Dick Wells, by default, is an automotive historian. This has evolved from his more than 40 years with Hot Rod Magazine, NHRA, and SEMA. His desire to share some interesting automotive facts have earned him his own spot here at Bench-Racing.

AUTOMOTIVE TRIVIA

Submitted by Dick Wells, Senior Writer

Second Installment May 10th 2005

Were early-days racers heavy smokers? No, not necessarily, but most of them chomped on a cigar while driving in races. Because of the rigid chassis of early racecars, and due to the rough surfaces of the tracks (the “Brickyard” in Indianapolis among them), drivers bit down on a cigar to avoid chipping their teeth while driving in races.

Barney Oldfield was one of the most successful early drivers. A bicycle racer from 1894, Oldfield was hired in 1902 as a chief mechanic for Henry Ford’s racing team; he soon became the driver. Barney (Berna Eli Oldfield was his birth name) achieved fame by driving the famous Ford 999. In 1903, at Indianapolis, he accomplished the first mile-a-minute performance in a car (59.6 seconds). In August 1903 he drove 5 miles in 4 minutes 55 seconds. At Daytona in 1910, he set a world speed record of 131.724 mph. And always with the trademark cigar clenched between his teeth.

Chevyland USA, near Elm Creek, Nebraska, is the only museum dedicated exclusively to a single line of cars.

Once the techniques of mass production were developed and put into operation, the Ford factory in Dearborn turned out a newly built Model T every 24 seconds. That’s but one reason the Model Ts were very inexpensive, the other being Henry Ford’s vision and business savvy. Under his direction, Ford bought, owned and operated various sources of raw materials to build cars: forests for timber, mines (coal and iron ore mines), and a glassworks were among them, and he also owned his own railroad and a fleet of Great Lakes freighters that transported iron ore from his Lake Superior mines to the huge River Rouge plant in Michigan.

Ford Motor Company was successful from the [third] beginning, but just 5 weeks after its incorporation, the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers threatened to put it out of business because Ford was not a licensed manufacturer. The association claimed that a patent existed that applied to all gasoline-powered automobiles. The patent was granted in 1895 to George Baldwin Selden, a patent lawyer in Rochester, N.Y. It took 6 years for Ford to win against the multimillion-dollar association, but win he did and made him a popular hero among all Americans.

The Dodge Brothers, whose company once supplied chassis and engine castings to Ford, were manufacturing their own car while holding Ford stock. The brothers sued Ford for what they claimed was reckless expansion and for reducing prices of the company’s products, thereby diverting money from stockholders’ dividends. Ford lost to the Dodge Brothers.

Ford built the Henry Ford Museum and adjacent Greenfield Village in the 1920s; they operate today and are ranked as being among the most popular tourist attractions in the Detroit area.

Henry Ford died in 1947, exactly 100 years after his father left Ireland for Michigan.

The birth of the Ford Model T was in 1908. In the 19 years of production, Ford sold 15,500,000 cars in the U.S., about 1,000,000 in Canada, and 250,000 in Great Britain. The production amounted to half the auto output of the world.

In America, due in large part to the Model T, the horse disappeared so rapidly that the transfer of acreage from hay to other crops caused an agricultural revolution.

Automotive inventors Charles Edgar, Frank Duryea, Elwood Haynes, Hiram Percy Maxim and Charles Brady King all had built self-powered vehicles before Ford built his “Quadricycle,” so-called because the chassis of the 4-hp vehicle was a buggy frame mounted on four bicycle wheels.

But Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler claimed to have built the first automobile. Benz built his first car, a single-cylinder, in 1885 and began selling cars in 1887. Daimler designed a series of gasoline-powered cars in 1883 and received a German patent on a three-wheeled vehicle in 1885. In 1901 Daimler sold the first Mercedes, which was equipped with a four-cylinder engine. One of the investors in the company suggested that the line be named after Daimler’s daughter Mercedes because he feared the German-sounding Daimler name would not sell well in France.

After the merger of the two rival companies in 1926, the “S” series Mercedes was designed. Daimler-Benz was the first company to use diesel engines in passenger cars; the diesel-equipped Mercedes-Benz became available in 1936. A Mercedes diesel recorded the highest mileage known: More than 1 million miles without any major engine repair.

The words 'racecar' and 'kayak' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

The cruise liner QE2 moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

If you are an average American, in your whole life you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

American car horns beep in the tone of F.

Interesting:

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Why is it that when you transport something by car, it's called shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it's called cargo?

Why do we drive on parkways when we park on driveways?

DIDJA KNOW:

Some will argue the explanation, but reliable sources tell us that the word "jeep" has an interesting history. It goes back to World War II. The Army commissioned automakers to build a General Purpose Vehicle. As we now know, Willys and Ford stepped up with the best designs. The car became known as a G-P-V in military parlance, and was eventually reduced to G-P. That, of course, became "Jeep," now a registered trademark of DaimlerChrysler.

The first trade show produced under the guise of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (in those days it was the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association, but always SEMA) for the speed and performance industry was in 1967. The SEMA trade show was held under the grandstands of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. There were 98 booths. The SEMA Show today occupies the entire Las Vegas Convention Center and spans 1.5 million square feet of exhibit space...about a 7-mile walk to see the entire display of performance parts and every conceivable accessory. Sorry. It's not open to the public; trade only.

Wally Parks has amassed so many credits during his career it's impossible to list them all. But of importance to all Motorsports enthusiasts is his dedication to hot rodding and drag racing. Wally not only started the National Hot Rod Association in 1951, but prior to that he was a force in the Southern California Timing Association, the group that held speed trials on the dry lakes outside Los Angeles...as early as the late 1930s. Wally was also the first editor of Hot Rod magazine, founded by Bob Petersen in 1948.

It's true. Mr. Petersen borrowed $400 to start Hot Rod and he peddled the earliest copies out of the back of his hot rod, a roadster. Single copies were sold at car shows and other automotive events. Over the years dozens of titles were added to the lineup: Motor Trend, Sports Car Graphic, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, Teen, Guns & Ammo, and many more. Petersen grew to become the largest publishing company west of the Mississippi; it is now owned by PriMedia Corp.

Huh-uh. It wasn't Ford that came up with the idea of a production line, although Henry gets credit for it. Mr. Ford did refine the process, but it was Ransom Olds who first produced cars on an assembly line. Prior to that, cars were built using the craft method: one at a time, workers assembled the cars from the frame up. Problem: Many difficulties with interchangeability of parts, since some were "modified" to "fit" in the process. Mass production solved the problem. Cars were rolled along and parts were installed as they passed through a work station.

After selling out Oldsmobile to giant General Motors, Mr. Olds had a run-in with the "suits" running the large car company so he left to form a company to build trucks. Yep. He used his initials. Ransom E. Olds, and the Reo truck company came into being.

Ford was indeed a pioneer of the industry, but many don't know that his first two attempts at a car company failed. His third attempt was weak. He had no money. But he put together a car and raced it, winning the race at an impressive (for the day) speed. It is said investors lined up to help him form the Ford Motor Company for the third time after seeing the "high performance car" he built and ran.

Didja know that the Dodge Brothers cast the earliest Ford 4-banger engines? The Dodge Brothers hadn't become a part of the Chrysler Motors group in the early days.

Chrysler also takes credit for many important firsts in the auto industry. First with safety rim wheels (in the event of a blowout, the safety rims hold the tire on the wheel); first with hydraulic brakes; first with an automatic transmission (Fluid Drive); and as all good racers know, first with that terror of the tracks, the Hemi engine, now in it fifty-second year of production.


Dick Wells