Icy Speed Record
Arrow also had a successful racing career, but her most famous instance was to come. She was crashed in September 1903 during a race, killing the driver Frank Day. However, Henry Ford bought back the broken car and repaired it with the intent of performing a speed run on a frozen lake. He renamed it 999, as the original red car had been retired already, and the press referred to it as the "new 999," "Red Devil," or a combination of the two.
On January 12, 1904, Henry Ford personally drove the rechristened 999 to a speed of 91.37 mph (147.05 km/h) on Lake St. Clair, a land speed record. It stood for only a month, but this was ample time to bring more good publicity for Ford's new company.
Read more about this topic: Ford 999
Famous quotes containing the words icy, speed and/or record:
“If we shake hands with icy fingers, it is because we’ve burnt them so hatefully before.”
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)
“There was such speed in her little body,
And such lightness in her footfall,
It is no wonder her brown study
Astonishes us all.”
—John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)
“Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rime;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)