This video is a viral promotion for the Simeone Museum, a facility I know very little about, but on the surface appears outstanding. In June 2009 they ran an exhibition of two old race cars that figured prominently in what I like to call "the heroic age," or pre-1920 auto racing. One is a Stutz, another a Mercer.

This is a nice 10-minute clip that neatly summarizes the history of Vanderbilt Cup auto racing from 1904 through 1960. The initial Vanderbilt Cup was commissioned by William K. Vanderbilt Jr. in 1904 and was America's first major auto race.

This is an interesting video featuring one of the many cars in comedian Jay Leno's vast collection of automobiles. He does a great job of explaining the features of the 1909 Baker Electric and why such machines were a favorite of women of the era. Unlike the gasoline fueled internal combustion engines of those days, the electric required no hand cranking (because there was no crankshaft!) to start the power plant. Also, the electrics were cleaner - they did not require oil and had no exhaust.

In my blog yesterday I discussed the 105th anniversary of America's first great auto race, the Vanderbilt Cup. This event, ran on Long Island, New York, was wildly popular, attracting by some estimates a quarter of a million people in 1906 and 1910. Evidence of its cultural impact was the 1906 production of a Broadway musical staring a teenage singing and acting sensation, Elsie Janis.