is somewhat difficult at times.
My initial thought was A.H. Patterson in the driver's seat.

 

T-head thanx for the ideas. Funny thing, I got the new Coker catalog in the mail today... perhaps these events will be fun, too, if you have an old car or a replica, or a newly created speedster. Gary


www.cokertirechallenge.com

 

Not too far from you, they have a historic festival at Darlington in the fall and usually have quite a few 50s/60s Indy cars and such. Scroll down this page for some pics from last year.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236178&highlight=sprint+car&page=371

 

Thanx.. neat pix. I'll have to try and find out who sanctions that event. Gary

 

T-Head posted that photo not so long ago, how about Howard's wonderful swinger pic? .... http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/drivers/driver/duray

Shepard's car appears to be a similar chassis with everything set forward to accommodate a longer engine and a forebear of the hoodless monster. It's hard to imagine it was under the 8 litre kaiserpreis limit.

I have Achille and Henri in #4, Maurice in #7 and Lancia #1

 

It certainly looks that way, neat pic.

 

You're right. I checked the results thoroughly this time round having sourced the previous info from an unreliable source amid the daily rush here. My fault.
It's interesting how the two Clement-Bayard's are different. Any idea why this is so?

 

because that eBay photo of Maurice is misidentified

 

Photo of the Rajo Ford now known by it's builders name, the Wikner Ford. One of the oldest vehicles still competing in events. This car is the real deal, not a replica. A bit more about it:

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2004/s1185525.htm

"It was built in 1922, by a young man named Geoff Wikner and he actually built the car as a mechanical object, rather than a racing car, because he wanted to show backers that he was capable of building things because he actually wanted to build aircrafts," Mr Partington said.

"He raced it a couple of times, then he was able to persuade backers to take him on and he was able to build his first aircraft. That aircraft - he actually towed from Sydney all the way to Brisbane to Archerfield aerodrome and set some Australian altitude records. He towed it up from Sydney in that car," he said.

Mr Partington paid 14 pounds for the Wikner Ford in 1958. Today it's probably worth more than $1 million, but its owner says the experience of racing it is priceless.

"What's it like to drive?" Reporter Sean Murphy asked Mr Partington.

"Different. Exciting in the sense that you transform yourself and you don't really worry that it's not terribly fast, but it's exciting in the sense that I'm recreating history and it's still there in the form that it was in the 1920s when it first raced," Mr Partington said.

:


Photo taken, by me, at Speed on the Tweed:


photo from the web;



and competing, in the hands of its current and long time owner Mr D Partington

 

Hey, I thought that last shot of the Wikner Ford looked familiar, but feel free to have used it...no charge at all.
My recollection from the road-closure position I was on was that it had an absolutely wonderful exhaust note: very fruity.
Here's another of it that I took that weekend.

 

http://aussieroadracing.homestead.com/MaxStahlP3.html


Do you guys know anything about the Eldred Norman twin mill ?

 

I always wondered if these Buick "Bug" race cars were the reason that Buicks have portholes....

 

There'll be those out there who will know more about it but one of the stories I've heard is that Eldred had a bit of strife trying to brake the beast and fitted up a water-cooled brake system using SU electric petrol pumps feeding a spray onto the hard-worked drums.
It is purported to have enveloped any close following competitor in an impenetrable cloud of steam!
In a way, I wish my time had been a little closer to such characters as Eldred; it all seems a bit too regulated now...

Oh, and we know about the hot meal Eldred prepared for himself one race day? Wired a can of beans to the exhaust for the pre lunch break event he was in. Wonderful stuff.

Addendum: I've just realised that the car (see "Historic Racing Cars in Australia" by John Blanden) did not debut until August 1948, so falling outside the limits of this thread...

 

We've seen all of these before..............it's still good to see them used today........













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Here is a short film from Howard Kroklick's," Vanderbuilt Cup Races site. This is from the latest update. This appears to have been produced in 1957.
HG

http://tiny.cc/xv9jr

 

Sorry Howard...fingers faster than the brain today. It is from Howard Kroplick's Vanderbuilt site.
HG

http://tiny.cc/xv9jr

 

Anyone know the history of the Bill Thompson Bugatti that was later owned{?} by Bill MacLachlan and fitted with a Ford V8? Does this car still exist?

Another car that made it's way to Australia was the ex. Freddie Dixon works Riley that won at Broolands in 1935. It was driven in Australia by Dick Bland, John Snow. Hope Bartlett and Alec Mildren.
Anyone know the history and whereabouts of this car?

 

I've never seen a good photo of this car.
If i'm not mistaken, i think it was written off on a South Australian beach.

I'm sure we can make an exception here.
Norman was such an eccentric fellow that probably needed another life to finish most of his inventions.

I like the can of beans story. Never heard that one before.
Didn't he also use one of his sub-machine guns to shape the Collingrove Hillclimb course?

Here's a link to his book on supercharger's.
www.fefcholden.org.au/techinfo/supercharge/index.html

 

I'll see if I can find anything in the vaults of the SCC of SA. May take a few days - off up the River (what's left of it after all the upstreamers have sucked it semi-dry..) to a friend's shack and back next week.

The machine gun story? I've heard it was used to make the holes for the gelignite for breaking up the rocks at Collingrove.

And yes, Eldred, like Harold Clisby, really needed two lifetimes for all the ideas in the head: what a couple of super special people they were!

 

Via Blanden (again...), the "Riley-Dixon Special" went to one Ron Farquar in England. This would have been post 1965, when Michael Robinson in Australia "..drove it in several Historic races..."
Blanden's publishing date is 1979.

 

I made the point that, what turns out to be your photo (good side on of the car), was a web posting . It's just a great car that would usually be found in a museum or tucked away in a private collection. To see it run the course - incredible.

Here's another one of mine, but the car is partly obscured:

 

I just know of many of the true stories, many mixed with urban myth. I did find an interesting article on him by Bill Norman.
Take note that the "twin mill" was road registered:
http://www.mgccq.org.au/nostalgia5/Memories of Eldred Norman - a larrikin innovator.pdf

(I had an acquaintance who ran a Holden roadcar with a Norman Supercharger and another who tried to adapt another Norman supercharger to a VW Beetle for road and drag racing. Too difficult, too many broken bits.)

 

Does anyone have information regarding AAA race regulations from the early 1920s that required a racing car to be able to back up under its engine power (a working back-gear function). The Indy 500 did have such a regulation in place until the 1960s but I would like to find evidence, either written regulations or other knowledge, that this was required at other sanctioned events particularly in 1921, 1922, or 1923.