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Stanley – the fastest car in the world
KINGFIELD, Me.– Stanley and speed were a match from the start. In 1898 the
famous bearded Stanley Twins built a steam-powered tandem pacing bicycle for
cycle racing (a project that may have attracted the cyclist and racing legend
Marriott).
 After
years of setting records with stock cars, F.E. Stanley built his first special
racing machine in 1903, a streamlined auto racer nicknamed variously the
“Turtle” and “Torpedo” that set a world steam track record at the Readville
track near Boston, Mass. Stanley considered entering this racer in the 1904
Ormond Beach races, but final negotiations for the sale of the Twins’
money-maker, the Stanley Dry Plate Co., to George Eastman of Kodak caused him to
withdraw his entry.
Pictured above: The run that made Stanley legend - Fred Marriott's
record run on Ormond Beach in 1906 - 127.659 mph. (Stanley Museum Archives,
courtesy Larz Anderson Auto Museum)
Pictured below: F.E. Stanley and the Torpedo Racer in 1903 at the
Tradville, Mass. track. Stanley drove this car, called the "Turtle," to a
world steam track record on May 30, 1903.
 Louis
Ross, however, a Stanley brothers’ colleague and fellow Newton resident, took a
stock Stanley to Ormond that year and set steam records for the mile and the
kilometer. Having missed the winter event in Florida, F.E. Stanley concentrated
on entering cars in Ormond’s sister event the next two summers, the Climb to the
Clouds at Mt. Washington in N.H. He scored two close second-place finishes there
in 1904 and 1905.
In between these races, Louis Ross, with Stanley assistance, built a
Stanley-equipped steam racer, nicknamed the “Wogglebug,” entered it in the
January 1905 Ormond tournament and won the Dewar Trophy, and nearly every other
record on the Beach.
Ross’s success at Ormond in 1905—plus pressure from race organizers—convinced
F.E. Stanley to build his own special streamlined racer, the “Rocket,” for the
1906 Ormond races. Louis Ross or Stanley himself was to be the driver, but Ross
decided not to race when he found out that his Dewar Trophy would then be held
by the Stanleys rather than himself. Stanley’s wife, and the wife of Frank
Durbin, another Stanley driver, objected to their husbands’ driving the Racer in
the land speed record trials, so on the eve of the 1906 Ormond races, Stanley
tapped Fred Marriott to drive the “Rocket.”
An auspicious choice—Marriott would set racing history. On Day One, Marriott won
the Dewar Trophy and set a World record in the one-mile steam championship. On
Day Two, he set another World record in the Five-Mile Open race. After teammate
Frank Durbin won the 15-Mile Handicap race for touring cars in a stock 20 HP
Stanley on Day Three, Marriott was ready for the heavyweight time trials.
January 26, Marriott set a World record for one kilometer at 121.6 mph, the
first time anyone had exceeded two miles in one minute; two hours later he drove
the mile in 28 1/5 seconds, 127.659 mph, a World Land Speed Record.
With this record, unbroken until 1910, the Stanley became the fastest car in the
world for the next four years, becoming effectively the fastest automobile for
the first decade of the 20th Century.
Gas vs. steam rivalry went over the top the final days of the races. In the
30-mile championship race, the race time was moved up without the steam camp’s
knowledge. Despite starting more than five minutes behind the gasoline cars,
Marriott won handily. In the ten-mile championship race the Stanley racer
developed a fuel leak and finished second.
Then came the final Two-Mile-A-Minute race for the vaunted title, “King of the
Beach.” First, officials refused to disqualify the 200 HP Darracq even though it
did not meet the rules for competition. The Stanley steam racer and the Darracq
were given unlimited trials with the Rocket going first. Both cars exceeded
two-miles-a-minute, the Darracq bettering Marriott’s speed on its second run.
Then officials declared the race over and the Darracq the winner. Despite
protests, the Stanley team was not allowed a third trial, even though the
official rules permitted it.
In 1907 Stanley returned to Ormond with an enhanced racer, determined to set
more speed records, only to find the beach in poor condition and few competitive
European and American cars present. Unbeknownst to them, American automobile
manufacturers successfully staged a boycott of the races, refusing to give the
Stanley legitimacy, calling it a freak.
Stanley had completed two new steamers intended for the long-distance Vanderbilt
Cup race, and these cars further diminished the Ormond competition. However,
rough shape of the beach kept speeds down, and mechanical breakdowns marred the
Stanley team’s performance in many of the races.
Marriott’s final attempt to break his own land speed record ended in disaster.
Hitting an uneven depression in the surface of the beach at a speed F.E. Stanley
clocked at 150 mph, the front wheels of the Stanley Rocket bounced off the
beach, and when they came down the racer crashed out of control. The
canoe-bodied car was smashed to pieces, the boiler roaring dramatically into the
surf.
Miraculously, Marriott survived the crash with only a concussion, broken ribs,
cuts and lacerations. He insisted that photos of the wreck be taken, and that
the wreckage itself be saved, vowing to build an even better racer and return
for another tournament.
It was not to be. The rules for the Ormond Beach races were changed to exclude
short distance steam racers. The Stanleys also decided that further land speed
record attempts were not worth the risk to their intrepid drivers.
Marriott made a full recovery, and returned to racing Stanley stock cars on
tracks and hill climbs. Neither he nor the Stanleys ever returned to Ormond
Beach.
Finally, in 1910, the legendary Barney Oldfield drove one of the equally
legendary Blitzen, or Lightning, Benzes 131.723 mph to vanquish—by a mere four
miles and hour—the record that put the Stanley Steamer in the record books for
four undefeated years, and for all time.
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