This Day In Automotive History

[SirAlec]

May 26th 1923
First Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance is run.

May 26th 1927
Ford Motor Company manufactured its 15 millionth Model T automobile

May 26th 1937
Union leaders, Ford Service Department men clashed in violent confrontation on Miller Road Overpass outside Gate 4 of Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, MI (three months after UAW achieved its first landmark victory at Ford, had forced company to negotiate policy toward organized labor by staging lengthy sit-down strike at Rouge complex); UAW organizers Walter Reuther, Bob Kanter, J.J. Kennedy, Richard Frankensteen were distributing leaflets among workers at Rouge complex when approached by gang of Bennett's men; Ford Servicemen brutally beat four unionists while many other union sympathizers, including 11 women, were injured in resulting melee - Battle of the Overpass.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia

PS: I wrote this event in advance as I will be travelling on 26th.

[SirAlec]

May 27th 1923
First Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance is concluded. Winners Andre Lagache and Renee Leonard covered 1,372.928 miles in a Chenard-Walker car. Le Mans is the world's longest-running 24-hour event, a type of racing that's considered the ultimate test of sports car performance.

May 27th 1927
Production of the Ford Model T officially ended after 15,007,033 units had been built. The Model T sold more units than any other car model in history, until the Volkswagen Beetle eclipsed its record in the 1970s.

May 27th 1930
Chrysler Building in NYC. opened as world's tallest building.

Chrysler Building,
Image courtesy: howarddigital.com


Ford Model T & Henry Ford.
Its named as the world's most influential car of the twentieth century after an International poll.

[SirAlec]

May 28th 1916
Barney Oldfield ran a qualifying lap in his front-wheel-drive Christie at 102.6mph. It was the first time any driver had rounded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in excess of 100mph. But Oldfield ended up finishing fifth on race day, as Dario Resta beat the field in his Peugeot.

May 28th 1937
The Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic on this day in 1937. One of the world's largest single-span suspension bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge was designed by Clifford Paine.

Barney Oldfield & Henry Ford, circa 1902.

[SirAlec]

May 29th 1950
Preston Tucker's lawsuit against his former prosecutors was thrown out of court. Tucker had been indicted for stock fraud after managing to produce only 53 of his long-awaited Tucker cars. The court case ruined Tucker's chances of ever releasing the car on a grand scale. Tucker charged the Big Three with trumping up a conspiracy to ground his competitive operation. Eventually all the charges against Tucker were dropped. Hungry to clear his name, Preston Tucker sued his former prosecutors on various grounds related to the destruction of his reputation. It was generally believed that Tucker's initial acquittal was an act of charity granted to an overly-ambitious, failed entrepreneur. Tucker's case was dismissed after little consideration. It was Preston Tucker's last-gasp effort to save his name, and it failed. His reputation has fared far better in recent years with the help of the Hollywood movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream, starring Jeff Bridges, that portrays Tucker as a visionary in a practical age.

29th May 1971
Al Unser became the first racer to win a single-day purse of over $200,000 at the Indy 500. The only racer besides A.J. Foyt to win four Indy 500s, Al Unser, too, has a legitimate claim to the title of Indy's greatest.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia

[SirAlec]

May 30th 1911
Ray Harroun won the inaugural Indianapolis 500, averaging 74.6mph in the Marmon Wasp. The Indy 500 was the creation of Carl Fisher. In the fall of 1909, Fisher replaced the ruined, crushed-stone surface of his 2.5-mile oval with a brand-new brick one. It was the largest paved, banked oval in the United States. Fisher then made two decisions vital to the success of the Indy 500. First, he determined to hold only one race per year on his Indianapolis Motor Speedway; second, he elected to offer the richest purse in racing as a reward for competing in his annual 500-mile event.

May 30th 1896
First recorded auto accident occurred: Duryea Motor Wagon, driven by Henry Wells from Springfield, MA, collided with bicycle ridden by Evylyn Thomas of New York City.

May 30th 2002
Trabant filed for insolvency protection.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia

[SirAlec]

May 31st 1870
Professor Edward Joseph De Smedt of the American Asphalt Pavement Company, New York City, received two patents for his invention known as "French asphalt pavement." De Smedt had invented the first practical version of sheet asphalt. On July 29 of the same year, the first road pavement of sheet asphalt was laid on William Street in Newark, New Jersey.

May 31st 1898
Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Governor for Motors", a "means for adjusting the governor for any desired speed, and with the means, such as centrifugal governor-*****, for regulating the friction members to maintain a constant speed."

May 31st 1904
Byron J. Carter, of Jackson, MI, received a U.S. patent for "Transmission-Gearing"; "friction-drive" mechanism replaced conventional transmission to provide more precise control of a car's speed; never really caught on, proved susceptible to poor road conditions; technology involved in the friction-drive is, however, related to today's disc brakes.

May 31st 1929
The Ford Motor Company signed a "Technical Assistance" contract to produce cars in the Soviet Union.They supplied many of the production parts for car manufacturers during the 1930s.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia

[SirAlec]

June 1st 1917
Henry Leland, the founder of the Cadillac Motor Car Company, resigned as company president on this date in 1917. Ever since William Durant had arranged for General Motors (GM) to purchase Cadillac, Leland and Durant had endured a strained relationship. But Leland's electric starter had made Cadillac so successful early on that Durant had avoided meddling with the autonomy of his company. Leland's next great achievement at Cadillac was his supervision of his son's proposal that Cadillac should introduce a V-8 engine.

June 1st 1934
Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha (Automobile Manufacturing Co.) founded Nissan Motor Co.; took over automobile manufacturing division of Tobata Casting Co.

[SirAlec]

June 2nd 1970
Car racer, designer, and manufacturer Bruce McLaren was killed when his McLaren M8D lost its back end at high speed and collided with an earthen embankment at the Goodwood racetrack in England.

June 2nd 1988
Consumer Reports called for ban on Suzuki Samurai automobile.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia

Bruce Mclaren

[SirAlec]

June 3rd 1864
Ransom Eli Olds, founder of Old Motor Vehicle Company was born to Pliny and Sarah Olds in the northeastern Ohio town of Geneva.

June 3rd 1921
Mack adopted Bulldog as symbol for Mack trucks.



R.E.Olds (Courtesy Olsmobile.com)


Mack Bulldog

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia

[SirAlec]

June 4th 1896
Henry Ford, employee of Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit, made successful pre-dawn test run of horseless carriage, called a Quadricycle (500-pound, two-cylinder vehicle), through streets of Detroit (down Bagley Avenue to Grand River Avenue, to Washington Boulevard) at approximately 1:30 am, first automobile he ever designed or drove.

June 4th 1959
Kihachiro Kawashima selected as Executive Vice President, General Manager of American Honda Motor Company (seven employees, operating capital of $250,000.); opened shop in small storefront office on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles to serve consumers wanting small, light, easy to handle and maintain two-wheeled vehicles.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia
automobilehistoryonline.com

[SirAlec]

June 5th 1937
Henry Ford initiated 32 hour work week.

June 5th 1951
Gordon M. Buehrig, of South Bend, IN, received a patent for "Vehicle Top Construction", vehicle top with removable panels; appeared as "T-top" on 1968 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
Buehrig was one of 25 candidates for Car Designer of the Century, an international award given in 1999 to honor the most influential automobile designer of the 20th century.

June 5th 1998
Strike at General Motors parts factory near Detroit closed five assembly plants, idled workers nationwide. This walkout lasted seven weeks.

[SirAlec]

June 6th 1925
Walter Percy Chrysler renamed Maxwell Motor Company as the Chrysler Corporation.

June 6th 1932
The first gasoline tax levied by US Congress was enacted as a part of the Revenue Act of 1932. The Act mandated a series of excise taxes on a wide variety of consumer goods. Congress placed a tax of 1¢ per gallon on gasoline and other motor fuel sold.

June 6th 1932
Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey. Hollingshead was the sales manager for Whiz Auto Products in Camden when he came up with the idea for the drive-in. He acted on the notion that few Americans at that time would give up the pleasure of going to the movies, had they the chance. In 1933, though, moviegoing wasn't a family event, as few couples felt comfortable bringing their kids to the theater. Going to the movies involved getting dressed up, finding a babysitter, and driving down to a crowded Main Street to look for parking. Hollingshead believed that the drive-in would solve these problems: moviegoers didn't have to park their cars or dress up, and the kids could join their parents.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia
driveintheater.com

[SirAlec]

[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
June 7 1954
Ford Motor Company formed styling team to design entirely new car, later named Edsel. The car brand is best known as one of the most spectacular failures in the history of the United States automobile industry.
More than sixty years after its spectacular failure, Edsel has become a highly collectible item amongst vintage car hobbyists. A mint 1958 car can sell up to $100,000, while rare models, like 1960 convertible, may price up to $200,000. While the design was considered "ugly" fifty years ago, many other car manufacturers, such as Pontiac and Alfa Romeo, have employed similar vertical grille successfully on their car designs.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia
automobilehistoryonline.com

Edsel Logo


1958 rare Edsel

[SirAlec]

June 8th 1948
Dr. Ferdinand Porsche test drove first Porsche two-seat roadster sports car, Project 356-1, built in a sawmill in Gmund, Austria (Tyrolean Alps).

June 8th 1986
Tim Richmond won the first of his seven Winston Cup Series races in 1986, a total that would vault him to third place in the Series point race and solidify his reputation as one of NASCAR's greatest drivers. He had his career cut short when he contracted HIV and died of complications from AIDS on 19th Aug 1989.

Porsche Type1-356 in Porsche Museum


Tim Richmond

[SirAlec]

June 9th 1903
Stanley Steamer received a patent for a "Steam Motor-Vehicle"; arrangement of engine on axle and housing.

June 9th 1909
Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, became the first woman to drive across the United States. With three female companions, none of whom could drive a car, for fifty-nine days she drove a Maxwell automobile the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California.
In later years, she lived in Covina, California, where in 1961 she wrote and published the story of her journey 'Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron'. Between 1909 and 1975, Ramsey drove across the country more than 30 times. On October 17, 2000, she became the first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Stanley Steamer with his Steam Car at Daytona Beach Road Course


Alice Huyler Ramsey

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia
automobilehistoryonline.com