Tuesday, January 12, 2016

This Week in Automobile History

Henry Ford needed to boost sales for his Model A so he did what all auto manufacturers do to advertise their product - he went racing. On January 12, 1904  he took his 18.8 liter, 4 cylinder Ford Arrow "999" out to a frozen lake between Michigan and Ontario and went almost 92 miles per hour setting a new land sped record.

The vehicle was little more than a huge engine on a wooden frame with a seat for the driver. Henry later said it scared him so badly that he never wanted to get in to a race car again.

18.8 liters is 1,147 cubic inches! I remember when 327 was a big engine.

1 comment:

Old NFO said...

I've never heard of that... And that WOULD be scary as hell...