The Hardest, Longest Race – Autographed

Hardcover copy, signed by the author.  Special Member discount

How Ford Motor Co. cheated Shawmut Motor Co. from Stoneham in an epic cross-country race

In 1909, America was home to 253 automakers, a landscape of visionaries, schemers, and would-be barons of the new century. But when playboy millionaire M. Robert Guggenheim announced an audacious coast-to-coast auto race from New York City to the Seattle World’s Fair, only three of those companies were brassy enough to show up at the starting line: Acme, Ford, and Shawmut – the latter built in a tiny factory in Stoneham, Mass.

Ford was looking to make a name for its tiny affordable runabout – the Model T, while Shawmut was struggling to survive after a devasting factory fire in 1908.

The race would take weeks on a brutal 4,106-mile course of mountain ranges, mud bogs, washed-out wagon bridges, and harrowing canyon trails, long before the era of asphalt highways, seatbelts, and service stations.

But Henry Ford was intent on proving that the Model T could go the distance and beat out the muscular luxury cars—and he didn’t plan to leave it to chance. Indeed, a little over three weeks after the race began, a Ford crossed the line hours ahead of the Shawmut.

Except that victory was a fraud.

Author Eric Moskowitz illuminates the harrowing adventure, including the dirty tricks and downright sabotage that meant the Shawmut Motors crew from Stoneham – drivers T. Arthur Pettengill, Robert Messer, and mechanic Earle Chapin – were robbed of their moment in the spotlight as the true winners of the race.

This is a special price at a discount from the list price of 31.  Very limited supply.