September 17: The first coast-to-coast trip in an Olds ends on this date in 1903

YAHOO AUTOS

                    

By Justin Hyde @ Motoramic

            

        

The summer of 1903 sparked three separate attempts to cross the United States by car — all starting in San Francisco.

 

The first two used expensive touring cars, but the third venture by Lester Whitman and Eugene Hammond drove the inexpensive 7-hp Olds Runabout, sponsored by Ransom Olds.

 

The trip took 79 days, including 12 days lost to repairs and several days lost to conditions ranging from floods to sandstorms.

 

Technically, they didn't make the entire trip under their own power — they had to be towed by horses in Nevada — but Whitman and Hammond set a world's record for the longest drive to date, and delivered the first transcontinental letter by car, or what we'd consider today a slow riding lawnmower.