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| The Wheel Problems of 1905 |
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Page 4 of 4
1905 was not the best year for the Green Dragon, it was still winning but a wheel collapsed in Connecticut, the car spun into the ocean at Ormond Beach, a blowout pitched Barney through the fence in Chicago and on August 9th, in Detroit, the Dragon violently hooked wheels with the Reo Red Bird and they both crashed.
Late in the fall of 1905 Barney took a job on Broadway and was to star in the play “Vanderbilt Cup”. Barney in the Green Dragon and Tom Copper in the Blue Streak were on stage on a tread mill with engines roaring and the scenery flying by, recreating the race. The play lasted until late spring of 1906.
Meanwhile, Louis Mooers had built the new 90- HP Green Dragon and was ready for the 1906 racing season. On May 1st Barney won the 50 mile event at Lexington, Kentucky. Peerless won a few more races that spring but Peerless had decided to drop out of racing. Barney Oldfield's contract was not renewed and June of 1906 Peerless sold the Green Dragon and Blue Streak to Barney. He outfitted a railroad car, hired a promoter and went barn storming throughout the United States, putting on exhibition races at County fairgrounds supposedly breaking his own speed records. In April, 1908 Barney sold both Peerless race cars.
In 1916-1917 another race car was built with the Peerless V-8 engine by a Peerless dealer and called the Green Dragon. It won a few races but with war breaking out the car was used for display. I read a newspaper article, 1923, of a Peerless V-8, winning a race in St. Louis. But I can’t find out anything more about it.
Credits: “Barney Oldfield” by William Nolen, The Automobile, The Motor World, Peerless Co-operators, and Peerless ads.
