This olelongrooffan sometimes gets some grief from my fellow Hoons about my writing style and my references to things in the third person. One of the things I refer to is the town in which I live, Ormond Beach, Florida. I refer to it as the Birthplace of Speed.
Today is a special event here in the Birthplace of Speed. On January 31, 1905, an automobile reached and exceeded 100 miles per hour for the first time ever. That feat was accomplished down on the beach in in Ormond Beach, Florida. Yes, 100 MPH on the beach.
Before the Bonneville Salt Flats became the site for Land Speed Record attempts, automakers and individual, daredevil auto pioneers flocked to the sand at Ormond Beach, Florida to demonstrate their cars speed.
Ransom Olds, Henry Ford and Alexander Winton, tested their inventions at the beach. The American Automobile Association brought timing equipment in 1903, and the area acquired the nickname “The Birthplace of Speed
G. W. Bitzer, who became D. W. Griffith’s cameraman was sent to Florida by the Biograph studios to record the race in 1905. He set his camera up to get the direct approach, some overhead shots and mostly from the vantage point of the crowd on the beach.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/XbplwxZbkys[/youtube]
Thanks to Kate Sullivan over at hemmings blog for sharing this.
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