On This Day

The world’s first car show, the Exposition Internationale de Vélocipedie et de Locomotion Automobile, opened in Paris, France. Only four makes of motor vehicles were on display.

The Ford Motor Company, having lost a patent, signed a contract with inventor Frederick W Ball for the use of his planetary transmission system.

Rolls Royce recorded its first export sale of a Silver Ghost, taking an order for a Barker bodied phaeton from Jefferson Seligman of New York City, US.

The first completed KisselKar, a 1907 Model C, was shipped to Jospeh McDuffee, a Chicago automobile dealer. Conrad Kissel (b.1812, d. Continue Reading →

1907 Kisselkar advertisement

The Hudson Super-Six was previewed to dealers. The Hudson Car Company of Detroit had a number of firsts for the auto industry; these included dual brakes, the use of dashboard oil-pressure and generator warning lights, and the first balanced crankshaft, which allowed the Hudson straight-six engine, dubbed the "Super Six", to work at a higher rotational speed while remaining smooth, developing more power for its size than lower-speed engines. The Super Six was the first engine built by Hudson, previously Hudson had developed engine designs and then had them manufactured by Continental Motors Company. Continue Reading →

Hudson Super Six Touring car advertisement- 1916

The 1.25 mile board oval San Carlos Board Speedway in San Francisco, California staged its first race - the 250 mile main event was won by Jimmy Murphy in a Duesenberg.

Going counterclockwise, Jimmy Murphy and Tommy Milton (no.12) fight for the lead on banked board track at San Carlos, California, in 1921.

William G. Henderson (40), co-founder of Henderson Motorcycles and founder of Ace Motor Corporation, died as a result of injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. In 1911 William and his brother Tom started Henderson Motorcycle Company in Detroit, Michigan. Continue Reading →

1916 Henderson Model F

US marque Buick lowered its prices to reflect the absence of spare tires or inner tubes on its new cars. The widespread shortages caused by World War Two had led to many quotas and laws designed to conserve America’s resources. One of these laws prohibited spare tyres on new cars.

1942 Buick advertisement

Joe Weatherly and Jim Reed, the first two finishers in the 100-mile race at West Palm Beach, were both disqualified for technical violations. Herb Thomas was declared the official ­winner.

Herb Thomas

Jim Hall, driving a Maserati Tipo 61, won the feature race at Las Vegas, Nevada, US.

The Philco Corporation was acquired as a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company.

The New York City Board of Estimate unanimously voted against a plan for a $100 million elevated expressway across the bottom of Manhattan. The road, known as the Lower Manhattan Expressway, had been in the works since 1941. It was supposed to link the Holland Tunnel on the city's West Side with the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges on the east side, slicing right through the neighbourhoods now known as TriBeCa and SoHo. Continue Reading →

Lower Manhattan Expressway

Edwin Brailey (42) was killed when the vehicle he was driving crashed at an icy Brands Hatch, England during the making of a film. He lost control of his sportscar - a Lotus or an Elva, coming out of Clearways and went broadside into the end of the pit barrier.

Rover and Alvis marques were acquired by the Leyland Group for £25 million. Alvis was bought by United Scientific Holdings plc in 1981. Subsequently the company's name was changed to Alvis plc. Continue Reading →

The Lincoln Continental Mark III was previewed by the press. The Mark III was created when Lee Iacocca, president of Ford Motor Company at the time, directed Design Vice President, Gene Bordinat, to "put a Rolls Royce grille on a Thunderbird". Introduced in April 1968 as an early 1969 model, the model was a remarkable commercial success because it combined the high unit revenue of a luxury model with the low development costs and fixed cost - amortizing utility of platform-sharing, in a car that was appealing enough to buyers that many units were sold. Continue Reading →

Lincoln Continental Mark III

A fortnight after the death of Graham Hill, the sponsors of his F1 team, tobacco company WD & HO Wills, announced the withdrawal of its backing for the Hill team, dooming it to closure. "There is not enough time to rebuild the team to the standards of competitiveness we had set ourselves for the coming season," a spokesman said.

Ninety-nine vehicles were involved in an accident caused by fog on Interstate 75 in Calhoun, Tennessee, between Chattanooga and Knoxville near the Hiwassee River. Even the exact cause of the foggy pileup, the worst such crash in Tennessee history, remains unclear. Police, drivers and others had warned for years about the dangers of the heavy fog that persistently hung over the five-mile stretch of highway near the Hiwassee River. Continue Reading →

Calhoun crash - 1990

China's first F1 grand prix, provisionally scheduled for March 28 1999, was dropped after the FIA decided that the Zuhai circuit organisers needed another year to finalise arrangements. In fact, it was not until 2004 that the race took place.

Harriet Harman, the Solicitor General, was banned from driving for seven days and fined £400 for speeding at 99 mph on a motorway. Police stopped the MP for Camberwell and Peckham on the M4 in Wiltshire a month earlier after a laser speed detector recorded her breaking the limit. Harman, 52, a QC and the first woman to be appointed Solicitor General, was taking her son, Harry, 20, back to Bristol University after the Christmas break

Harriet Harman

Michael Schumacher tried to prove he was faster than a speeding plane when he took on an Eurofighter Typhoon in his Ferrari F2003 at the Baccarini military airport near Rome, Italy. However, he lost 2-1 over three distances - 600,900 and 1200 metres. The Ferrari boasted a top speed of 370kph against the fighter's 2450kph; the jet, which was stripped of weapons, weighed in at 21,000 kilos against the Ferrari's 600. Continue Reading →

Ho-Pin Tung made history as the first Chinese racer to drive a F1 car. He got his chance to test the Williams FW24 in Spain after dominating the Formula BMW Asia series. He described the experience as "terrifying".

An 18-mile stretch of the M1 motorway was closed entirely for 12 hours following a major explosion and fire at the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hertfordshire, located less than half a mile from the M1 close to Junction 8.

Buncefield Oil Depot fire

MINI agreed to acquire John Cooper Works. They acquired the rights to the name in January 2007 and bought out the company in 2008.

The $14 billion package to aid General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC collapsed amid disputes over union wage cuts. A group of mostly US Republican Southern senators, including states that subsidised foreign car manufacturers, formed the heart of the opposition.

The sixth generation Vauxhall Astra hit UK showrooms after its worldwide debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Despite being more expensive than the fifth generation, the he sixth generation Astra had strong sales success in the UK, where it was the best- selling car in June 2010 with well over 10,000 sales - outselling its crucial rival the Ford Focus by nearly 50%. This, however, was at a time when production of the Mk2 Focus was being scaled back prior to the launch of a new MK3 model in early 2011. Continue Reading →

Nissan North American delivered its first all-electric Leaf (also formatted "LEAF" as a backronym for Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car) to Olivier Chalouhi (31) of Redwood City at a dealership in Petaluma, California. The Leaf uses an 80 kW (110 hp) and 280 N·m (210 ft·lb) front-mounted synchronous electric motor driving the front axle, powered by a 24 kilowatt-hours (86 MJ) lithium ion battery pack rated to deliver up to 90 kilowatts (120 hp) power.

The second generation Proton Perdana was finally unveiled after a 3-year gap in the nameplate's production.‪ The new Perdana was a badge engineered eighth generation Honda Accord and is currently for exclusive sale to Malaysian civil servants and government officials.‪

Proton Perdana - 2013