A Warren Laurel 1912, the year they dropped the Detroit prefix in their advertising. How many bunny power in a horse in a Warren?
A photo of Jay Webb in Whistling Billy the famous early White Steam race car. This photo was taken at the 1905 Minnesota State fair. ehdubya.... That steam racer photo you posted I have seen before and if memory serves my correctly I would guess it was from one of the hill climbs in the North East. Steam cars never did very well in races of any length but they did well in very short sprints and hill climbs where they could keep up steam pressure long enough. The second photo is I believe Lewis Ross Day in a Stanley the "Woogle Bug" at an early Daytona Meet. I do not know if this was before Marriot's time with the Stanleys or not. The third photo is Fred Marriot with the famous Stanley which he set a record of 127.659 mph winning the Dewar Trophy for the land speed record. In 1907 with an improved version he became air born after hitting a rut and the car crashed and broke in half. He was injured but recovered, more info and photos at this link. http://www.birthplaceofspeed2006.com/fred_marriott.htm
Production automobiles, Ralph DePalma, and speed runs on the the Packard Proving Ground Track A friend of the family used to keep documentation that his car, a black 1936 Packard Twelve Coupe, was driven on the Packard Proving Ground track at speed by Ralph DePalma. He kept the documentation in his wallet, so that he could show show folks, quite often in fact. Although, most of the other documents survive from him, this one does not. My question: Has anyone else run into similar documents regarding production automobile speed runs, Mr. DePalma, and the Packard Proving Ground Track? Presumably, this was done to promote the new automobiles. This particular car had a relatively low engine number. Vintageride
ME two, too. I'd like to see a pic of the springs on the lifters too, if it's not too much trouble? Not sure I understand the purpose of that? The valve springs should keep them in contact with the cam? BTW, carbide inserts are not traditional.
Buildy posted some excellent photos of Jules Goux a couple of pages back. I thought i'd post one more of him before T-Head gets into some technical info he has promised. At Brooklands with his Peugeot L76 'La Torpille' record car of 1913. This chassis has many similarities to the Resta Special, i think.
While I was having my Easter ham sandwich I read up on Walter Marr, Buick's brilliant engineer and found out that the Bug motors were 622 CI and the two cars were built in three weeks for Chevrolet and Burman to run at Indy in the July 1910 races. Burman set a blistering 106 MPH in a 1/4 mile time trial there. I also learned that Marr's pet draftsman for the project was Leo Goossen of later Miller and Offenhauser fame.
Kurtis post away, I will do some tech stuff if people want it down the road. We only have three hands up so far and my plate is full as always. We did shoot some good Mercer footage at speed friday but it has to be edited and I might not get to it for a while. Tell us more about this big Peugeot.
Well, i think there are at least eight hands up if you're counting Bob, noboD, Keith and myself. Take your time, we always look forward to your intelligent posts. The Peugeot 'La Torpille' {The Torpedo} is something i haven't looked into but from what little information i have, the car is an L-76 GP racer with aerodynamic bodywork, hence the name, built by the factory although i have read an article that stated it was in fact built by Goux. At Brooklands in 1913 Goux with mechanic {i think} Emile Begin raised the record for the flying half mile to 109.99mph and later broke the absolute record for any machine travelling for an hour by completing 106.033 miles. The previous record of 104.27 miles was held by Jules Vedrines in a Deperdussin monoplane.
I vote for more old school technology too. So Leo Goosen learned his trade from Mr. Marr at Buick. Good mentors are hard to find and should be honored for their investment in their proteges. One of mine was present at the invention of numerical control machining at Parsons Engineering in Traverse City Michigan after WWII. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Chuck Schultz Winfield, Illinois
This might be the steam racer - although there were others besides White and Stanley. A young Harvard student named George Cannon built a steam racer in 1902 and set 1 mile & 5 mile records all around New England. Must have had fun irritating the older Stanley brothers. White Steamer at Glenville 1903
There is some data including a section on Jean Reville and the Gnat midget car, and other srtuff about British midget car racing history, on this site: http://midgetcarpanorama.proboards.com
Do you know what engine that is in the photo? I am interested in the lever followers as they are just like a Mercer. That engine has many very simular features but is somewhat different. Thanks, T-H As to nobodys question about the springs on the lifters, I believe they were trying to prevent valve float. They could not use higher valve spring pressures as the valve alloys then were weak and it was common for a valves to break. This was a way around the problem but it caused cam, lifter and cam bearing troubles. Stoddard-Dayton did the same thing on their production cars and they were known for having cam troubles because of it.
I agree with the others, post away on the technical stuff T-Head. Good stuff. Kurtis, as to the Miller pic I think that is a terrible pic, quality wise. It was not even a good scan. Somewhere I have a better pic. When I find it I will scan it into my computer for future reference. You get the point though-Jim
Both photos were lifted from The Horseless Age, October 4,1911 ran a 3 page feature on the new model.
Nice pics Twin6. I think that one I posted could be european, it looks annoyingly familiar like something I saw in book as a child. Any ideas what and where this one?
The Jalopy Journal
