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April 25, 2001 – Michele Alboreto killed while testing Audi R8
25Apr By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive

April 25, 2001 – Michele Alboreto killed while testing Audi R8

Michele Alboreto driving an Audi R8, similar to the one in which he died. By lecates CC BY-SA 2.0. Italian race car driver Michele Alboreto died on this day in 2001 during a test drive of an Audi R8 when he blew a tire during straight line speed tests, resulting in a fatal crash. Alboreto competed in Formula One from 1981 until 1994, racing for a number of different teams. This included five seasons with Ferrari between 1984 and 1988. In 1985 he placed second in the Formula One World Championship behind Alain Prost, but would go on to achieve numerous victories throughout his racing career. Notable wins came at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 2001 12 Hours of Sebring sports car races. 
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February 28, 1975 – AMC Introduces the Pacer
28Feb By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive, This Day

February 28, 1975 – AMC Introduces the Pacer

The “first wide small car,” the AMC Pacer, hit showrooms on this day in 1975. Quickly earning the nickname the Flying Fishbowl, the Pacer and its 37% glass surface area was AMC’s sub compact snub to the gas guzzlers that were continuously rolling out of American auto plants. Despite worries from inside AMC about its design, the economical car received various accolades from Car and Driver and Road and Track. Popular Mechanics even wrote, “This is the first time in the history of the American automobile industry that a car manufacturer has said in advance of bringing out a new product that some people may not like it.” Above: D/L Coupe - By Triskel99 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0Top: 1975 AMC Pacer D/L by Greg Gherdingen Richard Teague, American Motor’s chief stylist, began work on th...
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February 24, 1955 – F1 Champ Alain Prost is born
24Feb By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive

February 24, 1955 – F1 Champ Alain Prost is born

2 Four time Formula One Driver’s Champion Alain Prost was born on this day in 1955. The French race car driver is tied for third most F1 Championships with Sebastian Vettel. He falls behind Juan Manuel Fangio, with five, and Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, who are tied with seven trophies each.  Top: Prost practicing for his first event for Ferrari, the 1990 United States Grand Prix. By Stuart Seeger from College Station, Texas, USA - Prost Champion, CC BY 2.0, Above: Alain Prost driving a Renault RE40 by Jake Archibald, CC BY 2.0 Prost began his racing career in karting at the age of 14 after discovering the sport on a family holiday. By age 24 he had worked his way up from Formula Three to join McLaren’s Formula One team in 1980. Between his rookie year and 1993, Prost...
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February 19, 1954 – Ford Thunderbird concept is completed
19Feb By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive, This Day

February 19, 1954 – Ford Thunderbird concept is completed

The 1954 Ford Thunderbird concept at the Detroit Auto Show Ford Motor Company knew it needed a response, and fast, when Chevrolet rolled out the Corvette prototype in January 1953. Ford unveiled a plan to launch what would become the Thunderbird the very next month. From idea to rolling reality in just one year, the Ford Thunderbird prototype received its finishing touches on this day in 1954. The concept would debut to the public the following day at the Detroit Auto Show. We featured this 1955 Ford Thunderbird in our first episode of Cars & Bars. Watch here. Henry Ford II and William Clay Ford checking out the Thunderbird concept at the Detroit Auto Show in 1954. The Thunderbird would go into production the next fall and officially go on sale as a 1955 model on October 2...
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December 8, 1956 – The Ford Ranchero debuts
8Dec By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive

December 8, 1956 – The Ford Ranchero debuts

The Ford Ranchero made its debut at the New York Auto Show on this day in 1956. This car/truck mashup was a new type of automobile in the American market, but had sold steadily overseas for years. Years before the Ranchero came to market, the idea for the car/truck came from Ford Australian designer Lew Brandt. Inspired by a farmer looking for a vehicle to drive to church on Sundays and haul pigs on Mondays, Brandt grafted a bed into the body of the existing 1934 sedan models. The Ute, as it came to be known, remains a popular body style in Australia and elsewhere around the globe. In the USA, the last attempt at building such a vehicle was the Chevrolet SSR, designed by Brian Baker. The Ranchero was originally based on the full size Ford Ranch wagon and Courier sedan delivery. Fea...
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October 17, 1968 – Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen and a ’68 Mustang, debuts
17Oct By Automotive History1091 Comments
Automotive, This Day

October 17, 1968 – Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen and a ’68 Mustang, debuts

The film Bullitt debuted on this day in 1968. In brief, I'll let film critic Roger Ebert explain the plot, using an excerpt from his 1968 review. "McQueen plays a San Francisco cop assigned as bodyguard to a syndicate witness. The witness gets shotgunned -- in the most brutally direct 10 seconds of film I can remember -- and McQueen becomes a political football. Robert Vaughn (better than usual) is the politician who puts the heat on, and it's up to McQueen to hide the victim's body until he can untangle the case." Alright, so what does this have to do with cars? Besides McQueen being a professional race car driver and lover of all things with wheels, the movie's highlight is a 10 minute car chase. This isn't your average Hollywood burn out. It's perhaps the best chase scene to eve...
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August 13, 1898 – James Packard buys a Winton – dislikes it and starts Packard
13Aug By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive, This Day

August 13, 1898 – James Packard buys a Winton – dislikes it and starts Packard

On this day in 1898, James Packard purchased a Winton Automobile, the 12th one of the make produced. Packard found himself dissatisfied with his new vehicle, which is strange, seeing as there was hardly, if anything, to compare it to at the time. In any case, he took his complaints directly to Alexander Winton, the founder of the car company. Any suggestions for improvement that Packard may have offered were waved off with a smirk and some phrase was uttered along the lines of, “If you think you can do better, then do so.” Packard took the challenge to heart. On November 6, 1899, the first Packard automobile was completed in Warren, Ohio. Above: 1911 Packard Thirty Touring car ad. Top: William Packard driving a c.1900 Packard Model A In September 1900 James and his brother Will...
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August 10, 1907 – The Peking to Paris race is won
10Aug By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive

August 10, 1907 – The Peking to Paris race is won

On January 31, 1907, the Paris newspaper Le Matin issued a challenge to admirers of relatively newfangled machines called automobiles: drive one from China to France. The idea was to show beyond doubt that the automobile was a valuable, necessary means of transportation. The article read, "What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?" The editors of the paper received an astonishing 40 entries for the unimaginably difficult journey across untamed lands from what is now Beijing to the home of the Eiffel Tower. Above: One of the two DeDior cars that raced from Peking to Paris getting some assistanceTop: Auguste Pons with Oscar Foucault ...
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June 7, 1992 – NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. died
7Jun By Brian CoreyNo Comments
Automotive, This Day

June 7, 1992 – NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. died

America’s prohibition era surely fueled the rise of NASCAR, but it took one man to make it official. Drivers who delivered illegal alcohol needed fast cars to outrun police, so they regularly tuned their vehicles for more power and better handling. Following prohibition, these drives still possessed a need for speed. They began to organize races, pitting their hopped up cars against each other, often in hopes of bringing home a cash prize. Daytona mechanic Bill France Sr., loved what the racing scene, but believed it could use more structure. With the assistance of a few partners, he developed a points system and race schedule for stock car racing. Above: The first NASCAR-sanctioned race was held on Daytona Beach in 1948 for modified-sportsman cars. (Photo by ISC Archives via Getty I...
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May 30, 1911 – The first Indianapolis 500
30May By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Automotive

May 30, 1911 – The first Indianapolis 500

With more than 80,000 fans looking on from the grandstands of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a $25,000 prize purse up for grabs, the inaugural Indianapolis 500 got underway on this day in 1911. Some figures state as many as 100,000 actually watched trackside as 40 drivers zipped around the Brickyard. Finally, after six hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds, the checkered flag flew. Ray Harroun, driving his Marmon Model 32-based Wasp, took the victory, or so it seemed. A controversy was brewing.  Bob Burman, Louis Disbrow, Jack Tower, and Joe Grennon at the 1911 Indianapolis 500 Harroun had outfitted his car with a rearview mirror, an invention of his own, which allowed him to be the only racer to compete without a riding mechanic. He was cited as a hazard on the racetrack due to this, a...
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