Daytona Beach: the early days

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This early photo shows Daytona Beach in Florida which became famous in the early 20th century as a place for testing automobiles at high speed. The beach is long and smooth and flat, making it the ideal venue for speed trials. As Eric Breitenbach, who made a documentary about Daytona’s earliest racing days, says: “The beach was very wide and long, it was 500 feet wide at that time and 27 miles long, and it was completely flat. So it was possible to race a car at a high rate of speed on that beach.”

But there is some uncertainty over what exactly we are looking at here. According to one source this is the line-up of the First Daytona International Speed Trials in 1904, with 22 cars owned by residents of Daytona Beach. But another source suggests it could be a 1905 beach publicity photo arranged by the city of Daytona Beach to illustrate the width of the sands. 

There do seem to be 22 cars, which would suggest the former. But looking closley at this photograph, it doesn't suggest the startline of a race as there appear to be families on board. Or was this a fun shot taken prior to the action? Or perhaps this compelling picture was indeed a publicity shot. 

Daytona historian Leonard Lempel says: “The automobile had been around, but the problem was, it was just a play toy for the rich. When racing competitions started on the beach in 1903, cars were a luxury item that only very wealthy people could afford. Wealthy northerners came down and stayed at Ormond Hotel. They took their cars out on the beach, and started racing.”

And what could attract budding racing drivers any better then a line-up of luxury cars? If anybody can recognize any of the individual cars, please let us know. We’ve zoomed in on the picture and cut it up into three bits to give you a closer view. Ready, steady, go!

Words Jeroen Booij. Picture Freelibrary.org.

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