My mother's father was an early investor in the Indianapolis racetrack. He did decades before I was born & I never knew about it until my aunt died in 1995 & while cleaning out her stuff I found my mother's obituary from the 1971 Indianapolis Star which mentioned it.
My grandfather was one of the first investors in VIR when it first opened in 1957. Back then it was just a strip of asphalt rolling through the countryside. As an investor my grandfather was given a key to the padlock on the gate and could come by whenever.
When my dad got his competition license at VIR my grandfather came out to watch and caught a ride around the track during an open lap session. He noted how different "Hog Pen" looked without an actual hog pen at the edge of the track.
Not automotive, but it’s clear the Suddards have long been obsessed with motorized transport. I can just picture ol’ W.A. getting this patent approval and going, "Years from now, when everybody’s getting around on these, I’ll be sitting back and enjoying fame and fortune as the guy who thought of putting steering wheels on bicycles.”
In reply to Marjorie Suddard :
That's super cool. Also looks like lots of potential pain if you stop too quickly.
My dad went worked in an advanced engineering unit at Ford in the early 1950's. He designed and built the first 8 track tape player for automotive use. He also did research on antilock brakes.
He quit after a few years. He and my mom bought a franchise for a new car brand in USA called Volkswagen and set up the 4th VW dealership in Michigan.
wvumtnbkr said:I always thought tesla invented the electric motor. Huh. Time to study up on electrical inventions!
Tesla didn't event the electric motor, but he did invent the induction electric motor, which covers about 99.9% of all electric motors in use today.
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