On This Day

Sutton & Company of Manchester, England purchased a Daimler parcel van, the first sale of a gasoline-powered motor truck in Great Britain.

Construction began on the Long Island Motor Parkway, the first first limited-access roadway in the world. General Manager A R Pardington performed the groundbreaking ritual. The road was originally planned to stretch for 70 miles (110 km) in and out of New York City as far as Riverhead, the county seat of Suffolk County, and point of division for the north and south forks of Long Island. Continue Reading →

Long Island Motor Parkway Under Construction, New York, 1908

American Charles Yale Knight obtained a British patent for his internal-combustion engine that used sleeve valves instead of the more common poppet-valve construction. In September the same year Daimler announced that these so-called ‘Silent Knight’ engines would be installed in some of its 1909 models. To combat criticism from its competitors, Daimler had the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) carry out their own independent tests on the Daimler-Knight. Continue Reading →

Daimler-Knight sleeve valve engine

King George V opened the Southwark Bridge in London.

Southwark bridge, London

The Maxwell Motor Corporation was reorganised in Delaware as the Chrysler Corporation.

The first Dodge Victory Six Sport Roadster was produced.

Dodge Victory Six Sport Roadster

The Hon Mrs Victor Bruce drove a Bentley 4½ Litre at Montlhéry for 24 hours, to capture the world record for single-handed driving, averaging over 89 mph (142 km/h).‪

Hon Mrs Victor Bruce

The first gasoline (petrol) tax levied by US Congress was enacted as a part of the Revenue Act of 1932. The Act mandated a series of excise taxes on a wide variety of consumer goods. Congress placed a tax of 1¢ per gallon on gasoline and other motor fuel sold.

Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive-in movie theatre in Camden, New Jersey. Hollingshead was the sales manager for Whiz Auto Products in Camden when he came up with the idea for the drive-in. He acted on the notion that few Americans at that time would give up the pleasure of going to the movies, had they the chance. Continue Reading →

First drive-in theater Camden NJ 1933

Swiss-born American Louis Chevrolet, founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911 and later the Frontenac Motor Corporation which made racing parts for Ford’s Model T, died at the age of 62. In 1900, at the age of 21, Chevrolet left Switzerland moved to Canada, then New York. The things that he accomplished there started a chain of events that left a huge impression on the American automotive industry. Continue Reading →

Louis Chevrolet

Charles W. Nash (84), co-founder of Buick Cars, General Manager of General Motors and the force behind Nash Motors, died. He started his career working in the Durant-Dort carriage works, where he developed the straight-line conveyor-belt system, which became a standard item in auto assembly plants. Continue Reading →

Charles W. Nash

Heads of several car companies, sitting as directors of the Automobile Manufacturers Asso­ciation, unanimously recommended that the industry take no part in, or assist in any way, automobile races or other competitive events that emphasized speed or horsepower. When the resolution came down, the automotive industry retreated from NASCAR stock car racing. The unlimited gravy train of racing goodies from Detroit and Dearborn to the Southern racing teams dramatically slowed down, but most teams had the resources to finish out the 1957 season. Continue Reading →

Jack Brabham won the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort driving a Cooper-Climax. Although there were disputes over prize money and several teams withdrew after qualifying, there was still a decent field for the race with Stirling Moss on pole position in his Walker Lotus-Climax. Jack Brabham was alongside in his Cooper-Climax and Innes Ireland was on the outside of the front row in his factory Lotus 18. Continue Reading →

Jack Brabham - Cooper T53 Climax, Dutch Grand Prix 1960, Zandvoort

Ray Barfield drove his Aston Martin DB3S to win in the 6-hour 'Le Mans' race, winning from Bob MacDowall in a TR3A and Vic Johnson in an Austin Healey. Barfield set a race record distance of 187 laps, about 385 miles. David McKay drove a Renault Dauphine Gordini in the race and was highly critical of the event. Continue Reading →

The first McLaren race car, a modified Cooper with an Oldsmobile engine, made its debut at Mosport Park, Ontario, Canada and took victory in the hands of designer Bruce McLaren.

Richard Petty drove a Plymouth to the 80th win of his career, prevailing in a 200-lap main event at Smoky Mountain Raceway in Maryville, Tenn. Petty’s win was the fifth of what would be a 16-win season and a third-place finish in the points standings. Rookie Pete Hamilton, who would later drive for Petty Enterprises, posts his best finish in the series to that point in second place, one lap down. Continue Reading →

Richard Petty

Production of the first Polski Fiat 126 constructed from Italian parts was built at the FSM car factory in Bielsko-Biała. It cost about 69 000 zlotys (an average monthly salary at that times was about 3,500 zlotys).

Starting from seventeenth position on the grid, Northern Ireland's John Watson driving a McLaren-Cosworth MP4/1B, stormed through the field to win the first Detroit Grand Prix, at America's sixth different Formula One venue.

South Mimms, the first service area directly accessible from the M25 (Junction 23), opened. It was built on the site of Bignell's Corner, named after a garden centre, Bignell and Cutbush, which was close to the junction of the old A6, and A1. At the junction there was also a pub, the Middlesex Arms, and an Esso Motor hotel, near which developed a notorious truck stop, the Beacon Cafe, infamous for the selling of black market goods, and for prostitution.

South Mimms Services

British rally driver Tony Pond became the first to average 100 mph around the Isle of Man TT Motor Bike race circuit in a standard production car - a Rover Vitesse. This record stood until 2011.

For the first time, the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) awarded a car three out of four stars for pedestrian safety. The Honda Civic was praised because its bumper and bonnet crumpled on impact. Before the Civic's score, no car has achieved more than a two-star rating.

Jari-Matti Latvala of Finland became youngest driver to compete in an FIA World Championship Rally when aged just 18 years 61 days he drove his Ford Focus WRC in the 50th Acropolis Rally in Athens, Greece.

Jari-Matti Latvala

Mark Martin ended a two-year drought with a come-from-behind ­win in the MBNA 400 "A Salute to Heroes" at Dover International ­Speedway, Delaware (US).

A police driving instructor responsible for teaching fellow officers to drive safely was disqualified for 2 months and fined £265 after he admitted driving at 110mph on the M1.

Swiss Parliament voted to lift the ban of circuit motor racing (imposed after the 1955 Le Mans disaster) in Switzerland, 97 in favor and 77 opposed. However, the legislation was subsequently not ratified by the Swiss Council of States (the Senat) and the ban is now highly unlikely to actually be lifted.

The was confirmed that Nikolay Smolensky, had sold his entire ownership of TVR to Les Edgar, a British buyer who fronted TVR Automotive Ltd, the UK company. Edgar stated his company has ‘a lot of brand,' and ‘won't make the mistakes that have been made in the past'.

TVR logo

The fastest lap at the Isle of Man TT races in the TT Zero class, 18 minutes 34.172 seconds, was set by Michael Rutter (UK) in Douglas, Isle of Man, UK. Rutter completed the one-lap race for electric-powered motorbikes in an average speed of 121.909 mph (196.193 km/h). It was his fifth TT Zero victory.