Stoddard-Dayton Conquers Los Angeles

The support for the nascent automobile industry of early 20th century Indianapolis was evident in the Hoosier capital's major daily newspapers. Here is a December 1907 photo with a substantial cutline concerning the success of a Stoddard-Dayton touring car in an annual Los Angeles-area hill climb.

Stoddard-Dayton was manufactured in Dayton, Ohio but it was one of the premiere marques sold at Indianapolis' original sales dealership - the Fisher Automobile Company. That dealership was owned by Carl Fisher who went on to found the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and launch a number of businesses and other projects.

It's no accident Stoddard-Dayton became the first pace car of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Actually, it was the first pace car in the world as the use of a "street" car to pace an auto race was one of the great innovations of the the Indianapolis 500. That idea spread like a virus to other events as the obvious opportunities for commercial investment associated with the honor became clear to event promoters.

Start at the link in the first sentence of this post to dig into more great information about this important car brand unfortunately now relegated to museum artifacts...