1906 Stanley Vanderbilt

The 'Vanderbilt' Stanley was a thoroughbred racer designed to compete in the Vanderbilt Cup race in Long Island against the world's finest and fiercest gasoline motor cars. While the battle continued for supremacy amongst the fuel sources - be it electric, gasoline, or steam - the Stanley brothers had demonstrated the speed potential of their preferred propulsion system. Their streamlined racing car, dubbed the 'Woggle-Bug,' was driven by a company employee on the sand at Daytona Beach, Florida, where it achieved a speed of 127 mph and established a world record for the flying mile at 28.2 seconds, along with a new World Land Speed Record.

All three energy sources had potential, with steam being clean, virtually silent, and relatively easy to operate (once they warmed up). The 'flash' boiler nearly eliminated slow startups, and during the early 1900s, a broad range of steam car manufacturers was competing for the public's attention and dollars. Among the most famous and prolific were the steam cars from the Massachusetts workshops of former photographic equipment makers F.E. and F.O. Stanley. The Stanley brothers were identical twins who produced a wide range of steam automobiles between 1896 and 1924. Only the Columbia Automobile Company's electrics outsold them from 1899 to 1905.

The Stanley steam-powered automobiles used a double-acting two-cylinder engine with a fire-tube boiler that used a safety valve and was reinforced with piano wire. The steam vented from the early most was lost to the atmosphere, but in 1914, an ingenious recovery condenser system was added, which greatly increased the distance the vehicles could travel before needing to refill the water.

The Stanley Vanderbilt 'replica' uses a 34-inch boiler which is four inches larger than the Stanley 30hp. Most of the moving parts were built from titanium. It is believed that the engine produces in the neighborhood of 300 horsepower and around 1,000 ft-lbs of torque. The front and rear axles are 30hp Stanely, it uses Stanley gears, two-wheel mechanical brakes, a chain-driven rear differential, and a leaf spring suspension.

Period photographs of the Vanderbilt Stanleys were used in the creation of the replica.

By Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2022