Carl Fisher's Premier Racer

Here's another shot from my trip last week to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500. This car is such a neat story and you can read the details in my photo gallery. Bottom line, this was a white elephant that Indianapolis Motor Speedway founder Carl Fisher commissioned to tackle the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup, at that time the biggest race in America. With patriotic flair, Fisher dreamed of getting the best of the world conquering European teams but he didn't make it to tech inspection. He discovered too late that the car violated weight regulations and could not be modified in time. He raced it once in a five mile handicap at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. One interesting point is that this display is incorrectly identified at the Speedway Museum. The car is listed as a "1903 Premier," designed for the first Vanderbilt Cup in 1904. The car was developed for the 1905 race. The concept of the Vanderbilt Cup was not even explored until January 1904.