On this day in…
1904
118 years ago
The R E Olds Company, builders of Reo cars and trucks, was incorporated in Lansing, Michigan, US with Ransom E Olds as President and General Manager, Reuben Shettler as Vice President, and Edward F Peer as Secretary and Treasurer Read more…
1906
116 years ago
The first production Mason, financed by Edward R Read more…
1908
114 years ago
George Schuster, winner of the New York to Paris Race, was honoured in a parade in New York City Read more…
1923
99 years ago
The Alfa Romeo P1 race car was given its first speed test with Antonio Ascari reaching 112 mph Read more…
1937
85 years ago
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts became the first university in the US to institute graduate study courses in traffic engineering and administration. Read more…
1955
67 years ago
FIAT motors ordered the first private atomic reactor Read more…
1964
58 years ago
The work’s Lotus Cortina of Mike Beckwith and Jackie Stewart won the 12-hour sedan race at Marlboro, Virginia, US Read more…
1964
58 years ago
Richard Petty scored a dominant victory in the Mountaineer 500 at West Virginia International Speedway in Huntington (US), leading 396 of 500 laps Read more…
1970
52 years ago
Driving a Chaparral-entered Chevrolet Camaro, Vic Elford won the SCCA Trans-Am race at Watkins Glen, New York Read more…
1970
52 years ago
Jackie Ickx won the Austrian Grand Prix driving a Ferrari 312B finishing six tenths of a second ahead of team mate Clay Regazzoni, and Brabham’s Rolf Stomelen taking his first and only podium Read more…
1981
41 years ago
Porsche began wind tunnel testing of the 956 at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute for Driver and Motor Vehicle Research in West Germany Read more…
1981
41 years ago
Gilbert Bataille of Paris, France drove a Leyland T45 Road Runner Truck on two wheels for 2 Read more…
1981
41 years ago
French driver Jacques Laffite won the Austrian Grand Prix for Ligier, with countryman Rene Arnoux finishing second for Ferrari Read more…
1984
38 years ago
After close to 30 hours of deliberation, a jury of six men and six women unanimously acquits the former automaker John Z Read more…
1985
37 years ago
The last episode of the television show Dukes of Hazzard was aired in the US concluding a successful five-year run Read more…
1987
35 years ago
Nigel Mansell, driving a William-Honda at Zeltweg in the Austrian Grand Prix achieved the then fastest average speed for a Formula One Grand Prix, of 146 Read more…
1987
35 years ago
Ford Sierras finished 1-2-3-4 in the World Touring Car Championship race at Brno, Czechoslovakia Read more…
1992
30 years ago
Harry Gant bagged Michigan’s Champion Spark Plug 400 with a perfectly planned fuel-economy run to score his 18th career victory Read more…
1992
30 years ago
British driver Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Renault clinched the World Drivers Championship by finishing the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring in second position behind McLaren’s Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna Read more…
1998
24 years ago
Title-bound Jeff Gordon racked up his fourth consecutive victory in the Pepsi 400 at Michigan Speedway (US), rallying from a two-mile deficit in the final 22 laps Read more…
2002
20 years ago
The last Ferrari Testa Rossa built, which was raced by Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien to outright victory at Le Mans in 1962, was sold by RM Auctions at Monterey, California, US for $6 Read more…
2004
18 years ago
General Motors started making Cadillacs in China, joining the race by foreign luxury car brands to sell to the country’s newly rich elite Read more…
2007
15 years ago
Aston Martin unveiled the £160,000 6-litre V12 DBS at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Read more…
2010
12 years ago
Teams from Australia, Germany and Switzerland set off from Geneva in electric vehicles on the first carbon neutral race around the world Read more…
2012
10 years ago
India’s top carmaker Maruti Suzuki sacked more than 500 workers after riots on July 18 at a plant near New Delhi left one manager dead Read more…
2016
6 years ago
Ford CEO Mark Fields committed his company to mass-produce a fully autonomous vehicle in 2021 Read more…
