On This Day

A Haynes-Light Six Model 34, driven by Samuel Greer and R M McKenna, completed a Pacific Ocean to Atlantic Ocean trip in 12 hours (actual running time less han 6 hours) - something of a promotional stunt. The run was made on roadways and railroad tracks from Panama City, Panama to Colon, Canal Zone along the newly opened Panama Canal.

Edmund Rumpler made the first test drive of his Tropfen-Auto to coincide with his wife's 35 birthday. It was to be the first streamlined car (beating the American Chrysler Airflow and Czech Tatra T77). The Rumpler had a drag coefficient of only 0. Continue Reading →

Rumpler Tropfenwagen

The first Checker cab was produced by the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company. The Checker name came from a Chicago cab company that in 1920 began buying cars manufactured by the Commonwealth Motor Company. The cab bodies for the Commonwealths were manufactured by the Markin Autobody Company of Joliet, Illinois. Continue Reading →

Checker cab

The Nürburgring motor-racing circuit in Germany held its first race meeting, with the first motorcycle race won by German Toni Ulmen on an English 350-cc Velocette. Car racing began on the following day, with German Rudolf Caracciola the winner of the over-5,000-cc class in a Mercedes Compressor. The track was open to the public in the evenings and on weekends as a one-way toll road. Continue Reading →

Nürburgring, June 1927

US Highway planning surveys nationwide were authorised.

The Rolls Royce trademark was registered in the U.S.

Alfa Romeo test driver Attilio Marinoni (47) was killed on the Milan-Varese Autostrada when his modified Tip 158 collided with a truck. After World War I, Marinoni joined the Alfa Romeo racing team as a mechanic. He became co-driver with Giuseppe Campari in the 1924 French Grand Prix. Continue Reading →

Attilio Marinoni

Joe Dawson (57), winner of the 1912 Indianapolis 500, died. Dawson competed in the Indianapolis 500 race three times, beginning in 1911 when he drove a Marmon to a fifth-place finish. The following year, Dawson won after Ralph DePalma, who had led for 196 laps of the 200 lap race, dropped out with a mechanical failure. Continue Reading →

Joe Dawson

Juan Manuel Fangio in an Alfa Romeo 158 won the Belgian Grand Prix Spa-Francorchamps. By the time of the Belgian Grand Prix, the pace of the season was beginning to tell, with only 14 cars arriving at the Spa circuit. These included the dominant Alfa Romeos of Nino Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli. Continue Reading →

Juan Manuel Fangio, Alfa Romeo 158, 1950 Belgian Grand Prix

Santa Ana Drags dragstrip, the first drag strip in the United States, opened. Many pioneers in drag racing began at Santa Ana. Art Chrisman, Don Yates, Calvin Rice, Joaquin Arnett, George "Ollie" Morris and others participated regularly. Continue Reading →

Santa Ana Drags dragstrip

Bill Blair won the 100-mile NASCAR stock car race on the 1/2-mile dirt track in Vernon, New York, USA. This was the first NASCAR win for Mercury.

Bill Blair

The 5,000,000th Pontiac, a 1954 Star Chief Custom Catalina hardtop coupe, was produced in the Pontiac, Michigan, US assembly plant.

Junior Johnson bypassed Tim Flock near the midway point at Fonda (New York, US) Speedway to score his fourth victory in NASCAR’s premier series. Johnson took the top spot in the 96th lap and led the rest of the 200-lap feature. Flock, the pole-starter, held on for second place, one lap down. Continue Reading →

Driving a Fiat Abarth 750, with bodywork by Bertyone, Carlo Abarth set a whole series of speed and endurance records on the Monza Track. He broke the 24 hour record, travelling 2,352.8 miles (3,743 km), at an average speed of 96.3 mph (155 km/h).

Fiat Abarth 750

The organisers of the Belgian Grand Prix invited 25 entries, but were only going to pay starting money to 19: sixteen pre-selected cars plus the 3 fastest of the remaining 9. The race was completely dominated by the Ferrari team, with the four works drivers finishing 1-2-3-4. While Graham Hill made an amazing start to the lead from the third row, he could not hold off the Italian cars and all had passed him by the end of the first lap. Continue Reading →

American Phil Hill, German Wolfgang von Trips, 1961 Belgian Grand Prix

The UK government announced it would introduce a blood alcohol limit for drivers. In January 1966 the new Road Safety Bill was introduced. It set a limit of 80mg of alcohol in 100cc of blood and it became an offence to drive when over this limit.

Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, driving a Ford GT40 Mk2, won the Le Mans 24-hour race, becoming the first to exceed 3,000 total miles during the event.

Chris Amon, Bruce McLaren, Le Mans 1966

Giacomo Russo (29) died. Racing under the pseudonym 'Geki', Russo entered Formula 1 as multiple Italian Formula Junior and Formula 3 Champion, initially by renting one of Rob Walker's Brabham-BRMs for the 1965 Italian Grand Prix. He failed to qualify for his home Grand Prix at the time but made the grid with a third Team Lotus entry the following year. Continue Reading →

Giacomo Russo

At the wheel of his Anglo American Racers' Eagle T1G-Weslake V12, American Dan Gurney won the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix, setting the fastest lap and a new record average speed of 145.99 mph (234.946 km/h). It would remain the only win in Formula 1 for the marque, as well as for engine supplier Weslake. It was the first Grand Prix victory for an American driving an American car since Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French Grand Prix at LeMans in his Duesenberg 46 years earlier.

Dan Gurney, Belgian Grand Prix 1967

Roger de Delgado (55), British actor, best known for his role as the Master in Doctor Who, died on location in Turkey whilst shooting his first comedy role in the (never-completed) feature film Bell of Tibet. He was killed, along with two Turkish film technicians, when the chauffeur-driven car in which he was travelling came off the road and plunged into a ravine. Pertwee often remarked (such as in his interview for the Myth Makers series of video documentaries) that Delgado's death at the age of 55 was one of the catalysts that led to his own departure from Doctor Who.

Roger de Delgado

Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen won his first Formula One race, the Canadian Grand Prix. It was the first win for the Williams-Renault partnership, which lasted until the end of the 1997 season and went on to win four Drivers' and five Constructors' World Championships in that time.

Thierry Boutsen - 1989 Canadian Grand Prix

The 38th Canadian Grand Prix and the 22nd to be held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, run held over 69 laps was won by eventual 2000 World Champion, German driver Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari F1-2000. The win was Schumacher's fifth win of the season and his fourth Canadian Grand Prix victory, a new record.

The winning team: Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello during the Canadian Grand Prix in 2000.

The grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell broke the British land-speed record for an electrically powered car. Don Wales achieved 128 mph in his car Bluebird Electric, beating the then record, which he also held, of 116 mph. He made the run at the famous Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire, Wales, where his grandfather had set three land-speed records in the 1920s.

Bluebird Electric

Austrian Johann Redl managed to drive a 7,420kg Steyr 891 delivery truck on two wheels for an unbelievable 10.19 miles. The dizzying feat was accomplished at Wels Airport, Austria.

US Supreme Court justices ruled 9-0 that car passengers had the same right as drivers to challenge the legality of police stops of vehicles in which they were riding.