1897 – Ransom E. Olds Founds the Olds Motor Vehicle Company
Ransom Eli Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing, Michigan, on August 21, 1897, establishing one of the earliest American companies organized specifically to manufacture automobiles. Olds had already experimented with steam-powered vehicles before completing a gasoline automobile in 1896. With financial backing from Lansing businessmen, he began turning those experiments into a commercial enterprise. The company was reorganized as Olds Motor Works in 1899 and eventually became known as Oldsmobile. Its Curved Dash model became one of America’s first genuinely successful mass-produced automobiles, while Olds himself later departed to establish REO Motor Car Company. Oldsmobile ultimately joined General Motors in 1908 and remained in production until 2004.
1903 – A Packard Completes a Coast-to-Coast Journey
Packard test driver E.T. Fetch and The Automobile editor Marius Krarup arrived in New York City on August 21, 1903, completing an extraordinary drive from San Francisco in a modified Packard Model F nicknamed Old Pacific. The pair had departed California on June 20 and spent roughly two months negotiating a country where established automobile roads barely existed. They crossed deserts, mountains and primitive trails, sometimes using picks, shovels and canvas to create their own path. Their arrival made the Packard only the second automobile to complete a transcontinental American journey, following Horatio Nelson Jackson’s Winton earlier that summer. The expedition provided valuable publicity for the young Packard Motor Car Company and demonstrated how quickly the automobile was becoming capable of long-distance travel.
1947 – Bugatti Founder Ettore Bugatti Dies
Ettore Bugatti died in Paris on August 21, 1947, at age 65 following complications from pneumonia. Born in Milan into an artistic family, Bugatti combined engineering with an unusually strong emphasis on aesthetics, establishing his automobile company at Molsheim in 1909. The company produced some of the most celebrated road and racing automobiles of the prewar era, including the Type 35 Grand Prix car, immense Type 41 Royale and elegant Type 57. Bugatti’s later years were marked by tragedy, particularly the 1939 death of his son Jean, who had become increasingly important to the company as both designer and manager. The original Bugatti enterprise declined after Ettore’s death, but his philosophy of combining performance, engineering and art remains central to the Bugatti identity today.
1968 – Mazda Takes the Rotary Engine Racing at the Nürburgring
Mazda’s Cosmo Sport 110S made its international competition debut on August 21, 1968, when two cars entered the grueling 84-hour Marathon de la Route at Germany’s Nürburgring. Mazda had introduced the rotary-powered Cosmo the previous year and entered the endurance event to prove that its unconventional Wankel engine could deliver not only performance but durability. The race sent competitors around the roughly 28-kilometer Nürburgring circuit continuously for three and a half days. Both Cosmos ran among the top 10 for much of the event; one retired late in the race, while the surviving car finished an impressive fourth overall. The result helped establish the credibility of Mazda’s rotary program and foreshadowed decades of rotary-powered competition culminating in Mazda’s landmark 1991 Le Mans victory.
1991 – Al Teague Sets a 409.986-MPH Wheel-Driven Record
American hot rodder Al Teague set a new wheel-driven land-speed mark at the Bonneville Salt Flats on August 21, 1991, driving his homebuilt Spirit of ’76 streamliner to a two-way average of 409.986 mph. On his first pass, Teague reached an extraordinary 432.692 mph through the 132-foot speed trap and averaged 425.230 mph through the measured fifth mile. His slower return run brought the two-way average to 409.986 mph, surpassing the long-standing 409.277-mph mark established by Bob Summers and the four-engine Goldenrod in 1965. Unlike jet- or rocket-powered land-speed vehicles, Teague’s machine sent its engine power through the wheels, using a single supercharged Chrysler Hemi. The feat was particularly remarkable because Teague accomplished it with a small, largely self-funded team after years of progressively faster runs at Bonneville.
