MTFCA Forum

On January 12th, 1904, Henry Ford became the first American driver driving a racer made in the U.S. to set the world mile speed record. He also became the first man to drive a mile under 40 seconds. He did it after rebuilding his 1902 built racer (some dispute whether it was 999 or Arrow) that had been wrecked in in 1903 at the Wisconsin State Fair races, when driver Frank Day was killed.

Not only did Henry Ford drive faster than any man had, he did it in freezing cold on ice.
While Ford was the first “officially timed” person to drive over 91 miles per hour, had he recreated his unofficial time from the day before during trials of 36 seconds, he would have been the first officially timed man and machine to drive 100 mph.

The article is an interesting read! Thank you Rob for sharing this here. I of course was familiar with the history of the event, but the article added interesting insights.
Wow. That Henry and so many others of the early days of the automobile and the racing thereof sure had guts aplenty!
I found the how they prepared the ice for the speed runs very interesting.
Thanks again!

My pleasure Wayne. Happy New Year.

I never cease to be surprised by Henry Ford’s nerve, as well as desire to branch out in many areas in addition to building cars. At the same time he and his associates were rebuilding this wrecked racer, they had already begun his next big racer, with a six cylinder motor. Meanwhile he was beginning to build experimental farm tractors, planning his first four cylinder car, and experimenting with ethanol.

Thank Rod sharing this article. Very interested indeed.

I thought Henry was a teetotaler. Now you tell me he is experimenting with alcohol. Must of taken a college course.

I like the part about 1500 revolutions per minute, like South American dictatorships.