The Empire Motor Company was started by Indianapolis Motor Speedway founders Carl Fisher, James Allison, and Arthur Newby and mechanical engineer Robert Hassler to manufacture a low cost, four-cylinder, 20 horsepower car. It was 1909, the same year as the construction and opening of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Not only ...
James Allison
Racing on July 4 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
In its 115-year history, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has hosted a race over the July 4 holiday weekend only once. After resurfacing the Speedway with brick, the owners planned four events for the 1910 racing season—races on Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Labor Day weekends, and a 24-hour ...
You Ruined My Sauerkraut! Part II
After Prest-O-Lite’s second explosion, Indianapolis officials reluctantly agreed it could continue operations at the recently built South Street facility as the construction of the new River Road facility continued. As part of the agreement, Prest-O-Lite agreed not to have a large number of calcium carbonate tanks near the filling area. ...
You Ruined My Sauerkraut!
While Jim Allison and Carl Fisher were both successful businessmen, their lives were changed when Percy “Fred” Avery walked into Fisher’s automobile dealership in 1904 and showed him the contraption that would become the first reliable source of power for automobile headlights. They formed the Concentrated Acetylene Company to produce ...
Eddie Rickenbacker Purchases the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
After Frank Wheeler, one of the original founders, committed suicide on May 27, 1921, Jim Allison bought his shares making Allison the largest stockholder at 56.75%. Carl Fisher had moved to Miami Beach where he was busy developing Miami Beach and was planning an upscale development in Montauk, Long Island. ...