Page 8 - Edmonton Antique Car Club

First semi-car hauler, 1899 Alex’s failed cross-country attempt, May 1901

brisk. Brothers Reginald and Alfred Vanderbilt purchased one- ing events, starting with the first Gordon Bennett Cup Race in
cylinder, eight horsepower, Winton runabouts as well, but theirs France in June. Alex was the sole representative from America, but
were for use at their swank Newport, Rhode Island summer homes. wheel and tire trouble eliminated his vehicle from the race. Alex
Alex also created the first U.S. mail truck that Cleveland's postmas- continued to race in America. In September he won a 50 mile race
ter tested, assigning it to a horse-drawn wagon route that took six at Chicago in 1 hour 17 minutes, 50 seconds, averaging 38.54 mph.
hours to cover. The Winton did it in 2 hours, 27 minutes, in a From November 1 through 4, Alex drove his Winton "American
snowstorm no less. Challenger" to the 1900 New York Auto Show held at Madison
Square Garden in New York City, setting an American long dis-
Also in 1899, Alex's new factory superintendent, Leo Ma- tance record. In early 1901, Alex set a world's record of 1 minute,
linowski, invited an earnest young mechanic by the name of Henry 14 seconds for a mile averaging 48 mph. Starting on May 20, 1901,
Ford (1863-1947) to interview for employment. Ford had already Alex and Shanks attempted a cross-country drive beginning in San
built two prototype motor vehicles in 1896 and 1898, but Alex was- Francisco. They managed to traverse the snows of the High Sierras,
n't sufficiently impressed with his skills to hire him. What differ- but eleven days out, their car got stuck in the desert sands near Im-
ence might it have made to America's automobile industry had Alex lay, Nevada, and their trip ended prematurely.
actually hired Henry Ford?
Alex's many victories on the race track established him as
Despite Alex's tight production schedule, it still took a America's leading race driver. It was, therefore, a matter of some
long time to produce motor vehicles. He realized that by using comment when he was defeated by the relatively unknown Henry
advertising and creating news stories about his product, he could Ford in the 10 mile Sweepstake Race at Grosse Pointe, Michigan
increase customer demand, leading to significant increases in pro- (an eastside suburb of Detroit), on October 10, 1901. Before a
duction numbers, sale prices, and profit. With that in mind, Alex crowd of 8,000, Alex had to drop out of the race at the 8-mile mark
hit on the idea of a repeat durability test, again from Cleveland to because of mechanical difficulties. Exhibiting good sportsmanship
New York, but this time the test would be sponsored by the Cleve- toward Ford, Alex gave him a steering mechanism, saying the one
land newspaper Plain Dealer. Starting May 27, 1899, reporter Ford was using "is bound to kill somebody." Historians have specu-
Charles B. Shanks joined Alex and filed daily news stories. Read- lated that if Alex had won that race instead of Ford, Cleveland
ers of more than 30 papers followed along as the two covered more
than 707 miles in five days. Total driving time was 47 hours, 34
minutes, shaving 40 percent off the earlier time. When they
reached their destination, they had a letter from the Mayor of
Cleveland to New York City's mayor, but more importantly, nearly
a million people greeted them and had a closer look at their motor
carriage, one which Shanks had christened with the French name
"automobile" in his articles. This new name for motor vehicles
became immediately popularized at a time when "autobain,"
"motorcycle," "gasoline buggy," and "horseless carriage" were
used interchangeably. Alex hired Shanks as his advertising manag-
er. The publicity from Alex's second drive to and from New York
City enabled his company to produce 25 cars a week and the price
rose to $2,000. Sales boomed and in 1902 Alex would build a new
factory complex at 10601 Berea Road and a sales office and garage
at 1228 Huron Road; employment would increase from 700 to
1,500 workers. Winton would have branches in New York, Chica-
go, Boston, and Philadelphia. Winton would hold claim to being
the most reliable car on the market.

Alex continued with automotive innovations in 1900 be-
coming the first to use a steering wheel rather than a tiller. Alex
was also the first to build a special racer to enter international rac-
Alex and his “Bullet”, Ormond Beach, March 1903
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