The Bologna-Corticella-Pog R–Malalbergo-Bologna road race in Italy was won by Lorenzo Ginori in a Bolide.

Frederick A. LaRoche registered ‘Multimobil’ as a trademark. He was the head of the American Darracq Automobile Company of New York City, importers of this French marque.

The British magazine 'Car Illustrated' first appeared.

Cover of the Car Illustrated magazine March 1903

The first Isle of Man TT Races took place, over the triangular St John’s Circuit. from St John's → Ballacraine → Kirk Michael → Peel → St John's. The race was ten laps of the 15 mile 1,430 yards course, a total race distance of 158. Continue Reading →

Rem Fowler on the Peugeot-engined Norton, winner of the twin-cylinder race

The last Irish hillclimb before WWI held at Ballinascorney, near Dublin was won by J T Wood driving a G.W.K.

Barney Oldfield driving his front-wheel-drive Christe lapped the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 102.6 mph, the first time that the 100 mph had been broken at the track.

The first Citroen car, the Model A went into production, prior to its launch in April. A massive advertising campaign had preceded it with full page advertisements in newspapers and magazines announcing the launch of 'Europe's first mass production' car. Orders for 16,000 cars were reported as having been received within a fortnight and the break-even target of 30,000 was reported as having been reached before any car left the plant. Continue Reading →

Citroën Type A

Dodge Brothers, Inc. and the Chrysler Corporation merged.

The 7,000,000th Chevrolet was produced, a 1930 2-door Coach.

The legendary Hockenheim circuit staged its first race, a motorcycle race, run over a 12 km unpaved layout. It was an anti-clockwise circuit, and it was used until 1937, after which it was remodelled to form the 7.7 km/4. Continue Reading →

The international Eifelrennen was the only major race at the Nürburgring in 1933 but the organization and meaning of the event held now on the North Loop portrayed that of an earlier German Grand Prix. Initially Chiron held the lead until his car gave trouble. Then Tazio Nuvolari took over from lap two onwards, never to relinquish the lead. Continue Reading →

Clashes in the calendar meant that the Targa Florio entry list was the weakest in many years with only 14 Italian drivers and with Scuderia Ferrari as the only team. What looked to be a foregone conclusion turned to a surprise when Borzacchini who was dominating the race crashed, handing the victory to his Bugatti team mate Pietro Ghersi.

Targa Florio - 1933

The government of Germany--then under the control of Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party--formed a new state-owned automobile company, then known as Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH. Later that year, it was renamed simply Volkswagenwerk, or "The People's Car Company". The government allocated 480,000 reichmarks as start-up capital for the construction of a new factory, and on 26 May, 1938, Hitler laid the foundation stone in the Stadt des KdF-Wagens – renamed Wolfsburg in 1945, and still the home of Volkswagen today. Continue Reading →

1937 Volkswagen prototype

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while seated in the Oval Office, pressed a golden telegraph button to ceremonially open the Golden Gate Bridge to vehicular traffic. The president did so at 3 p. Continue Reading →

Golden Gate bridge May 1937

The 250,117th 1940 Buick was produced, breaking the company’s model year record set in 1928.

The first Dodge V-8 was produced.

The last Kaiser Dragon was produced. The name, Dragon, came from the vinyl upholstery claimed to resemble dragon skin.

Kaiser Dragon - 1953

"Lucky" Casner and Masten Gregory drove the Camoradi Maserati Tipo 61 to victory in the 1000 kilometre sports car race on the Nuburgring in Germany using only one set of tyres.

Assar Gabrielsson (70), co-founder of Volvo cars died. He held a bachelor's degree in economics and worked as a sales manager with bearing manufacturer SKF in Göteborg in the early 1900s. He was employed in 1916 by Björn Prytz at the sales department and was appointed sales manager for the entire SKF company group on June 20, 1922. Continue Reading →

Assar Gabrielsson

The first nine miles of the M3, from Popham to Black Dam, Basingstoke, England opened without fuss or ceremony, steering the Whitsun bank holiday traffic away from town.Today, the M3 runs for about 59 miles, starting in Sunbury-on- Thames, in Surrey, to the outskirts of Southampton – the last section being completed in 1995, controversially passing through Twyford Down, near Winchester.

Rain delayed the start of the Indianapolis 500 until the afernoon. At the start, Salt Walther tangled with another car and flipped into the catch fencing, injuring several spectators. Rain prevented the race from resuming. Continue Reading →

Start of 1973 Indianapolis 500

G Elizabeth Carmichael, transsexual promoter of the 3-wheel Dale, was convicted of fraud in Los Angeles, California, US. The Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation was an automobile company started by con-artist Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael in 1974. The company's flagship vehicle was the Dale, a prototype three-wheeled two-seater sports car designed and built by Dale Clifft. Continue Reading →

G Elizabeth Carmichael

Al Unser easily led the Indianapolis 500 but bent his Lola's front wing in the pitlane on lap 180. Tom Sneva charged to catch the crippled Lola but was 8 seconds short at the finish. Unser led 121 laps and held on for a third win on a very hot day. Continue Reading →

Driving a Porsche 956, Stefan Bellof set the record for the fastest lap on the 12.9-mile Nürburgring track, .6 minutes and 11.13 seconds, averaging 125.6 mph. In 1975, on the 14.2-mile track, F1 champ Niki Lauda lapped a Ferrari 312T in 6 minutes and 58.6 seconds, averaging 122 mph.

Stefan Bellof - Porsche 956

Two time Formula 1 Emerson Fittipaldi won a thrilling Indianapolis 500 at an average speed of 167.581 mph. Al Unser Jr. Continue Reading →

The Mexican Grand Prix held at the Autodrome Hermanos Rodriguez, was won from pole position by Ayrton Senna driving a McLaren-Honda MP4/5 in a time of 1:35:21. Fifth place starter. Riccardo Patrese drove well to finish second 15. Continue Reading →

The longest recorded wheelie (5 hours 12 minutes 33 seconds was made by David Robilliard in the Channel Islands.

The ‘Father of Lean Manufacturing’, Taiichi Ohno (78), died. He devised the seven wastes (or muda in Japanese) as part of this system and wrote several books about the system, including Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production.

Taiichi Ohno

Bobby Labonte motored to his first career win in Charlotte's Coca-Cola 600, North Carolina (US). Terry Labonte finished second, marking the first time brothers had finished 1-2 in a NASCAR Winston Cup race since 1971, when Bobby and Donnie Allison did it at Charlotte.

Despite leading from the start at the Monaco Grand Prix, Damon Hill couldn’t make his two-stop strategy work compared to Michael Schumacher’s one-stopper and he ended up a distant second, with Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari third. This was also the last race for the tiny Simtek team - and they didn’t even really get to race. A first lap crash between Berger, David Coulthard and Jean Alesi blocked the circuit and caused the race to be restarted and both Simtek’s dropped out - Domenico Schiattarella as a result of marshals accidentally damaging his car while moving it, and Jos Verstappen when his gearbox broke at the start of the second formation lap. The team folded by the time of the next race, meaning that this race was the last one to start with a full 26-car grid.

Jacques Villeneuve became the first Canadian to win the Indianapolis 500. Because of a 2-lap penalty for passing the pace car, he covered 505 miles to get the win. Also in this race, Honda became the first Japanese engine to participate in the 500.

Jacques Villeneuve holds the winner's bottle of milk in Victory Lane after winning the 1995 Indianapolis 500

Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the Indianapolis 500 by leading 167 of the 200 laps and winning for Chip Ganassi Racing. He was the first rookie to win the coveted event since Graham Hill did it in 1966.

The longest parade of Rolls-Royce cars on a public highway took place, when 420 took part in a 2-mile procession on the A55 outside Chester in Cheshire.

Rookie driver Matt Kenseth outran Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in the final laps to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Kenseth, who led the final 26 laps, was the 11th different winner in the first 12 races on the 2000 calendar.

The Monaco Grand Prix is remembered by many people for Michael Schumacher's actions during the closing stages of the qualifying session for the race. Schumacher stopped his car in the Rascasse corner preventing his rival Fernando Alonso improving his time and most likely taking pole off Schumacher. Whether the move was deliberate is still a matter of debate. Continue Reading →

Sam Hornish Jr. earned his first Indianapolis 500 victory – and the record 14th Indy win for team owner Roger Penske – in dramatic fashion by passing rookie Marco Andretti on the last lap, just before the finish line. Hornish’s margin of victory was 0. Continue Reading →

Google announced that it would build 100 prototype driverless cars devoid of pedals, steering wheels or controls save an on/off switch.

In Indiana Takuma Sato became the first Japanese driver to win the Indianapolis 500.

Sebastian Vettel led home a Ferrari one-two ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas at the Monaco Grand Prix, on a weekend where Lewis Hamilton really struggled. He simply couldn’t find any pace on the Saturday and could only qualify 14th, which became seventh at the end of the race. This was also the last grand prix for Jenson Button, who was back for a one-off drive at McLaren as Fernando Alonso skipped the race to go and compete at the Indy 500. Continue Reading →