On This Day

Emil Jellinek of Nice, France took delivery of a belt-driven Daimler, leading to his association with the marque and its name change to Mercedes.

Emil Jellinek and daughter Mercedes

The Literary Digest declared that ‘the ordinary horseless carriage is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as a bicycle’.

Following the success of the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race, the second race was held. Competing against the five American cars, France, Germany, and Italy started 14 of their greatest cars and drivers including; Vincenzo Lancia, Louis Chevrolet and George Heath. French cars finished first and second place for the second consecutive year. Continue Reading →

Alva Belmont Vanderbilt and other spectators at the Vanderbilt cup race of Mineola (NY), 1905

The eighth Glidden Tour began in New York City, with a planned route through Atlanta, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida., US

The first road race staged in Santa Monica, California, the 220 mile Free For All, was won by Harvey Herrick in a National.

Prince William of Sweden was presented with a new Nash Advanced Six by Scandinavian-ancestry employees of the Nash Motor Company.

Johnny Gerber competed in and won his last race in Bel Air, Maryland, US. Johnny was a top "outlaw" sprint car driver in the 1920s and early 1930s. After giving up driving, he continued to own race cars and build specialised connecting rods for racing engines. Continue Reading →

The first contracts were awarded for construction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, US.

Appearing for sale in the classified ads in Autocar were a Jaguar 3.5-litre two-seater, £325; a 1935 Frazer-Nash-BMW Type 55/38 two-seater, £295; and a 1930 Rolls-Royce H. J. Mulliner 20/25, £2,255.

A total of 106 cars competed in the NASCAR Modified and Sportsman race at Langhorne Speedway, Pennsylvania, US. Dick Eagan, driving in relief of Hully Bunn, was declared the winner after a crash halts the race after 83 laps. Don Black was critically injured in the massive pileup, which unfolds for more than one minute. Continue Reading →

Curtis Turner was declared the winner of the scheduled 100-mile NASCAR Convertible race at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway when a 14-car crash wiped out all but one car running in the event. Turner's Ford was the only car still in running condition when officials terminated the event after 181 of the scheduled 200 laps.

Washington State racer Pat Pigott died from race-incurred injuries at Riverside International Raceway when suspension failure of his Lotus 23 sent the car wedging under the guard rail at turn 9. He was 37 years old.

Glenn "Fireball" Roberts won the National 400 NASCAR stock car race at Charlotte, North Carolina, US

The 1966 Oldmobiles were introduced, including the new front-wheel-drive Tornado.

1966 Oldmobile Tornado brochure

The 1966 Cadillac model range were introduced.

Cadillac brochure (1966)

The Morris 1800S, MG 1300 Mk II, Riley Kestrel 1300 Mk II and Wolseley 1300 Mk II were launched.

One of the most expensive cars ever built, the US Presidential 1969 Lincoln Convertible Executive, was delivered to the US Secret Service. It was 21 ft 6 inches in length, with a 13 feet 4 inch wheelbase. Including 2 tons of armour plating, it weighed 5. Continue Reading →

The 1969 Presidential Limousine, a Lincoln Continental, used by President Richard Nixon

The Triumph 2000 MkII and Triumph 2.5PI (petrol injection) MkII were launched. The Mk 2, the last big Triumph car, ceased production in 1977, supplanted by British Leyland's corporate executive car, the Rover SD1: Six-cylinder 2300 and 2600 versions of the new Rover would nonetheless be powered by engines derived from the Triumph 2000.

The government of Japan allowed foreign investment up to 50% in Japanese automobile companies.

The Ford Cortina Mk lll was launched at the 1970 Earl's Court Motor Show. The Mk III Cortina was inspired by the contemporary "coke bottle" design language which had emanated from Detroit – the car sported similar fluted bonnet and beltline design elements to the North American Mercury Montego and Ford LTD of the same era. It replaced both the Mk iI Cortina and the larger, more expensive Ford Corsair, offering more trim levels and the option of larger engines than the Mk II Cortina.

Ford Cortina MkIII

The Queen formally opened the 107 mile trans-Pennine section of the M62 to complete the coast-to-coast link between Liverpool in Merseyside and Hull in East Yorkshire; 7 miles (11 km) of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester. The road is part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 (Shannon to Saint Petersburg) and E22 (Holyhead to Ishim). The motorway, which was first proposed in the 1930s, and conceived as two separate routes, was opened in stages between 1971 and 1976, with construction beginning at Pole Moor and finishing at that time in Tarbock on the outskirts of Liverpool. Continue Reading →

M62 construction

Jackie Stewart announced his retirement from motor racing. While he signed with BRM alongside Graham Hill in 1965, a contract which netted him £4,000, his first race in an F1 car was for Lotus, as stand-in for an injured Clark, at the Rand Grand Prix in December 1964; the Lotus broke in the first heat, but he won the second. On his F1 debut in South Africa, he scored his first Championship point, finishing sixth. Continue Reading →

Jackie Stewart

Henry Ford II married Kathy DuRoss in Carson City, Nevada, US.

27 students crammed into a Ford Sierra at the University of Nottingham to establish a new world record.

The original US Interstate Highway system was proclaimed to be complete with the opening of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado. This section is considered an engineering marvel with a 12-mile (19 km) span featuring 40 bridges and numerous tunnels and is one of the most expensive rural highways per mile built in the United States. Although this was claimed the final section of Interstate Highway to open, at the time this section was dedicated there were still missing interchanges elsewhere in the system, making some Interstate Highways not contiguous.

I-70 at Glenwood Canyon

Ford and Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (India) established a joint venture to assemble vehicles in India.

The foundation stone laid in Smartville, a purpose-built factory complex in Hambach, France, established as a joint venture of Daimler-Benz and the Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch to produce the Smart car. Today it is fully owned by Daimler AG.

Smartville, Hambach, France

Toyota launched the Prius, a hybrid-powertrain vehicle combining a 1.5-litre petrol engine with a generator that halved emissions, cut smog chemicals by up to 90% and went twice as far as a standard car on one litre of fuel.

Toyota Prius

NASCAR Craftsman Truck series driver Tony Roper (35) died in a crash during the O'Reilly 400 at Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas. Roper's car brushed another during the 32nd lap and slammed head-on to the wall, bursting into flames and spinning out of control.

Tony Roper

Chengdu City of Sichuan Province staged the first ever "Car Free Day" in the People's Republic of China.

The battery-powered Buckeye Bullet, designed and built by engineering students at the Ohio State University, set a BNI (non-FIA) international land-speed record for electric cars of 271.737 mph at the world-famous Bonneville Speedway in Utah.

Buckeye Bullet

Eric Clapton was suspended from driving in France after being caught speeding at 134 mph in his Porsche 911 Turbo near Merceuil. He was fined 750 euro (£515) and his UK licence was confiscated. After paying his fine Clapton posed for photographs with French police and then left the scene in his Porsche - with his secretary behind the wheel.

The 1.5 millionth Honda car came off the Swindon production line, and marked the start of production of the new 8th generation Civic.

Almost 35 years to the day of the last race held at Langhorne Speedway, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicated a historical marker at 1939 E. Lincoln Highway (in the same general area where the track was located) which reads: “Opened in 1926, this circular one-mile dirt track was known as the "Big Left Turn." It hosted a NASCAR inaugural race in 1949. Continue Reading →

Langhorne Speedway

The inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame was announced in Charlotte, North Carolina. Members of that first class included Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Junior Johnson.

Colin Furze achieved a top speed of 53.46 mph (86.04 km/h) in his motorised perambulator or ‘pram’ at the Shakespeare County Raceway in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK, to establish a new world record.

Colin Furze

Britons Robert Belcher and Stephen Cooper driving a Land Rover Discovery arrived at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town to set a new world record for driving from London to Cape Town, making the 10,000-mile journey in 10 days, 3 hours and 16 minutes. The pair left London at 0500 GMT on Friday 4 October 2013 from the RAC Club on Pall Mall. En route, they encountered heavy rain and thunderstorms in Tunisia, a tense border crossing into Libya following US military activity, a fuel shortage in Egypt and giant potholes in Ethiopia. Continue Reading →