·         The first ever motor race was run in Paris on 20 April 1887.  Comte Jules deDion was the sole entrant on his steam quadricycle.

·         The first motoring magazine Le Locomotion automobile went on sale in Paris on 1 December 1894. 

·         On 11 December 1894 the first motor show, Exposition Internationale de Velocipede et de Locomotion Automobile opened in Paris.  

·         Edouard Michelin was the first competitor to use pneumatic tires driving a Daimler in the Paris–Bordeaux race of 1895.  He changed tires 22 times. 

·         The first motoring organization in the world was the American Motor League, formed in Chicago on 1 November 1895. 

·         The first automotive fatality was Bridget Driscoll run over at the Crystal Palace London on 17 August 1896 by a Benz driven by Arthur Edsell.  

·         The first motor insurance policy was written on 2 November 1896 in England by the General Accident Company.  The premium was 30 Shillings excluding damage caused by frightened horses. 

·         Motor racings first fatal accident occurred on May 1 1898 during the Course de Perigueux in south west France.  The Marquis de Montignac and his mechanic died when their Landrey-et-Beyroux ran off the road as a result of de Montignac taking his hand off the steering tiller to wave thanks to another competitor for letting him past.

 ·         The first woman to take part in a motor race was Mme Labrousse who came fifth in the Paris Spa race on 1 July 1899.

 ·         On 19 June 1903 Barney Oldfield achieved the first circular mile in under one minute at the Indiana State Fair dirt track at a speed of 60.4 mph.

 ·         The world output of cars in 1903 was 61,927.  Of these 30,204 were French, 11,235 American, 9,437 British, 6,904 German 2,839 Belgian and 1,308 Italian.

 ·         The first man to officially exceed 100 mph was Louis Rigolly in a Gabron-Brille on 19 June 1903.

 ·         The first mass produced car was the curved dash Oldsmobile. 5,508 were built in 1904, it cost $650 and had a top speed of 20 mph.

 ·         The Targa Florio race, a 150 Km circuit of Sicily, was first organised by Count Vincenzo Florio in 1906.

 ·         The first race titled Grand Prix was arranged by the Auto Club de France in 1906.

 ·         The first supercharged car was a Chadwick.  Willie Haupt first raced it in a hillclimb on 30 may 1908.

 ·         The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was completed and the first race held on 19 August 1909.  It is the worlds longest established motor racing venue still in use.

 ·         Isotta-Fraschini was the first manufacturer to introduce front wheel brakes.  They were used for the first time in the 1911 Indianapolis 500.

 ·         Ralph Mulford saw no hope of winning the 1912 Indianapolis 500 so he completed it at 56 mph to qualify for starting money.  He even stopped for lunch.

 ·         Peugeot driver Jules Goux was reported to have consumed six bottles of champagne on his way to victory in the 1913 Indianapolis 500.

 ·         At the 1916 Indianapolis 500 drivers Eddie Rickenbacker and Peter Henderson wore steel helmets.  The first time crash helmets were used in a race.

 ·         The first Coppa Acerbo race in 1924 was won by Enzo Ferrari in an Alfa-Romeo.  He was awarded the title Commendatore by Premier Mussolini.

 ·         In October 1937 Bernd Rosemyer was the first to exceed 400 Km/h driving an Auto Union on the Darmstadt- Frankfurt autobahn.

 ·         The Mercedes-Benz W165 racing cars were in Switzerland when World War Two broke out.  Under international law they were interned for the duration.  (There is no record as to whether the Red Cross was           alowed to ensure they were being properly cared for).

·         The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was formed on 14 December 1947.

·         Disk brakes were used for the first time by the Croze brothers in the 1951 Indianapolis 500.

·         The phrase 'Gentlemen, start your engines' was first used to start the Indianapolis 500 in 1957.

·         Slick tires with no tread pattern were first used in premier motor racing in 1970.

·         The total prize money for the Indianapolis 500 exceeded $1 million for the first time in 1970.

·         Two way radio communication between driver and pits was used for the first time by Al Unser in the 1971 Indianapolis 500.

·         Ferraris 500^th Grand Prix was the 1992 Hungarian GP.

Does the statement, "We've always done it that way" ring any bells? ... read to the end... it was a new one for me   

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.   Why did the English build them like that? 
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.   

Why did "they" use that gauge then?  Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. 
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads?  Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions.
The roads have been used ever since.   And the ruts in the roads?  Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.  The United States standard railroad gauge of 4feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

And bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Now the twist to the story When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.  The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah.  The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. 

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.        
 

... and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!

Thanks to all the the other Newsletter readers who sent jokes in, please keep them coming. Even if I don't publish them, the staff and I certainly appreciate them.