The Stanley Brothers built their first steam-powered car in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1897. Within a decade, they created the 'Fastest Car in the World,' the Stanley Rocket. F.E. Stanley fathered the project, completing the design, build, and test work in 1905. The Rocket looked like an upside-down canoe with four bicycle wheels, and it wasn't far from that. The body was built of wood and canvas by the Roberts Canoe Factory at Riverside, Mass. The Rocket weighed about 1,200 pounds including a two-cylinder engine and a steam boiler no bigger than the tub in a washing machine.The Rocket made its public debut on Ormond Beach in January 1906.
1906 Stanley Rocket
The Stanleys chose Fred Marriott, a daredevil racer, to pilot their car. The first day on the sand, the car won the Dewar Trophy and set a record in the one-mile steam championship. The next day he set a record in a five-mile open race. On January 26th, Marriott set a one-kilometer record at 121.6 mph, the first person to traverse two miles in less than a minute. Two hours later, he upped it to 127.7, a record that lasted until 1910.
