An early photo labeled Barney Oldfield in the Ford racing car 999 and Tom Copper in the Red Devil at Milwaukee in 1904.
This is an early motorcycled powered racer from a flying circus. More or less a little clown car. There were several. The barnstormers would stage races as part of the show. People we're so interested in the big cars pictured in this thread they'd pay money to watch these guys.
Here's Oldfield and 999 23 years later in a promo shot for the movie 'The First Auto' in which he plays himself.
Looking thru my photos I can across these two and as we covered a little Massachusetts racing I posted these. The first photo is the race in Readville in 1908 with what looks to be some good entries. The second is the Lowell Road Race in 1909 which was a 318 mile race and tough. Bert Shaw is driving the Stoddard-Dayton #15. Number 16 is an Apperson but I do not know who is driving.
As we had some photos of Oldfield earlier here is the showman in 1904 at the Utah Fairgrounds. He is doing a demonstration run in the Ford racer 999. We looked at him before at the Milwaukee Mile and with a movie prop of 999 that was made from a twenties passenger car.
Twin6, This photo seems to be manipulated or what is commonly known today as photoshopped. I have some postcards from some 1906 & 1908 European races that were 'retouched' but the items i have were done like this only to promote an upcoming event. The Packard photo is an interesting one. The date of the Algonquin Hill Climb that is written on the board immediately raised my suspicion. Two days ago i checked the Hillclimb events from 1907 to 1910 in my research of the Willie Haupt/Houpt-Rockwell/Herreshoff saga and i was sure the date of 1907 was much later than stated in your photo. I rechecked and sure enough the 1907 II Algonquin Hillclimb was run on the 10th of August. I then checked for a Packard but only one car belonging to C.L.Johnson, a Packard 30 finished 7th in the Class 5, P.A. 90 & over {whatever that means?}. I then spent some time looking at other events like the Glidden Tour {City to City} of 1907 to 1908 but no Packards are listed nor is there any reference to a Chicago to Detroit race. If what the board says is true then this was one powerful car humming along at under a minute for the mile is very impressive on country roads. Interesting.
The Packard 30 driven by Calvin L Johnson is listed as entered by W.P Johns here http://www.oldalgonquin.net/HillClimbs.html an interesting mystery indeed.
T-Head, I always assumed the Readville photo was also from 1909.?? The car in front looks very much like a Fiat. Ralph De Palma maybe? Barney Olfield held the record there for a while, i think back in 1904/5. It also holds or held a record for a horse race. The #16 Apperson in the Lowell race is Herb Lytle. Both he and Shaw retired on the 10th lap. George Robertson was the winner in a Simplex.
Ehdubya, The information that comes with the Hillclimb results has me wondering what it all means. I'm guessing P.A. is the piston area or the bore and stroke of an engine. The number after that is a little more difficult to assume but could this mean the horsepower rating? Any ideas?
I have a photo I found on the Web of 1923 AAA champion Eddie Hearne in a little midget-like car. Here he is behind the wheel of his real racer. Here he is in the little doodle-bug. I have no idea what the story was. Bluto, that little car in your picture is really cool!
Those little cars are very cool alright, it's not like they've got eccentric wheels with spirals or any proper clown car stuff No stroke, I think it's just the bore circle area but thankfully just for 1907, you know what happened in europe
Someone please fill me in on what racer it is that Miss Dahlgren had. Imagine her blasting through town at 90 with straight pipes. She must`ve been a real handfull. Is that a Mercer?
That would kind of be the equivalent of a young lady today ripping around town in an Indy car or F-1 Machine. She must have had a need for speed,as they say.
Michael, Your 122 MILLER list is very interesting, I'll get my info organized and off to you. There had to be 6-10 122's that ended their days on the East Coast, understanding whos car was whos is the hard part. I have all the paperwork on the Ira Vail 122 for the 1925 season after he sold it to H.D.Carpenter in Philadelphia. It was repainted blue and carried #19 in 1925. This photo shows the car new at the factory, it ran as the #6 at INDY in 1924.Vail sold the car to Carpenter for $6,500, Carpenter sold it to M.A.Yagle at the end of the season.
I heard a rumor that a request for some track roadster photos pre 1944 were needed.....well OK, here we go. All photos from the HG collection. Want some more?... HG
In 1907, for whatever reason, the Algonquin Hill Climb used classes based upon the rules of the Royal Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland. The formula seems based upon the taxing assessment criteria in use at the time, which took into account the engine capacity, cylinder dimensions, weight, and other factors. I have not found the specifics of the rules or why they decided to use those rules, but that is why the classes were determined by "piston area" and not the usual price or engine displacement categories.
Looking at that 1907 results table and doing the math it looks like the 'piston area' formula used is bore area + stroke x #cylinders which I suspect has more to do with the reason we use words like automobile and garage than anything British
The greatest race of all time was the New York to Paris race of 1908 won by George Schuster in a 1907 Thomas Flyer. You can read all about it on the web. Neither the daring of these men nor the distance of this race has never been equaled. Jerry <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
This is 1941 at Mt Lawn Speedway near New Castle, In. which is still running today. The car is from Spiceland, In and was driven by a young Jimmy Morrison. HG
The same car later in the day, L-R, Everett Burton, unknown, Jimmy Morrison, Bud Burton. Mt Lawn Speedway. All track roadster photos I will post are from my personal collection. I would be surprised if these have ever been seen before on the internet. HG collection... HG
Kurtis it could very well have been 1909, I did not have the time to research when this photo could have been taken, I relighed on its caption which we know are wrong often. I could not see enough detail to identify anyone but it certainly looks like a big time race judging but the cars. Thanks for the info on Lowell.
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