Birthplace Of Speed

G

Grumpy Gator

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Up front I'll admit I'm a gear head. Anything that goes fast gets my attention .
That being said here is a blast from the past.
Jan 26 1906 in Ormand Beach Florida on the sand. Stanley Steamer Rocket Racer also know as "Flying Teapot" posted a LSR of 127.659 MPH.
th.jpg that record stood for four years.In a try at 200MPH it hit a dip in the sand and wrecked.
A few years later in March of 1929 the "Golden Arrow" set a record of 231.45 MPH {372.46 KM/H}
land speed record.jpg

A long time back I was privileged to work on my friends pit crew as he attempted a LSR on the salt out west. First pass went good on the return the transmission let go at 128 MPH . Luck was on his side as he did not crash and coasted back to the pits.
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My grandpa was a race car driver back in the early years of the last century. Hot foot Harry he was called. One a lot of local races apparently. He drove Aspersions and Overlands and was featured in many of their print ads. I have a telegram he wrote to my grand ma in 1910 congratulating her on the birth of their child. He was all the way up in Cheyenne Wyo. and had just won the 200 miler at the Frontier Park race, and seemed to be boasting of his win maybe a little more than the birth of my mom. He and his son ran an auto repair business in Denver. I've worked on a few pit crews for auto and motorcycle races. The only racing that I've done were bare tire class motorcycle ice racing. Lots and lots
of fun.

Chuck the grumpy old guy
 
127 miles an hour doesn't impress me as much as calculating how fast it was going. How did they know, to the thousandth of a mile an hour, in 1906!?
 
Thanks for the question Andre it made me go back and check my facts.
Check out this link: http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/sites/default/files/Daytona_Ormond_Beach_Speed_Trials.pdf

It seems they had electric timers and stop watchs. And since they raced on the beach they had to contend with the tide also.
My Dad took me to the beach races in the 50's but I was to young to enjoy them.
I still remember going to the Daytona Speedway in the 60's. The sound of horse power and the smell of burned rubber and exhaust gas still lingers in the back of my mind.
Galileo did the math first
V=d/t Velocity = distance over time.
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mmprestine I'm still looking for pictures of the motorcycles and electric cars that campaigned in those early speed trials.
In the mean while I found these pictures of beach racing thru the years and some cheese cake too.
beach racing 20's (Small).jpg beach racing 50's (Small).jpg beach racing Opps (Small).jpg beach racing pre 1958 (Small).jpg cheesecake (Small).jpg
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Great pics. Thanks for posting. Mike
 
It took some digging but I found a few pictures of bikes racing on the beach circa 1948.
beach racing 1948 (Small).jpg beach racing 1948 2 (Small).jpg
And this one caught my eye not a racer but you got to admit it stands out from the crowd.
motorcycles (Small).jpg
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I found a few more pictures.The first one is a stock car race on the sand.You can see someone racing a station wagon and further back a convertible.
beach racing 1950's (Small).jpg
Next up some sidecar racing.
sidcar racig 1949 (Small).jpg
I'll add some more later.
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