Vanderbilt Cup Races

The first official automobile race on U.S. soil was the Chicago Times-Herald Race held on November 28th, 1895. 

As described in the 2nd issue of 'Horseless Age' in December 1895, rules stipulated that each vehicle be tested on an apparatus called a dynamometer.

A Dynamometer, (or 'Dyno' for short) is a device to determine power and torque of the 'power motivator'. In the case of the automobile, its engine. Dynamometers can be used in many other applications in many different forms, but for most modern car enthusiasts, they envision the rolling chassis type of dynamometer. A chassis dyno has a set of friction rollers that the car drives upon that the driving wheels turn to emulate a street/track driven automobile and determine horsepower and torque output for the entire drivetrain. There are other dynos that connect directly to the engine, but there is a horsepower loss when the rest of the drivetrain is included. So, to determine the exact horsepower where the rubber meets the road, a full rolling chassis dyno is necessary.  It was, and is, a critical component for engine and chassis tuning 128 years ago as it is to this very day. Their basic operation has not changed much in 100 years, but from 1910 through 1934, Vanderbilt Cup driver and engineer, Joe Tracy, felt he can make some improvements to the testing apparatus.

This 1895 Horseless Age photo of the Chicago race chassis dyno clearly shows the rollers that most modern auto enthusiasts would recognize.

Joe Tracy was brilliant engineer, and as such, was one of the original members of The Society of Automobile Engineers started by Henry Ford & Andrew Riker among others in 1905.

These 5 patents shown here are not all of his patents, there were others. For instance, in 1902, he obtained a patent on an automatic igniter for automobile engines, and in 1910, he invented, manufactured and sold fan and reaction dynamometers for testing engines. Those were not included in the Helck files, so for this post, we'll look at just these five.

For those interested in the more technical aspects of Tracy's impressive dyno improvements, I have provided a link displaying all descriptions and drawings of his work.

Patent #1642095 Sept. 13th, 1927

Fluid Dynamometer

Patent #1704412 March 5th, 1929

Gaseous-Fluid Dynamometer

Patent #1743409 Jan. 14th, 1930

Balanced Fluid Dynamometer

Patent #1944334 Jan. 23rd, 1934

Apparatus For Making Accurate Dynamometric Determinations

U.S. patents only protect the inventor's intellectual property within the United States. If the inventor wants international protections, they must apply within that country. Here, Tracy felt his patent important enough that he apply it with the Canadian Government as well.

Canadian Patent #302961 Aug. 12th, 1930

Fluid Dynamometer

The 1962 HolmanMoody Ford Falcon Challenger III on a modern chassis dynamometer at Ida Automotive

Tucker #1044 prior to restoration on the dyno at Ida Automotive