In the few days since we recorded this talk, we've learned a lot more about its context, and the people in it! Huge thanks to Mark Richardson for the detailed information; Perry Doolittle was indeed not present for the majority of the drive; he designed the route, however. Doolittle joined the journey in Quebec, where he drove over the bridge and then returned to Toronto. It's worth noting that he claimed someone else had crossed the Pont de Quebec by car, illegally, a few years earlier- so he was not the first to cross the bridge. He then got back on a train to travel by rail to a CAA conference in Vancouver, but got off around Dryden to join the car on its drive to Winnipeg, where he spoke again and then left by rail for Vancouver. The pilot of the car, for 100% of the drive, was Ed Flickenger, who was a film maker and photographer employed by Ford. The people who did the actual driving were a succession of Ford executives from each of Ford’s local regions as the car travelled through. Doolittle never claimed to have made the drive. That story was started by Ford’s PR department in 1973 when they recreated the drive to publicize their new Mustang and Cougar. Auto journalists just went along with the statement and nobody ever checked it.
@K3NnY_G3 ай бұрын
Very interesting, thanks for taking the time to share; very curious how much info about this journey has been lost to time or just never was. Would be interesting to find where either the car, or even it's grille ended up.
@CanadianAutomotiveMuseum3 ай бұрын
Thanks for tuning in! Since recording this, we've learned a few more details about at least some of the people involved- I'm preparing a post on it as we speak.
@sjones13783 ай бұрын
Very interesting commentary on early off-roading and rail-riding in a car. Wondering how common these practices were.
@CanadianAutomotiveMuseum3 ай бұрын
Off-roading was basically universal, since there usually wasn't much by the way of paved or even gravel roads even by the 1920s, and driving cars on rails was a common industrial activity; most railways maintained a pool of cars converted to ride the rails for inspections and messenger duties.