Willie K and The Vanderbilt Cup
Willie K’s Family
William K. Vanderbilt Jr. (1878-1944) was the great-grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built a transportation empire in shipping and railroads. Known to his friends as Willie K, he was the second child and first son of William K. Vanderbilt (1849-1920) and Alva Erskine Smith (1849-1933). He was a railroad executive, an accomplished yachtsman, and a pioneer auto racing driver. At the age of only 26, William K. Vanderbilt Jr. proposed the first international road race to be held in the United States by donating the Vanderbilt Cup.
Racing in Newport
After his marriage, Willie K was an independent adult and ready to embrace another passion, automobiles. In 1900, he purchased, at the cost of $10,000, one of the first racing cars imported in the United States, a 28-hp Daimler nicknamed the White Ghost. On September 6, 1900, Vanderbilt and his society sporting friends gathered at a half-mile Aquidneck Park horse track near Newport, Rhode Island, for a series of automobile races. Vanderbilt won three of the featured five mile races with an average speed of 33.7 mph. The following year, he returned to compete in the Aquidneck Park winning both the five-mile and ten-mile races in his 35-hp Mercedes Red Devil.
Vanderbilt and the “Race to Death”
Vanderbilt returned to Europe in May 1903 to compete among 216 cars in the infamous Paris-to-Madrid Race driving his 80-hp Mors. While it must have been disappointing at the time, a cracked cylinder on the first day of competition spared him exposure to the numerous accidents that earned the event the name “Race to Death.” At least eight people were killed during the race, including car maker Marcel Renault, ending the first great era of motor racing, the European city-to-city races on open roads.
Vanderbilt Wins Hill Climb Contest
On Thanksgiving Day 1903, Vanderbilt took his 60-hp Mors to West Orange, New Jersey, and won the Eagle Rock Hill Climbing Contest. He broke the record time for the steep, curvy, one-mile hill. After his victory, crowds surrounded Vanderbilt, who wore a fur coat to protect against the wind while driving.
Vanderbilt Sets One-Mile Land Speed Record
The zenith of Vanderbilt’s racing career was the Ormond-Daytona Beach Automobile Tournament in January 1904. For the event, he purchased a giant 90-hp Mercedes, among the most powerful cars in the world. On January 27th, he set the one-mile land speed record on the beach going 92.3 mph, surpassing the record established earlier in the month by Henry Ford.
Centerport Home Becomes the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum
On January 8, 1944, William K. Vanderbilt II died of a heart ailment at age 65. He received many tributes from his family, friends, automobile enthusiasts, yachtsmen, aviators, and World War I Navy comrades. In his will, Vanderbilt left a trust fund of $2 million to care for his Eagle’s Nest estate in Centerport, New York and arranged for its presentation to the local county government. His home is maintained today as the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum.
Creating the First International Road Race in America -->
Feature
The 128-page book by Howard Kroplick, a researcher and lecturer on the races, contains rare images of the races from the archives of major museums, libraries and private collectors. The book Vanderbilt Cup Races of Long Island will be available from Arcadia Publishing in March 2008.
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