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What If The Future Of Driving Started In 1895 · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:06
  Mike Marrs: Time now for our feature on automotive history: a look a week at the head, November 1 through November the 7th.
• 0:13
  Mike Marrs: On November the 2nd, 1895, the American Motor League was formed in Chicago.
• 0:19
  Mike Marrs: This became the country's earliest organization devoted to automobiles.
• 0:23
  Mike Marrs: At the time, cars were still kind of experimental machines.
• 0:26
  Mike Marrs: Roads were designed primarily for horses and wagons, and of course, motors faced considerable skepticism.
• 0:33
  Mike Marrs: Now, the new organization represented an early effort to bring automobile enthusiasts together and promote the development of motorized transportation.
• 0:41
  Mike Marrs: This was years before the automobile became very common.
• 0:44
  Mike Marrs: So organizations like this, as well as the AAA group, which the two eventually merged into, helped provide an advocacy group that would promote the use of automobiles for transportation.
• 0:57
  Mike Marrs: Then on November the 5th, 1895, George Selden received a U.S.
• 1:01
  Mike Marrs: patent for the gasoline-powered road vehicle.
• 1:04
  Mike Marrs: Now, although Selden had never actually manufactured the automobile described as a patent, the patent eventually became the basis for demanding royalties from American automakers.
• 1:15
  Mike Marrs: Henry Ford refused to accept the arrangement, leading to a lengthy legal battle.
• 1:20
  Mike Marrs: Ford ultimately prevailed in 1911 when the patent's scope was narrowed.
• 1:24
  Mike Marrs: The decision helped protect competition in the developing American automobile industry.
• 1:30
  Mike Marrs: Then on November the 2nd, 1935, the Cord 810 was introduced, bringing futuristic styling and advanced engineering to American showrooms.
• 1:39
  Mike Marrs: Now the Cord featured front-wheel drive, independent front suspension, concealed headlights, and a distinctive coffin nose front end.
• 1:46
  Mike Marrs: It had a low slung appearance.
• 1:48
  Mike Marrs: It was really different from anything else that was on the road at the time.
• 1:51
  Mike Marrs: Unfortunately, there were some production difficulties and reliability concerns, so it had limited success.
• 1:58
  Mike Marrs: Even so, the Cord 810 became one of the most recognizable American automobiles of the 1930s.
• 2:04
  Mike Marrs: Today, its styling remains a favorite among collectors, and there's been a few tries at trying to bring it back, but it's never really came to fruition.
• 2:13
  Mike Marrs: And for the ladies out there, on November the 7th, 1963, Paula Murphy became the first woman to drive an indie-style race car around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• 2:23
  Mike Marrs: Now she was known as Miss STP.
• 2:26
  Mike Marrs: Murphy completed five laps during a tire testing session.
• 2:31
  Mike Marrs: Now, this is at a time when professional motorsports remained overwhelmingly male, much like today.
• 2:37
  Mike Marrs: But her appearance at Indianapolis represented an important breakthrough for the ladies.
• 2:41
  Mike Marrs: Murphy was already an accomplished driver with experience in several forms of motorsports, including drag racing.
• 2:47
  Mike Marrs: But her historic lapse actually helped challenge the long-standing assumptions about women in racing and preceded the arrival of female competitors in the Indianapolis 500.
• 2:58
  Mike Marrs: Then, on November the 5th, this was really strange, I found, November the 5th, 1978, Richard Petty appeared to have won the NASCAR Winston Cup race at the Atlanta International Raceway.
• 3:10
  Mike Marrs: But after officials reviewed the scoring, the victory was awarded to Donnie Allison.
• 3:15
  Mike Marrs: Now, this was an unusual reversal, and it gave Allison what would become the Final Cup Series victory of his career.
• 3:21
  Mike Marrs: But for Petty, who was already one of NASCAR's greatest competitors, it was really frustrating.
• 3:26
  Mike Marrs: The incident serves as a reminder that racing results aren't always determined by the electronic timing and the scoring systems.
• 3:35
  Mike Marrs: Sometimes, even after the checkered flag, you got officials involved, and officials had to sort through the records of this particular event to determine who actually won.
• 3:45
  Mike Marrs: And that's a look at our automotive history for the week ahead, November the 1st through the 7th.
• 3:50
  Mike Marrs: From the earliest days of automobile to the revolution designs and memorable moments in motorsports, there's always another story waiting down the road.
• 3:58
  Mike Marrs: I'm Michael Mars, and this is Ken Wheel Time.