Description
In 1902, the Oldsmobile Pirate was the first car to make a timed run during Florida’s first unofficial speed trials, held in April, 1902, on the hard-packed sand of Ormond Beach. The following March of 1903, Ransom E. Olds brought his Pirate back for a staged event with Alexander Winton’s Bullett for the first official time trials at Ormond Beach. Historians cite this as the first competition to be sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA). In those trials, Oldsmobile engineer Horace T. Thomas drove the Pirate to a record speed of 54.38 mph in the gasoline-powered 1,000-pound class. The Pirate was essentially a stripped-down version of the Olds Curved Dash Runabout, America’s bestselling car of the time. With its long semi-elliptic springs forming the longitudinal frame rails, the fuel and oil tanks were given bullet-nose shapes. The single cylinder engine displaced 95 cubic-inches and developed about 7 horsepower at 500 rpm, and the driver was perched precariously behind the rear axle.
