Ford 999

The Ford 999 was a nameplate carried by two distinct but similar racing cars that Henry Ford built in the early twentieth century. Ford had earlier built the Sweepstakes racer, which beat Alexander Winton in a race in 1901, and after leaving his first company in 1902 he worked with the bicycle racer Tom Cooper on two near identical machines. Each was a huge engine on a bare chassis, with an 18.9 litre inline four, no rear suspension and no differential. The red car was named 999 after the Empire State Express locomotive, and the yellow car was called Arrow. Barney Oldfield won the 999's debut race in October 1902, and the rebuilt yellow car, also renamed 999, set a record of 91.37 miles per hour on the ice of Lake St. Clair in January 1904. Parts and names were swapped between the cars, so their histories are inseparable.