1905 – National Teams Tackle a 100‑Mile Feature at Indianapolis
A bitter autumn day at the Indiana State Fairgrounds saw National Motor Vehicle Company entries take to the track for a 100‑mile feature that tested man and machine; among the drivers listed for the November 4, 1905 event was Charlie Merz. Contemporary race listings and regional histories name Merz and teammate Jap Clemens as National pilots in the long-distance program, which drew local manufacturers and touring entries to Indianapolis. The 100‑mile distance demanded mechanical endurance from early single- and twin‑cylinder cars and showcased drivers who would move into professional road racing; records of that specific November meeting place Merz behind the wheel of a National in a period when race experience was building future speedway talent.
1938 – Ford Unveils the Mercury Eight at Grosse Pointe
Ford stepped into a new market niche on November 4, 1938, when it publicly unveiled the Mercury marque at a Grosse Pointe showing, introducing the Mercury Eight as a 1939 model positioned between Ford and Lincoln. Presented in four body styles that fall, the Mercury Eight paired a longer wheelbase and more refined appointments with Ford mechanical underpinnings, aiming to attract buyers seeking something above the standard Ford but not as costly as a Lincoln. The public debut in Michigan announced Ford's strategy to occupy the mid-priced field with fresh styling and expanded body choices, and the Eight would define Mercury's character in the years that followed.
1980 – Porsche‑Assigned Bumper Patent Issues
U.S. Patent No. 4,231,600 — titled simply 'Automobile bumper' — was issued on November 4, 1980 to inventors Walter Braun, Hermann Burst, and Dietmar Peter and assigned to Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. The patent, filed in October 1978, documents design and functional features of a bumper system and carries Porsche's assignment, signaling the company's ongoing engineering attention to both impact protection and packaging on production cars. As an issued patent, the document captured a specific technical approach to bumper design in that era and lives on as part of Porsche's recorded innovations from the late 1970s into 1980.
1990 – Nelson Piquet Wins the 500th World Championship Grand Prix
Nelson Piquet crossed the line first at the Adelaide Street Circuit on November 4, 1990, driving a Benetton‑Ford to victory in the Foster's Australian Grand Prix — the 81‑lap contest recorded as the 500th FIA World Championship Grand Prix. Piquet's winning time was 1:49:44.570, a result entered in contemporary race results and reports that celebrated the milestone round of the championship. The Adelaide event combined harbor-front city streets and tight turns, and Piquet's experience and Benetton's race pace produced a clear win at the close of the 1990 season, securing the race's place in the sport's milestone statistics.
2000 – Collector Harold LeMay Passes Away
Harold E. LeMay, the Washington state refuse‑company owner who built what is described as one of the world's largest private automobile collections, died on November 4, 2000. Over decades LeMay amassed thousands of cars, trucks, and automobilia stored across multiple sites; his holdings later formed the core of the LeMay Family Collection and became a central impetus for America's Car Museum in Tacoma. Known for an obsessive appetite for preservation rather than single marquee focus, LeMay's amassed trove documented a broad swath of American automotive life, and his death on that November day passed custodianship of that mammoth collection to family and institutional stewards.
