104-year old car limbers up at motorsports festival

A 104 year-old car that’s to be driven nearly 4,000 miles across the USA will be making a star appearance at the Silverstone Classic motorsports festival on July 25-27, thanks to its owner, and classic and collector car insurance specialists and event sponsor, Hagerty International.

The 1904 Oldsmobile horseless carriage, insured by Hagerty for over £40,000, harks back to the very dawn of motoring, when the car was priced at just $650. Its intrepid owner, Joy Rainey, will follow the route of a similar model Oldsmobile that made the barn-storming coast-to-coast trip back in 1903, when founder Ranson E. Olds successfully proved the durability of his vehicle to the car-hungry American public.

Joy and co-driver Trevor Hulks hope to more than halve the 75 days it took to complete the original journey from San Francisco to New York, but are under no illusions about the toughness of the challenge: “I love mad adventures!”, she quipped, “but it won’t be easy. Although much of the route followed by the 1903 driver duo of Lester Whitman and John S. Hammond is no longer loose surface, and we have the luxury of decent mapping and plenty of fuel stations en route, to drive a car of this age such a long distance will still present major challenges.”

“I was amazed at the enormous range of conditions we’ll encounter, from 8,500 ft high mountains to blisteringly hot deserts, and tracks running north of the Great Salt Lake that remain much the same as they were in 1903,” she continued.

Visitors to Hagerty’s classic vehicle display at Silverstone will be able to examine the venerable Oldsmobile at close quarters. At 1,200lbs, it weighs much the same as a BMC Mini, has a 2-litre, single cylinder petrol engine, two forward gears and reverse, pneumatic tyres, and relies on rudimentary braking and somewhat imprecise tiller steering.

Joy, who is better known for her frequent success and record-making in the high speed world of hillclimbing and circuit racing, says that the progress of the Oldsmobile will be anything but sedentary, despite its cruising speed of some 25mph:

“Sitting perched up high with no protection nor windscreen, tyres that have little grip and brakes that you wouldn’t want to use in an emergency, it’s a lot more frightening than a single-seater racing car.”

For more information on the build-up to Joy’s incredible journey, see joy-across-america.tv or visithagertyinsurance.co.uk.

For full details of the Hagerty-sponsored Silverstone Classic, visit silverstoneclassic.com.