Striking It Rich

On a balmy afternoon in Dearborn, Mich., in 2000, Glenn Miller, a development engineer at Ford Special Vehicle Engineering, and Malcolm Collum, senior conservator at Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, struck automotive gold.

Their unexpected windfall: the original 1901 race car built and campaigned by Henry Ford and aptly named "Sweepstakes."

"We walked into a house full of goodies that day," recalled Collum, who had worked on restoration of the Wright Brothers' Kitty Hawk engine and was one of those responsible for the verification of Sweepstakes. "We knew about the location [in Dearborn], but everybody thought the automobile stored there was just a replica of Henry's original 1901 race car. It turned out to be a real win situation for us."

The car had disappeared from public view in 1987, and the discovery of its true identity launched a bold plan by Ford Motor Company to restore Sweepstakes to its original specifications for permanent display, and to produce two running replicas in preparation for the Ford Racing 100th Anniversary celebrations.

According to Collum, "It was like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

Identification

"From records and photos, we knew that the car had been involved in a fire and that the wooden body had been destroyed. We also knew that Henry Ford had a new body made for the vehicle in the '30s, but that this work was not an exact replica of the original.

"Glenn and I had agreed that, if the vehicle was phony-baloney, then we'd just get it started anyway. We thought, 'Let's get this thing going and drive it.'

"When we leaned in to the engine area from opposite sides of the chassis, we checked the induction system, looked up at each other and just started smiling. We realized that this was the car Henry had built in 1901 and raced to victory against Alexander Winton in front of 8,000 spectators at the Detroit Driving Club in Grosse Pointe."

Miller was equally convinced the vehicle the pair had unearthed was the original 1901 race car, with which Ford had defeated Winton's heavily favored "Bullet" in the 10-lap shootout that had the citizens of Detroit cheering wildly.

"We could see it had a direct rudimentary fuel injection system," said Miller, a collector of early automobiles and a Ford racing buff. "There's no way Henry would have gone to the trouble of duplicating that system in the '30s, with the carburettors they had available then. We were able to verify the car from that and other engine parts."

Restoration Plans

However, the plan to restore "Sweepstakes" to its original form and build two working replicas would place a high demand on both time and resources.

Work on the cars was begun in January, 2001, with aim of having both replicas up and running by June, less than nine months after Sweepstakes resurfaced.

A team from Ford Special Vehicle Engineering joined fabrication specialists Trakon Show & Display, and began work at Trakon's Sterling Heights, Michigan-based facility. With more than two dozen individuals working 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, the first replica's engine burst to life on May 24.

"It was so exciting," said Miller. "We were very relieved.

"There were no patterns or blueprints to work with," added Miller, who was placed in charge of the project. "We were provided with photos of the original 1901 car by the Henry Ford Museum, and this helped tremendously. But the rest depended on skilled craftsmanship, hard work and a passion for the program."

One of the many challenges that confronted Miller and his team was attempting to duplicate the tyres on the 1901 "Sweepstakes."

"The rubber on the 1901 Ford race car were single tube-type tyres manufactured by the Diamond Rubber Company, which later was merged with BFGoodrich Tires," said Miller. "They basically looked like doughnuts, with the tube being the tyre.

"Actually, bolts embedded in the rubber held the tyres onto the wheel rim. You just can't buy them anymore, so we had to make some concessions in replicating them."

Back on Stage

Like Miller and Collum, Bob Casey, curator of transportation at Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, has been involved with the Sweepstakes project from the beginning.

"After the fire destroyed the bodywork on the original 1901 race car, people felt Henry Ford had commissioned that a replica of the original be built in the '30s," said Casey. "As there weren't solid records of the restoration of the car kept during the '40s, the assumption was it was just a replica, nothing else.

"Because of this, it wasn't given pride of place in the Henry Ford Museum, where it had been on display, and so was consequently pulled from the exhibit."

However, after finding patterns of corrosion on the chassis that were consistent with the vehicle being sprayed with hoses and standing in water as a result of the warehouse fire, Casey and Collum were further convinced that the car found in a Dearborn warehouse last October was Sweepstakes, not a replica.

Today, Sweepstakes is back where it belongs but now in prime place, pristine condition and drawing huge crowds daily at the Henry Ford Museum.

"Henry Ford's 1901 race car, with its fuel induction system, dropped frame, and low center of gravity compared to other race cars of the time, was one well-engineered vehicle," said Casey. "He adhered to the principle of building lighter, smaller vehicles rather than bigger and heavier. Handling meant a lot to Henry and he was well ahead of his time in building race cars.

"Today, I think he'd be excited about what's going on in racing technology, but not totally surprised."