1903 Oldsmobile Pirate Race Car

The Olds 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. In March 1903, Ransom E. Olds brought his Pirate back for the first official time trials at Ormond Beach, which historians cite as the first competition to be sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA). In those 1903 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 best-selling car. With 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 seven horsepower at 500 rpm, and the driver was perched precariously behind the rear axle.