Gar Wood Vintage Speedboat Racing Miss Americas Postcard

Garfield ‘Gar’ Arthur Wood (December 4, 1880 – June 19, 1971) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, motorboat builder and racer who held the world water speed record on several occasions. He was the first man to travel over 100 miles per hour on water. In 1916, Wood purchased a motorboat for racing called Miss Detroit. Wood set a new world record speed for a boat, (74.870 mph) in 1920 on the Detroit River, using a new boat called Miss America. In the following twelve years, Wood built nine more Miss Americas and broke the record five times, raising it to 124.860 mph in 1932 on the St. Clair River. In 1921, Wood raced one of his boats against the Havana Special train, 1250 miles up the Atlantic coast from Miami to New York City. Wood made the trip in 47 hours and 23 minutes and beat the train by 12 minutes. In 1925, he raced the Twentieth Century Limited train up the Hudson River between Albany and New York and won by 22 minutes. As well as being a record breaker and showman, Wood won five straight powerboat Gold Cup races between 1917 and 1921. Wood also won the prestigious Harmsworth Trophy nine times (1920–21, 1926, 1928–30, 1932–33).