Bonneville draws racers from around the world to challenge land speed records in over 1000 different classes. But Ab Jenkins was a local, a building contractor from Salt Lake City, and was likely the first person ever to drive a motored vehicle there. In 1910 Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries were to fight for the world heavyweight boxing title in Reno NV, and Jenkins was determined to attend (he would've been 26 or 27 at the time). 
Chunder Biebler. Scion and chief consiglieri of the Biebler family fortune. International man of mystery, hailed for his daring art, collector of wines and elegant women. Ever vigilant for hostile takeovers of BieblerCo
The Tucker 48 was truly a case of "building the plane while it's in the air," and remains maybe the most fascinating story in the history of the American automobile industry. 
That sort of "poser" image haunted the Corvette for decades, as the ultimate midlife crisis buy. But it did improve greatly over time. In 1957 Zora Arkus-Duntov took it from a driveway ornament to real racing success with the "Airbox" 300+ hp fuelie version. Its legitimacy of as a real race car was further cemented by Briggs Cunningham's 1960 Le Mans entry, the 1963 Grand Sport, and the unapologetically American bicentennial Greenwood Corvette.
Now the Eisenhower Instate System, it remains the largest public works project in the history of the world. Its original plan called for 41,000 miles of unimpeded multilane roads crisscrossing the country, and took 2 decades to complete.
It's still pretty common these days for vehicle models to be named for a place, mostly SUVs with a frisson of frontier mountain ruggedness: Denali, Yukon, Telluride, Sedona, Montana, etc., and mostly seen at Costco.
I've been privileged to meet both of these fellas, and written extensively about Roth, whom I consider to be the finest artist of the 20th century (no, I'm not kidding). I'm not the first, either; Ed Roth was central to Tom Wolfe's breakthrough Esquire article / book, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby. 
But here's the kicker: this was far from Roper's first powered two wheeler. "1896" may sound hella early, and it was (his death was a few days before Henry Ford puttered into the streets of Detroit with his first experimental Quadricycle), but Sylvester Roper had already been making motorcycles for 30 YEARS.
I wish to thank my Aussie pal Tim Blair for explaining his unbridled enthusiasm for "Highway Patrol" (despite his numerous unfortunate encounters with Australian road police) during a telephone conversation yesterday. For those who are unaware, it was a late 1950s crime show starring Broderick Crawford as gruff no-nonsense patrolman Dan Matthews, forever solving crimes and wildly violating civil liberties on the highways of some state that was never specified.
Let us all say Happy Memorial Day to those who happily sacrificed all so that Donald Trump would not have to pay 91 MILLION DOLLARS for ""DEFAMATION"" by Trump Hating Human Scum Judges!!
Born in Italy in 1882, Rafael DePalma grew up in Brooklyn NY, and briefly raced bicycles for a local shop. When the shop obtained one of the first Indian motorcycle dealerships, he suddenly became the first man to ride an Indian in competition in 1902. Later in the Oughts, he rode the insanely dangerous board track circuit aboard a Flying Merkel.
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