The Packard Powered Miss America X
Miss America X (left) and Kaye Don’s Miss England III (right) at the start of the 1932 Labor Day Harmsworth race.
The first thing that one will notice upon entering our museum at the Packard Proving Grounds Historic Site is the 38’ by 10’, eight-ton race boat built by racing legend Garfield Arthur Wood. Its impressive size with four huge Packard engines jutting out of the top instantly draws you in to take a closer look.
This race boat represents a significant piece of our local history and is significant to world history in terms of what an advancement it was in mechanical power.
Gar Wood and His Innovations
Gar Wood’s father moved his family from Iowa to Lake Osakis, Minnesota where he operated a ferryboat. Gar gained his mechanical skills and love of boat racing while working with his father. His education was furthered by studying at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago. From there he became a marine engine mechanic and continued with his inventions that were started before college. These inventions made him a good profit and enabled him to pursue racing. His inventions include:
- The first down-draft carburetor
- An induction-coil device that simulated lightning which aided him in the selling of lightning rods
- A 1912 patent for the hydraulic lift still used today on dump trucks
- A 1938 patent for hydraulics used to compact trash that is still used today by garbage trucks
A Packard Partnership
Chris Smith, from Chris-Craft in Algonac, Michigan, built many winning race boats for Gar.
In 1929 Gar Wood decided to form his own boat building company in Marysville, Michigan. His luxury series of “Baby Gar” boats were made of fine craftsmanship. Gar had built many boats that won five Gold Cup races. He also built the series of Miss America race boats that led up to the Miss America X.
Each boat that he built was improved for performance and speed. In order to create the fastest boat engine of that time, Wood turned to Packard, knowing their engineers were tops in quality and performance.
Packard was known for breaking records on land, in the air and at sea. Gar Wood purchased the five Packard engines that were in the Navy airship called the Shenandoah and placed four of them within his Miss America race boats.
Packard’s Liberty aircraft engine, America’s greatest contribution toward winning the Great War, became the basis for Miss America X’s engine design.
Gar Wood’s Racing Team. From left to right: Orlin Johnson (mechanic), Louis Switzer (mechanic), Gar Wood, Nap Lisee (master boat designer), Marvin J. Steele (Packard engine designer)
Engineering Challenges and Solutions
Gar Wood worked with Packard’s engineers every day, for several months, to experiment increasing the engine’s output. Wood’s ideas for improving power worried Packard’s engineers who believed such power would blow apart the boat’s hull. Together, they discovered the need to change fuel to one-third alcohol, one-third benzol, and one-third gasoline which made a huge difference. Fuel had been coming out of the manifold at 155 degrees above, whereas the change made the fuel come out at only 80 degrees.
Each engine with its superchargers weighed 1,700 pounds and produced 7,600 horsepower. These souped-up engines were used in previous Miss America boats. The two forward engines were in the Miss America VIII and the two second bank engines had been in three prior boats; the Miss America VI (which broke up on the St. Clair River in 1928), the Miss America VIII (which cracked up in Italy in 1929), and the Miss America IX (which set a world record of over 100 miles an hour).
Wood’s ideas for improving power worried Packard’s engineers who believed such power would blow apart the boats hull. The engine beds had to be strong enough for over four tons of metal sending a stick of wood over a hard, bounding surface of water at 125 per hour. Water at such a speed would act like a corrugated iron sheet of metal that would split the wooden hull apart.
Research was done to find the right kind of wood. It was decided that they would order in a shipment of Oregon spruce for the heavy stringers required for the full length of the hull. However, this was decided not to be enough. The correct planing angle had to be formed as well. It was formed by placing metal wedges beneath the forward plane. This made it adjustable and strong and would protect the wood from being ripped off by the hard water.
Gar Wood’s Miss America VI wreckage being pulled from the St. Clair River. It crashed on August 12, 1928.
The Harmsworth Race
As Gar Wood was preparing for the Harmsworth Race, it was decided that the course on the Detroit River was too risky with its sharp turns. Even though he had no problems with it, the British racers found the course dangerous. Eventually Gar agreed and a new course was found in Lake St. Clair just off of Grosse Pointe’s shoreline.
All Packard and Wood’s research and hard work paid off. Miss America X won the Harmsworth race in 1932 and 1933. After achieving the world speed record of 124.915 mph, held until 1937, he decided to retire from racing in 1934.
Gar not only had a sound boat with supercharged Packard engines, he had the help of his co-pilot, Orlin Johnson, and their lucky Teddy Bears to ensure the Miss America X to victory.
Legacy and Contributions
Although Gar Wood is most famous for his racing career it should be known that he contributed greatly to World War II’s war effort by designing the Navy Patrol Torpedo boat of which Packard also supplied engines for. You can learn more about Packard’s PT boat engines and view the beautiful Miss America X speed-boat at the Packard Proving Grounds. We welcome you to sign up for a tour on our website, here.
You can find footage of the Miss America X in action at the Harmsworth Race below or by checking out the YouTube video here.
