Dodge Gold Cup Racing Runabout

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Description

Dodge Gold Cup Racing Runabout
HORACE was built for Horace Dodge in 1926 at the Dodge Boat Works in Detroit, Michigan. A triple-cockpit racer with seating for twelve, HORACE is 37.5 feet long and can achieve speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour. Designed by George Crouch, Dodge's vice president of engineering and production, HORACE was intended for racing in the Gold Cup, the 150-Mile Sweepstakes, and the President's Cup. The runabout ultimately won the Championship of the Potomac and achieved second place in the President's Cup Race. When not racing, HORACE was hoisted aboard the Dodge family's 257-foot yacht "Delphine" to serve as the launch.

After HORACE was retired from racing - and in anticipation of Prohibition - the boat was fitted with hidden compartments that could hold five 55 gallon kegs of Canadian Whiskey and was reportedly used for midnight runs across Lake St. Clair.

HORACE was placed in storage at the Dodge family's Grosse Point, Michigan estate from 1942 to 1983, where it was discovered in excellent condition. In 1984, HORACE was stripped, refastened, bleached, stained and received ten coats of Dutch Epifanes. The original wood was said to be in such outstanding and tight-fitting condition that no replacement wood was needed. HORACE undertook another restoration in 2001, and at that time, the name "Horace" was placed on the stern and the number "D37" on the sides, recalling its Gold Cup racing heritage.

Design and Construction

HORACE sits proud, with a seaworthy hull and upright bow angle, and displaces 9,000 pounds, making her yare in rough conditions. She is decked with double-planked mahogany, and a straight-grain spruce and resin-impregnated canvas sandwich below the waterline. The wide engine dictated in part the seven-foot, eight-inch beam and the Wright V-12 is cradled in a white oak engine bed, which also makes up the framing and keel.

Engine

HORACE retains its original 650-horsepower V-12 Wright Typhoon engine. Believed to be the only example of its type known to survive, the massive engine was designed and built by Wright Aeronautics, the firm founded by the noted aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright.