The Vanderbilt Cup
Leave it to a Vanderbilt to popularize automobile road racing in America.
It made some sense, really. William Kissam Vanderbilt I, grandson of shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, owned horses that won many major races across Europe, and his sons inherited their father’s love of sporting competition. Harold won the America’s Cup, yacht racing’s most prestigious award, three times, and also invented contract bridge. Meanwhile, William Kissam Vanderbilt II — or “Willie K.,” as he liked to be known — also sailed, winning the Sir Thomas Lipton Cup in 1900. Willie K. also enjoyed motorized transport from an early age; when he was 10, he rode a steam-powered tricycle from his family’s home in France to Monte Carlo, and a decade later ordered a de Dion-Bouton trike for use at home in New York.
At the turn of the century, a series of high-powered cars became Willie K’s playthings. In 1902, he became the first man to travel faster than 60
