In 1902, the fastest automobile in the world was electric. At Staten Island NY, the Baker ‘Electric Torpedo’ achieved the miraculous speed of 100 mph.
The son of a wealthy industrialist, the 35 year-old Walter C. Baker was a co-founder of the American Ball Bearing Co. and the founder of the Baker Motor Vehicle Co. of Cleveland.
Walter C. Baker’s first streamlined race car was his 1902 Electric Torpedo. Under the teardrop-shaped body shell was a simple platform chassis with tandem seating for two and a chain-drive 14-horsepower Elwell-Parker electric motor mounted behind the passengers. Around them was an array of 40 lead-acid batteries to provide the energy.
On May 31, 1902, at a speed trial sanctioned by AAA (the Automobile Club of America) on a public road in Staten Island, NY with Baker at the wheel and his chief mechanic C.E. Denzer in the rear passenger seat, the Electric Torpedo was clocked at 100 mph; 25 mph faster than the existing world land speed record set in France a month earlier.
But only moments later, the vehicle lost control crossing a set of streetcar tracks and plunged into a group of spectators, striking three people and killing one instantly. Baker and his mechanic were immediately arrested for manslaughter at the scene, but when it was determined that the victims had crossed a safety barrier, the charges were dropped.
Undeterred at this point, Baker built two more electric teardrop racers (shown above). Smaller and lighter versions of the original Torpedo, they were named the Torpedo Kids and used Baker’s production car motors. With their sound aerodynamics and low center of gravity, Baker’s racers seemed to be years ahead of the prevailing technology.
In 1903 Baker retired from the speed business to concentrate on electric production cars.
This was an excerpt from an article titled “This Car Ran 100 MPH in 1902. . . And It Was Electric” from August 26 2021 by Bill McGuire at Motor City Garage.
OMG what a story. i was just MMOB and suddenly they were getting arrested for manslaughter! i always find stories about cars fascinating. i’m not sure you are old enough to have used encyclopedias, but i remember the “car of the future” being pictured in there (circa 1970) and dang if it didn’t look exactly like cars in like 2010. and i just ask “how?”
I’m glad you enjoyed this little article. It is just amazing to me that electric cars were ‘all the rage’ over 120 years ago
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And the Baker ‘Electric Torpedo’ looks so advanced. Years ahead of anything else in terms of aerodynamics. You’d assume it was was from the WWII era, not the Victorian era!
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I’ve heard of these books you spoke of; these “encyclopedias”. I guess they used to print up hardcopies of Wikipedia every year.