Great American Race '87

                                          The Great American Race '87

Today it is known as the Great Race but in 1983 when the first group of vintage and antique automobiles started down the road in an effort to cross the United States they traveled under the banner of "The Great American race". It all started in 1982 when racecar enthusiast Tom McRae met with Interstate Batteries Chairman, Norman Miller and developed an idea that Tom had patterned after the 1965 movie, "The Great Race". They took a fantasy from the silver screen, brought it to life and nurtured it into what is now today considered to be America's premier road odyssey. Since 1983, Great Racers have traveled the highways of North America on thrilling open-road driving adventures. More than 1,000 communities throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico have hosted Great Racers in what has become the ultimate event for vintage, classic and collector car enthusiasts.

What intrigued me was that no one had ever attempted to enter a Steam powered vehicle. I thought about it for quite awhile and very soon I was hooked. It seemed like the thing to do regardless of all the difficulties involved in driving a Steam car in a road rally covered by precise rules.   Unlike speed races where the fastest entry wins, the Great Race is a timed endurance rally-race. Twenty minutes before a car is scheduled to roll out, its team is given a set of instructions detailing each speed change, stop, start, and turn. Exact speeds and “perfect” drive times are assigned for each maneuver. The only aids you allowed to have are a speedometer, analog clock, pencil, and paper (no maps, cell phones, or odometers) and you must navigate to the destinations with precision. Several times each day your progress is checked at undisclosed locations by video cameras that capture times within fractions of a second and record them via satellite uplinks. Each year there is a new route and new challenges for the two-lane roads that you will travel most of the time. The Race covers mountain ranges, deserts and untold miles of winding, scenic, two-lane roads. I stopped worrying about all the problems that were involved and started to prepare my 1912 Stanley Steamer Mountain Wagon for the run. The car is a magnificent example of what steam cars were in those days. It has a large boiler, 30 hp engine and can carry 15 passengers. I drove the car for several hours each day for several weeks and soon became aware that the requirements for water and fuel on a cross-country trip were enormous. I could only count on 1/2 mile per gallon of water and possibly 5 miles per gallon of fuel and therefore would require mega refills on water and kerosene. The braking system was mechanical and quite primitive and no doubt would present a hazard on crowded highways.

A moment here to acquaint you with the general features of a steam powered automobile. A Stanley Steamer has a power plant similar to that of a locomotive. It has a two-cylinder engine mounted horizontally beneath the car and connected directly to the drive wheels in the rear. The engine can be 10, 20 or 30 hp with an appropriately sized boiler to convert water to steam. A 20 or 30 hp Stanley will go up to 75 miles an hour on the straightaway if you're bold and strong enough to hold onto it. It carries 40 or 50 gallons of water and you can plan on 1/2 mile to 1 mile per gallon depending on how of fast you're going. The faster you go the quicker you will run out of water and steam. The boiler is mounted like a teapot directly above the burner. The fuel required is high-grade kerosene and you can get between 10 to 15 miles per gallon of fuel. From a cold start it takes approximately 15 minutes to get up steam. Once you have pressure in the boiler the pilot, fire in the burner and pumps operating from the cross head of the engine will keep a steady head of steam as you drive. A Stanley Steamer typically operates in the range of 500 pounds and 600 pounds per square inch of steam pressure. You need to refill the water tank every 50 miles and that is an absolute requirement on any long distance trip. It became apparent that I would not be able to do this alone nor would the 30 hp mountain wagon be the car for the trip. There were several men with whom I was acquainted that were steam car experts and Carl Amsley of St.Thomas, Pennsylvania was one of them. Those of you who knew him will agree that he knew more about Stanley Steam Cars than anyone on the planet. He was my mentor in the Steam fraternity and taught me all that I know about a Stanley. I called to see if he would be interested because I knew that he had taken several long-distance trips in one of his Stanley steam cars. I told him it would be two or three weeks and 3000 miles across the United States. He said that he had a 1909 20 hp ‘Z’ wagon that would be perfect for the trip. That was the beginning of what turned out to be a two-year automotive venture to this day unsurpassed in the annals of the Great American race.

We prepared the necessary documents to enter the 1987 Great American race and were accepted

We were the first and only ever Stanley steam car to be entered in the history of the race and some changes in the rules were required. One of the rules states that “no support vehicle may be in close contact with the racecar during the time of the rally”. Support cars are always allowed to meet with the racecars at designated afternoon stops and overnight stops but they are not allowed to follow the cars along the route. We had to fill our tank with water every 50 miles and therefore it was necessary for a water tender to ride along with us en route. Stanley steamers drink a lot of water and puff out a lot of steam so it is necessary for us to have some way to refill the water tank every 50 miles. To try to arrange for a big drink every 50 miles was difficult so we petitioned the rules officials to allow a tanker to follow us. The people at the GAR really wanted to have a steam car involved in the race so the rule was changed for our benefit. That meant that we had to have a vehicle that would carry 500 gallons of water and keep up with us. What we did was to fit a 500-gallon septic tank onto a flatbed trailer hitched to the truck driven by our support crew. In it we took just about everything we thought we might need for repairs along the way, including an extra engine for the Stanley.

We were assigned car number '78' and we prepared the car to challenge the 3600 mile long Great Race. One real challenge was a speedometer. As designed, it is a rather primitive gear mechanism attached to the front wheel and is not very accurate. In order to have any hope of meeting the exact time requirements of each phase of the day's route you really need a very accurate speedometer. Another concern had to do with brakes. We did the best we could to beef up the brakes so that we felt reasonably safe. There really wasn't much else that we could do because a steam-powered vehicle is quirky enough during short trips around town and we knew that a trip across country would be replete with problems.

June 28 and 29, 1987 we all gathered in a parking lot at Disneyland in California. There were 120 entries in car number '78' was right there with them belching steam. In the morning of June the 30th we were part of a magnificent parade of cars and drove through Disneyland and out onto the open road. Eleven days and 3600 miles later some of us managed to crawl through the gates at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During that time we overnighted in San Diego, California, Phoenix, Arizona, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lubbock, Texas, Arlington, Texas, Galveston Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana, Birmingham, Alabama, Atlanta, Georgia, and Tallahassee Florida with multiple stops each day at small towns in between. We made stops for food, fuel and rest at some 42 cities en route and each day we followed explicit directions in order to try to maintain exact speeds in order to arrive at our destination on time. As it is in golf and cross-country, a low score wins. Only a pencil, paper and a stopwatch and one clock are allowed for the calculations necessary. It really is the toughest controlled speed, precision driving, and endurance race in the world. We very quickly became aware that it would be impossible to compete while driving a Stanley steamer so we decided to go along for the ride. The crowds of people they gathered to meet us at each stop seemed to grow larger each day. People from all walks of life came to see these marvelous vintage automobiles.

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