By Scott A. Grant
mail@floridanewsline.com
Henry Ford had a dream. He wanted to mass produce a car that everyone could afford. And now, in the spring of 1901, that dream was slipping away. His first company, the Detroit Automobile Company, had gone bankrupt. Now, the second enterprise, the Henry Ford Company, was floundering. Ford was only able to sell about 20 cars and he was having trouble raising capital to keep going.
Henry Ford had produced his first car, the Quadricycle, in 1896 while still working for Thomas Edison. Edison liked the design and encouraged Ford to strike out on his own. So, Ford quit his job as an engineer at the Detroit Edison Illuminating Company to seek his fortune. It proved to be a difficult task. At that time, cars were viewed as a toy for the rich. Most automobile owners employed a professional chauffeur.
Ford realized that if he was going to succeed, he would need to make a splash. He needed a marketing gimmick to attract investors. Like automobile manufacturers throughout the ages, Henry Ford struck on the idea of racing. In May, Ford and his engineers began building a racecar. The car was built partially of wood, but included two important innovations: rudimentary fuel injection and ceramic spark plugs. Ford got the idea for the spark plugs from his time at Detroit Edison and had them built by a local dentist.
The two-cylinder vehicle was fast — capable of reaching a top speed of 72 miles per hour at a time when the speed record was just over 66. Ford and his engineers arranged for a sweepstakes race to be held on Oct. 10, 1901, in Grosse Pointe, north of Detroit on the banks of Lake Michigan. The race was held on a one-mile dirt oval normally used for racing horses and would consist of 10 laps. Ford’s opponent was a well-known driver and car builder from Cleveland named Alexander Winton. Ford was the decided underdog.
Henry Ford determined he would drive the car himself. He believed, perhaps correctly, that his entire future depended on winning this race and he did not want to depend on someone else to do it for him. And so, with “Spider” Huff as his riding mechanic, Henry Ford set out on a race toward destiny. Spider Huff’s primary job was to lean out like a crewman on a sailboat to provide a counterweight as the sweepstakes car went around the corners.
Ford immediately fell behind the professional. He had trouble handling the curves. But as the race went on, he got better and he began to make up the deficit, particularly on the straightaways where his vehicle was decidedly faster. On lap 8, as Ford drew almost even with his opponent, Winton’s car began to smoke. His ignition coils had fouled, exactly the problem Ford’s ceramic spark plugs were designed to combat. The crowd cheered deliriously as the underdog Ford raced across the finish.
That very day, investors began to line up to fund Henry Ford’s dreams. He left the Henry Ford Company, which became Cadillac, and founded the Ford Motor Company. Over the next six years, he produced 25 different car models lettered alphabetically from A to T. The Model T was a hit. Ford made over 15 million of them and changed the world.
Scott A. Grant is a local writer, historian, and racing enthusiast. By day, he is president of Standfast Asset Management in Ponte Vedra. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com.
