thebear's archive of motorsports trivia

[thebear]

19 January, 1954

General Motors announced a $1 billion plan to expand its automobile operation. GM, like other major auto makers, had deep pockets due to the postwar boom in car sales, though sales were slackening in 1953.

[thebear]

Jan. 28, 1938

Bernd Rosemeyer drove the Auto Union race car to record speeds ... and his death..

[thebear]

24 APR 1983

On this day in 1983, Rolf Stommelen, a four-time 24 Hours of Daytona champ as well as a Formula One driver, is killed at the age of 39 in a crash at California’s Riverside International Raceway.

Stommelen was born on July 11, 1943, in Germany. In 1968, he won his first 24 Hours of Daytona.

After his first win, Stommelen went on to triumph in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1978, 1980 and 1982.

In addition to endurance racing, Stommelen competed in Formula One throughout the 1970s, driving in 63 F1 Grand Prix races. In 1975 at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, he was involved in a tragic accident after the rear wing of his Hill GH1 came off and he crashed into barriers on the street course, killing five onlookers.

Stommelen’s next crash, at the 6 Hours of Riverside event in April 1983, would claim his life. After the rear wing of Stommelen’s Porsche 935L came off, his car hit a wall, flipped and caught fire.

[thebear]

Track maps of the PAST.. Riverside and Paramount Ranch were both located in California.

[thebear]

Pictures of Motor Racing in Angola. In English & Portugese.. .

[thebear]

May 2, 1918

On this day in 1918, General Motors Corporation (GM) acquires Chevrolet Motor Company. It then became the world's largest automotive firm until 2010 when Toyota achieved that rank.

GM had been founded a decade earlier by William C. "Billy" Durant, a former carriage maker from Flint, Michigan, whose Durant-Dort Carriage Company had taken control of the ailing Buick Motor Company. On September 16, 1908, Durant incorporated Buick into a new entity, General Motors, which by the end of that decade had welcomed other leading auto manufacturers--including Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Oakland--into its fold. In 1910, with GM struggling financially, stockholders blamed Durant's aggressive expansionism and forced him out of the company he founded. In November 1911, he launched Chevrolet Motor Company, named for his partner, the Swiss race car driver Louis Chevrolet.

Still the owner of a considerable portion of GM stock, Durant began to purchase more shares in the company as his profits from Chevrolet allowed. In a final move to regain control, Durant offered GM stockholders five shares of Chevrolet stock for every one share of GM stock. Though GM stock prices were exorbitantly high, the market interest in Chevrolet made the five-for-one trade irresistible to GM shareholders. With the sale, concluded on May 2, 1918, Durant regained control of GM. Just two years later, however, he was pushed out for good by Pierre S. DuPont, whose family's powerful chemical company had begun investing in the fledgling auto industry by buying GM stock in 1914. Pierre DuPont subsequently rose to the chairmanship of GM's board and became president in 1920. In an agreement made that same year, DuPont paid off all of Durant's debt; in exchange, the controversial founder left the company.

Durant refused to bow out of the automotive industry, however, founding Durant Motors in 1921 and producing a line of cars for the next decade. The onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s put an end to Durant's career in cars, and he threw his entrepreneurial energy behind a string of bowling alleys located near the Buick complex in Flint, Michigan. When this venture failed as well, Durant faded from the public eye. He died on March 18, 1947, at the age of 85, just weeks before the passing of another automotive pioneer: Henry Ford.

[thebear]

May 11, 1947

On this day in 1947, the B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announces it has developed a tubeless tire, a technological innovation that would make automobiles safer and more efficient.

Pneumatic tires--or tires filled with pressurized air--were used on motor vehicles beginning in the late 1800s, when the French rubber manufacturer Michelin & Cie became the first company to develop them. For the first 60 years of their use, pneumatic tires generally relied on an inner tube containing the compressed air and an outer casing that protected the tube and provided traction. The disadvantage of this design was that if the inner tube failed--which was always a risk due to excess heat generated by friction between the tube and the tire wall--the tire would blow out immediately, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

The culmination of more than three years of engineering, Goodrich's tubeless tire effectively eliminated the inner tube, trapping the pressurized air within the tire walls themselves. By reinforcing those walls, the company claimed, they were able to combine the puncture-sealing features of inner tubes with an improved ease of riding, high resistance to bruising and superior retention of air pressure. While Goodrich awaited approval from the U.S. Patent Office, the tubeless tires underwent high-speed road testing, were put in service on a fleet of taxis and were used by Ohio state police cars and a number of privately owned passenger cars.

The testing proved successful, and in 1952, Goodrich won patents for the tire's various features. Within three years, the tubeless tire came standard on most new automobiles. According to an article published in The New York Times in December 1954, "If the results of tests…prove valid in general use, the owner of a 1955 automobile can count on at least 25 per cent more mileage, easier tire changing if he gets caught on a lonely road with a leaky tire, and almost no blowouts." The article quoted Howard N. Hawkes, vice president and general manager of the tire division of the United States Rubber Company, as calling the general adoption of the tubeless tire "one of the most far-reaching changes ever to take place in the tire industry." The radial-ply tire, a tubeless model with walls made of alternating layers--also called plies--of tough rubber cord, was created by Michelin later that decade and is now considered the standard for automobiles in all developed countries.

[thebear]

May 12, 1957

In 1957, race car driver A.J. Foyt (1935- ) scores his first professional victory, in a U.S. Automobile Club (USAC) midget car race in Kansas City, Missouri.

A tough-as-nails Texan, Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr. raced midget cars--smaller vehicles designed to be driven in races of shorter distances--and stock cars before moving up to bigger things in 1958, when he entered his first Indianapolis 500 race. Foyt won his first Indy 500 crown in 1961, when rival Eddie Sachs was forced to make a tire change in the final laps, giving Foyt the chance to overtake him and win with a then-record average speed of 139.13 mph.

The 1964 season saw Foyt earn a record-setting winning percentage of .769 with 10 wins in 13 races. His most important win that year came in the Indy 500, which he finished with an average speed of 147.45 mph. After a near-fatal crash in a stock car race in 1965--in which he broke his back, fractured his ankle and suffered severe chest injuries--Foyt came back to continue his string of impressive achievements. In 1967, he won his third Indy 500 in a car he had designed himself, with his father Tony as chief mechanic. Two weeks later, he traveled to France and won the 24 Hours of LeMans international competition with teammate Don Gurney. With a win at the Daytona 500 in 1972, Foyt became the first driver to win all three major races in motor sports: the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans.

In addition to the records for most total victories (67), most national championships (7) and most victories in one season (10), Foyt also has the most consecutive Indy 500 starts: He competed in the race for 35 straight years. His fourth win came in 1977, when the 42-year-old Foyt screamed around the track at an average speed of 161.331 mph. Only two other men have equaled his record of four Indy 500 wins.

In 1989, Foyt became the first driver inducted into the brand-new Motor Sports Hall of Fame in Novi, Michigan. He practiced at the Indy 500 track in 1993, but retired on the first day of qualifying races. Apart from auto racing teams, Foyt's later business interests have included car dealerships, funeral homes, oil investments and thoroughbred racehorses.

[thebear]

May 18, 1958

Team Lotus makes its first entry in the Formula One circuit, entering two single-seat Type 12s, driven by Cliff Allison and Graham Hill, into the Monaco Grand Prix. Though Ferrari was the favorite going into the race, British-made cars dominated the qualifying rounds, with Vanwall, British Racing Motors (BRM) and Cooper all finishing in front of Ferrari.

Maurice Trintignant (driving a Cooper) took first place after Ferrari's Mike Hawthorn, that year's eventual Formula One champion, was forced to stop with a broken fuel pump. Allison finished sixth in his Lotus, 13 laps behind the leader; Hill finished in 26th place. .

[thebear]

May 21, 1901

On this day, Connecticut becomes the first state to pass a law regulating motor vehicles, limiting their speed to 12 mph in cities and 15 mph on country roads.

Speed limits had been set earlier in the United States for non-motorized vehicles: In 1652, the colony of New Amsterdam (now New York) issued a decree stating that "[N]o wagons, carts or sleighs shall be run, rode or driven at a gallop" at the risk of incurring a fine starting at "two pounds Flemish," or about $150 in today's currency. In 1899, the New York City cabdriver Jacob German was arrested for driving his electric taxi at 12 mph. The path to Connecticut's 1901 speed limit legislation began when Representative Robert Woodruff submitted a bill to the State General Assembly proposing a motor-vehicles speed limit of 8 mph within city limits and 12 mph outside. The law passed in May 1901 specified higher speed limits but required drivers to slow down upon approaching or passing horse-drawn vehicles, and come to a complete stop if necessary to avoid scaring the animals.

[thebear]

May 22, 1969

On this day in 1969, the legendary actor, philanthropist and automobile enthusiast Paul Newman makes his onscreen racing debut in the action-drama film "Winning."

By the time he made "Winning," the blue-eyed Newman was already famous for his performances in such films as "The Hustler" (1960), "Hud" (1962) and "Cool Hand Luke" (1967). The same year "Winning" was released, Newman paired with Robert Redford in the blockbuster hit "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

In "Winning," Newman played Frank Capua, a struggling race car driver who must turn around his fortunes by winning the biggest race of them all--the Indianapolis 500--and in the process avoid losing his wife (played by Newman's real-life spouse, Joanne Woodward) to his biggest rival, Luther Erding (Robert Wagner). Newman and Wagner attended racing school to prepare for their action scenes, and Newman reportedly performed many of the racing scenes himself, without a stunt driver.

[thebear]

May 26 1927

On this day in 1927, Henry Ford and his son Edsel drive the 15 millionth Model T Ford out of their factory, marking the famous automobile's official last day of production.

More than any other vehicle, the relatively affordable and efficient Model T was responsible for accelerating the automobile's introduction into American society during the first quarter of the 20th century. Introduced in October 1908, the Model T--also known as the "Tin Lizzie"-- weighed some 1,200 pounds, with a 20-horsepower, four-cylinder engine. It got about 13 to 21 miles per gallon of gasoline and could travel up to 45 mph. Initially selling for around $850 (around $20,000 in today's dollars), the Model T would later sell for as little as $260 (around $6,000 today) for the basic no-extras model.

[thebear]

ALFA-Romeo's history at Indianapolis..

[thebear]

Ford announces the Edsel on TV in 1957.

For more history, scroll down at the end of the clip.

[thebear]

31 MAY 1929

After two years of exploratory visits and friendly negotiations, Ford Motor Company signs a landmark agreement to produce cars in the Soviet Union on this day in 1929.

The Soviet Union, which in 1928 had only 20,000 cars and a single truck factory, was eager to join the ranks of automotive production, and Ford, with its focus on engineering and manufacturing methods, was a natural choice to help. The always independent-minded Henry Ford was strongly in favor of his free-market company doing business with Communist countries. An article published in May 1929 in The New York Times quoted Ford as saying that "No matter where industry prospers, whether in India or China, or Russia, all the world is bound to catch some good from it."

Signed in Dearborn, Michigan, on May 31, 1929, the contract stipulated that Ford would oversee construction of a production plant at Nizhni Novgorod, located on the banks of the Volga River, to manufacture Model A cars. An assembly plant would also start operating immediately within Moscow city limits. In return, the USSR agreed to buy 72,000 unassembled Ford cars and trucks and all spare parts to be required over the following nine years, a total of some $30 million worth of Ford products. Valery U. Meshlauk, vice chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy, signed the Dearborn agreement on behalf of the Soviets. To comply with its side of the deal, Ford sent engineers and executives to the Soviet Union.

At the time the U.S. government did not formally recognize the USSR in diplomatic negotiations, so the Ford agreement was groundbreaking. (A week after the deal was announced the Soviet Union would announce deals with 15 other foreign companies, including E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and RCA.) As Douglas Brinkley writes in "Wheels for the World," his book on Henry Ford and Ford Motor, the automaker was firm in his belief that introducing capitalism was the best way to undermine communism. In any case, Ford's assistance in establishing motor vehicle production facilities in the USSR would greatly impact the course of world events, as the ability to produce these vehicles helped the Soviets defeat Germany on the Eastern Front during World War II. In 1944, according to Brinkley, Stalin wrote to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, calling Henry Ford "one of the world's greatest industrialists" and expressing the hope that "may God preserve him."

[thebear]

01 JUN 1849

The Stanley brothers, Born 1 Jun 1849; died 31 Jul 1918 and 2 Oct 1940 respectively

American inventors, twin brothers, the most famous manufacturers of steam-driven automobiles. Francis previously had invented a photographic dry-plate process (1883), and as the Stanley Dry Plate Company the brothers had engaged in the manufacturing of the plates. They sold the company to Eastman Kodak in 1905, as their interest had turned to steam-powered automobiles. They began working on steam powered cars in 1897, and built thousands of them them until the 1920's as the Stanley Motor Company. At racing events, they often competed successfully against gasoline powered cars (1902-09). They set a world record in 1906 for fastest mile in 28.2 seconds (127 mph or 205 kph).

[thebear]

02 JUN 1970

The 32-year-old race car driver Bruce McLaren dies in a crash while testing an experimental car of his own design at a track in Goodwood, England on this day in 1970.

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, McLaren contracted a childhood hip disease that would keep him in hospitals for several years. By the age of 14, he had recovered fully. His father, a part-time mechanic with an interest in racing, helped young Bruce build his first car, and he entered his first competitive event, a hill climb, when he was 15. Bruce McLaren also studied engineering at the University of Auckland. Aided by his mentor, the Grand Prix driver Jack Brabham, he became the first-ever winner of the New Zealand International Grand Prix Association's "Driver to Europe" scholarship. McLaren announced his arrival on the European racing scene in 1958, finishing fifth in the German Grand Prix at the famous Nurburgring and winning the Formula Two division of the combined Formula One and Two race.

In 1959, McLaren joined his mentor on the Cooper racing team. That December, at the age of 22, he became the youngest-ever winner of a Formula One race, capturing the U.S. Grand Prix at Sebring. The following year--a banner one for Cooper--McLaren came in second only to Brabham in the standings for the Formula One World Championship. McLaren succeeded Brabham as Cooper's top driver in 1962, and began expanding into the field of race car design and manufacturing in 1964. He left Cooper to form his own Grand Prix racing team and in 1968 he and his close friend and fellow driver Denny Hulme won three events in McLaren-Fords.

By that time, McLaren had begun to focus on the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series, sponsored jointly by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the Canadian Automobile Sports Committee (CASC). As the series grew, the McLaren team came to dominate it, and in 1969 the team won 11 of 11 races. At the time of his death in June 1970, McLaren had been at the top of the international racing world for more than a decade. According to an article about his fatal accident in The New York Times, McLaren was among the wealthiest driver-designers in the sport and was contemplating retirement from driving to devote more time to the business side of his racing interests. The racing team that bears his name survived him, becoming one of the most successful in Formula One history.

[thebear]

13 JUN 1936

BMW's 328 wins at the Nürburgring.

There are 10 screens. At the bottom of the 1st screen click on "View All" and keep on reading.

[thebear]

15 JUL 1903

On this day in 1903, the newly formed Ford Motor Company takes its first order from Chicago dentist Ernst Pfenning: an $850 two-cylinder Model A automobile with a tonneau (or backseat). The car, produced at Ford's plant on Mack Street (now Mack Avenue) in Detroit, was delivered to Dr. Pfenning just over a week later.

Dr. Pfenning's order turned out to be the first of many, from around the country, launching Ford on its way to profitability. Within two months, the company had sold 215 Fords, and by the end of its first year the Mack Avenue plant had turned out some 1,000 cars. Though the company grew quickly in the next several years, it was the launch of the Model T in 1908 that catapulted Ford to the top of the automobile industry. The Lizzie's tremendous popularity kept Ford far ahead of the pack until dwindling sales led to the end of its production in 1927. That same year, Ford released the second Model A amid great fanfare; it enjoyed similar success, though the onset of the Great Depression kept its sales from equaling those of the Model T.

[thebear]

18 JUL 1948

Juan Manuel Fangio makes his European racing debut at the Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France in Reims, France on this day in 1948.

Fangio had made it to Europe, where he was invited to race a Simca-Gordini in the French Grand Prix in Reims on July 18, 1948. Though he retired from both of the races he entered that day, Fangio announced his potential as a worthy rival for his European counterparts.

In 1949 Fangio returned to Europe the following summer for his first full European racing season. He won his first four races, and by the end of the season had racked up seven major wins. In 1950, the Formula One World Championship was created. Fangio, who had signed on with the Alfa Romeo team, was just shy of his 39th birthday at the start of that first championship season. He lost the title that year to his Italian teammate, Giuseppe Farina, but stayed with Alfa Romeo and held on to win his first Formula One championship title in 1951.

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[thebear]

20 JUL 1972

U.S. government study disputes Nader's charges against Corvair.

On this day in 1972, the results of a two-year study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation are released; the study concludes that 1960-63 Chevrolet Corvair models are at least as safe as comparable models of other cars sold in the same period, directly contradicting charges made by the leading consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

In his bestselling 1965 book "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile," Nader had dedicated an entire chapter, titled "The One-Car Accident," to the Corvair. Upon its debut in 1960, the Corvair won Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" honors and became an immediate sensation thanks to its innovative design and its lightweight, air-cooled, rear-mounted aluminum engine. However, its deficiencies--including its tendency to oversteer and spin out of control in the hands of the average driver--earned almost as much attention. After his niece was seriously injured in a Corvair, the general manager of General Motors himself threatened to resign if the car's suspension was not redesigned (it was, in 1964). By the time the revamped Corvair was released in 1965, Nader had already published "Unsafe at Any Speed," making 1960-63 Corvair models the target of his most outraged criticism. Sales of the Corvair swiftly dwindled, and GM withdrew the car from production in 1969.

At Nader's own urging, the U.S. government began a comparative study of the 1963 Corvair with other comparable vehicles in September 1970. The other cars used were a 1967 Corvair (featuring the newly redesigned suspension), a 1962 Ford Falcon, a 1960 Plymouth Valiant, a 1962 Volkswagen and a 1963 Renault. Nader had specifically criticized the Corvair's handling and stability, as well as its tendency to roll over during sharp turns. In the study's results, released on July 20, 1972, the government stated, among other conclusions, that the Corvair's handling in a sharp turn did not "result in abnormal potential for loss of control" and that the rollover rate for the Corvair was comparable to that of "other light domestic cars."

According to The New York Times, Nader spoke out against the study, calling it "a shoddy, internally contradictory whitewash" and accusing the Highway Traffic Administration of using "biased testing procedures and model selection." He argued against the use of only the 1963 Corvair in the tests, which he said was significantly different from the 1960-62 models--a charge that the government disputed, saying that the first significant changes to the Corvair were made in 1964. Three independent engineers certified the government's findings, calling them "reasonable, appropriate and sound," and General Motors issued a statement stating that the study "confirms our position on the handling and stability characteristics of these cars."



As a contemporary note, last week the same group exonerated Toyota for it's alleged `sudden acceleration defect'. Examination of the "black boxes" (onboard vehicle operating enviornment recorders) indicated that in each alleged case the the accelerator was partially depressed and the brakes were NEVER applied.

You probably never saw that in your local newspaper or on TV, did you?

[John Turner]

Good stuff still 'bear' but I have to ask (without going back through this huge thread) are you still managing to find new info to put up?

[thebear]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Good stuff still 'bear' but I have to ask (without going back through this huge thread) are you still managing to find new info to put up?

Sometimes I find `expanded information' on items previously posted. I don't remember any of it.

Most of the recent posts are fom new research.

When I first started the thread I was posting stuff I had written for the Central Florida Region of SCCA's monthly magazine during a 10 year run which stopped in 2008.

[thebear]

JUL 28 1935

Tazio Nuvolari triumphs over Germans at the Nurburgring

The Italian race car driver Tazio Nuvolari wins the greatest victory of his career in the Grosser Preis von Deutschland (German Grand Prix) held on the Nurburgring racetrack in Nurburg, Germany on this day in 1935.

The German Grand Prix of 1935 is remembered as Nuvolari's greatest victory, and arguably one of the most impressive auto racing victories of all time. At the time, German automakers reigned supreme in the world of race car construction, and the "home team" at the Nurburgring that July day consisted of five Mercedes and four German Auto Union vehicles, all of which overpowered Nuvolari's older 330 hp Alfa Romeo. An estimated 250,000 to 300,000 spectators turned up to watch the race on that rainy, foggy July day, and drama broke out from the beginning, when Nuvolari's longtime rival, Achille Varzi, driving for the German Auto Union, hit an auto mechanic working the race.

With one lap left to go, the German driver Manfred von Brauchitsch in his 445 bhp W25 Mercedes Benz--the most powerful car of the day--took a 35-second lead over Nuvolari; the rest of the field, competitive throughout, had fallen behind. Von Brauchitsch's left rear tire was fraying, however, and with Nuvolari in hot pursuit behind him he declined a pit stop: The tire blew, and von Brauchitsch was forced to slow to 40 mph and guide it to the edge of the track. Nuvolari blew past him for the win, to the great chagrin of the Nazi Party officials at the finish line who had already started to raise the flag of the Reich and prepare the celebration.

Though Nuvolari would later race for the German Auto Union himself, that day he broke German hearts in his little red ALFA Romeo, beating the most powerful cars on the planet on one of the world's most demanding tracks.

. ,

[thebear]

JUL 29, 1909

General Motors buys Cadillac

On July 29, 1909, the newly formed General Motors Corporation (GM) acquires the country's leading luxury automaker, the Cadillac Automobile Company, for $4.5 million.

Cadillac was founded out of the ruins of automotive pioneer Henry Ford's second failed company (his third effort, the Ford Motor Company, finally succeeded). When the shareholders of the defunct Henry Ford Company called in Detroit machinist Henry Leland to assess the company's assets for their planned sale, Leland convinced them to stay in business. His idea was to combine Ford's latest chassis (frame) with a single-cylinder engine developed by Oldsmobile, another early automaker. To that end, the Cadillac Car Company (named for the French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac, who founded the city of Detroit in 1701) was founded in August 1902. Leland introduced the first Cadillac--priced at $850--at the New York Auto Show the following year.

In its first year of production, Cadillac put out nearly 2500 cars, a huge number at the time. Leland, who was reportedly motivated by an intense competition with Henry Ford, assumed full leadership of Cadillac in 1904, and with his son Wilfred by his side he firmly established the brand's reputation for quality. Among the excellent luxury cars being produced in America at the time--including Packard, Lozier, McFarland and Pierce-Arrow--Cadillac led the field, making the top 10 in overall U.S. auto sales every year from 1904 to 1915.

By 1909, William C. Durant had assembled Buick and Oldsmobile as cornerstones of his new General Motors Corporation, founded the year before. By the end of July, he had persuaded Wilfred Leland to sell Cadillac for $4.5 million in GM stock. Durant kept the Lelands on in their management position, however, giving them full responsibility for automotive production. Three years later, Cadillac introduced the world's first successful electric self-starter, developed by Charles F. Kettering; its pioneering V-8 engine was installed in all Cadillac models in 1915.

Over the years, Cadillac maintained its reputation for luxury and innovation: In 1954, for example, it was the first automaker to provide power steering and automatic windshield washers as standard equipment on all its vehicles.