The first automobile race in Italy, a 62-mile round trip between Turin and Asti, was won by Simone Federmann in a Daimler omnibus.

The 1901 Gordon Bennett Cup, formally titled the II Coupe Internationale, was a motor race held on public roads in France between Paris and Bordeaux, concurrently with an open-entry race over the same course. Initially, France were to defend the Cup against Great Britain, however prior to the start, the sole British entry was forced to fit tyres of foreign manufacture making it ineligible for the Cup. The race was therefore competed by three French entries, the maximum permitted from one country under the rules, guaranteeing that they would retain the Cup. Continue Reading →

Fritz von Opel reached 200 kph (124 mph) in experimental rocket car.

The tenth Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring was a mix of 23 cars comprising three different classes of which only six cars started in the class over 1500 cc, where Rudolf Caracciola in the factory Alfa Romeo was the favorite. Louis Chiron and Rene Dreyfus came from France, the former in a works Bugatti and the latter with an independent Bugatti entry, courtesy of Chiron. German colors were defended by three independently entered 7. Continue Reading →

The Torvilliers Grand Prix held at Troyes in Brazil was won by Robert Gauthier driving a Bugatti.

The Ford Motor Company pavilion, designed by Walter Dorwin Teague, opened at the California-Pacific Exposition in San Diego, California, US. Ford was the exposition's principal exhibitor and invested $2 million in the 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m2), 296-foot (90 m) diameter building to showcase its vehicles and other forms of transportation.[6] Throughout the Exposition, Ford was assembling autos along the outer rings and used the courtyard area to display the latest model automobiles. Continue Reading →

The Gávea National Circuit race in Brazil was a South American affair with no major European entries. Nascimento Junior took the lead followed by Chico Landi and Querino Landi. Soon Mário Valentim passed for third while up at the front Nascimento Junior opened up the gap. Continue Reading →

Black American inventor Frederick M Jones (US No. 2,376,968) was granted a patent for a two-cycle petrol engine. His first patent was for a ticket dispensing machine (1939), but in the next twenty years Jones produced numerous inventions related to refrigeration and air conditioning for trucks and railway boxcars with their associated engines, compressors and control devices. Continue Reading →

Frederick McKinley Jones

The first production Kaiser and Frazer automobiles came off the Willow Run line in Michigan, US. The first cars were shipped to dealers on June 22; all were registered as 1947 models. Despite Kaiser and Frazer’s earlier talk of inexpensive small cars, neither model was anything close to a low-priced economy car. Continue Reading →

Preston Tucker's US lawsuit against his former prosecutors was thrown out of court. Tucker had been indicted for stock fraud after managing to produce only 53 of his long-awaited Tucker cars. The court case ruined Tucker's chances of ever releasing the car on a grand scale. Continue Reading →

Preston Tucker

Stirling Moss and Reg Parnell won races during the first motor racing event at the new Aintree circuit, near Liverpool. The circuit was located within the famous Aintree Racecourse and used the same grandstands as horse racing. Built in 1954 as the “Goodwood of the North", the circuit hosted the Formula One British Grand Prix five times in 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1962.

Aintree racing circuit

Bob Sweikert won the Indianapolis 500 with an average speed of 128.213 mph. The race is notable to many as the race in which Bill Vukovich was killed in a crash while seemingly on his way to an unprecedented third consecutive Indy 500. Continue Reading →

1955 Indianapolis 500 winner - Bob Sweikert

Stirling Moss scored his first ever win for Lotus when he won the Monaco Grand Prix driving Rob Walker's Lotus 18. This was the first Formula One race for Ginther and the first for a mid-engined, Ferrari Grand Prix car, the 246P. Jack Brabham was disqualified on lap 41 after officials ruled he was pushed started.

Stirling Moss - 1960 Monaco Grand Prix

The initial section of the M2 (junctions 2 to 5) was opened by the then Transport Minister Ernest Marples, with the remainder being constructed in 1965. It was opened in three stages: Junctions 1 to 2 in 1965, Junctions 2 to 5 in 1963 and Junctions 5 to 7 in 1965. It was planned to extend the M2 to London and Dover, making it the main route between London and the channel ports, but this extension never materialised due to a lack of traffic demand. Continue Reading →

Ernest Marples

The 997 metre long Medway viaduct carrying the M2 over the Medway Valley in Kent was opened by the them Minster of Transport, Rt. Hon. Ernest Marples MP. Continue Reading →

Medway viaduct

The Austin A110 Westminster MkII and Wolseley 6/110 MkII models were launched.

Austin A110 Westminster MkII brochure

Al Unser became the first racer to win a single-day purse of over $200,000 at the Indianapolis 500. The race was marred by a crash involving the pace car at the start. Eldon Palmer, a local Indianapolis-area Dodge dealer, lost control of the Dodge Challenger pace car at the south end of the pit area, and it crashed into a photographers' stand, injuring 29 people, two seriously. Continue Reading →

Al Unser 1971 Indianapolis 500

George Follmer drove an AMC Javelin to victory in the SCCA Trans-Am race at Bryar Park, New Hampshire, US.

In the first full run of the Porsche 917/10 Can-Am racer, at a secret test session at Mosport Park in Canada, Mark Donohue lapped the circuit three seconds faster than the existing Formula One record.

Porsche 917/10

A.J. Foyt, known as "SuperTex," became the first four-time winner of the Indy 500, driving a Coyote-Foyt of his own design. Continue Reading →

A J Foyt - Indianapolis 500 - 1977

Jackie Ickx and Jochen Mass drove a Rothman's Porsche 956 to victory in the World Endurance Championship race on the Nurburgring in Germany.

Alain Prost beat Ayrton Senna off the line and controlled things from there, leading home his teammate for a McLaren one-two. In fact, the finishing order was something of a Noah’s Ark situation as they were followed by the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto, the two Arrows drivers of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever, and then Alessandro Nannini and Theirry Boutsen, whose naturally-aspirated Ford-powered Benettons had no answer for the pace of the turbo cars at Mexico City’s high altitude.

Al Unser Jr won the 78th Indianapolis 500 in 3:06:29 (255.89 kph/159 mph). After finishing tenth, John Andretti flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, to race in the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. He was the first man to do this.

The Spanish Grand Prix held at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona was won by British driver Damon Hill driving a Williams FW16. It was also Williams first win of the season, and a cathartic win for the team still shocked from the death of Ayrton Senna a few weeks earlier at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. Hill won by an impressive 24 seconds over German driver Michael Schumacher who for most of the race was stuck in fifth gear in his Benetton B194.

1994, Spanish Grand Prix. After Senna's accident, the FIA added tyre chicanes to slow the cars down on the straight at Barcelona.

Youthful Jeff Gordon hustled past Ricky Rudd with nine laps to go and goes on to win the Coca-Cola 600 staged the Charlotte Motor Speedway, North Carolina (US). It was the first career NASCAR Winston Cup win for the 22-year-old.

12 people were killed and 50 injured in a collision and fire in the Tauern Tunnel in Austria.

The first six second Pro Stock run took place at the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire, England.

Bentley Motors chairman and chief executive Franz-Josef Paefgen presented the new Bentley State Limousine to The Queen at Windsor Castle in recognition of her Golden Jubilee year. The State Limousine is 83.0 cm (2. Continue Reading →

Bentley State Limousine

The European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring was won by championship leader Fernando Alonso for the Renault team. McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen almost won but crashed at the start of the final lap whilst leading, due to a suspension failure caused by heavily degraded tyres.

Dan Wheldon became the first Englishman since Graham Hill in 1966 to win the Indianapolis 500, while Danica Patrick stole the headlines by becoming the highest-finishing woman in the history of the Indianapolis 500 by finishing fourth, earning Chase Rookie of the Year honors for her performance. She was also the first woman to lead a lap in the prestigious race.

Dan Wheldon

Production at the 73-year-old Windsor Casting Plant in Canada ended as the Ford Motor Company continued to transform its North American automotive operations into a profitable and sustainable business. The Windsor Casting Plant opened in 1934 and employed 500 people. It produced cylinder block castings for 4. Continue Reading →

A foundry worker used an electric chainfall to hoist V-6 engine blocks off the line for stacking on pallets.

After dominating the entire weekend, Daniel Ricciardo lost the win through no fault of his own when he came in for his scheduled pit stop, only to find that his pit crew weren’t ready for him. The delay cost him the lead - and the win - to Lewis Hamilton, who’d had some help in the wet phase early in the race when a struggling Nico Rosberg let him past. Rosberg ended up a distant seventh as Sergio Perez grabbed one of his impressive occasional podiums. Continue Reading →

After dominating the entire weekend, Daniel Ricciardo lost the win at the Monaco Grand Prix through no fault of his own when he came in for his scheduled pit stop, only to find that his pit crew weren’t ready for him. The delay cost him the lead - and the win - to Lewis Hamilton, who’d had some help in the wet phase early in the race when a struggling Nico Rosberg let him past. Rosberg ended up a distant seventh as Sergio Perez grabbed one of his impressive occasional podiums.