Gar Wood and Ten Miss America Race Boats Postcard

While spectators gathered in boats and ashore, Garfield “Gar” Arthur Wood and his mechanic, Orlin Johnson, raced Miss America X in the Harmsworth Trophy Race held in Marine City in September 1933. They won the race against Englishman Hubert Scott-Paine’s Miss Britain III. Miss America had four powerful 12-cylinder Packard engines, plus a supercharger that produced 6,800 horsepower. She won the 1932 and 1933 Harmsworth race and set a longstanding world record of 124 mph in a timed straightaway. Between 1920 and 1933, Wood won the Harmsworth race eight times as a driver and nine times as an owner. Besides being famous for being the world’s fastest boat racer, Wood was a wealthy industrialist who made his fortune by inventing the hydraulic dump truck lift. He became the first man to go 100 miles an hour on water, and the first to do two miles a minute in a boat. Miss America X was designed by Napoleon "Nap" Lisee. Mr. Lisee is credited with designing more than 30 of the world's finest race boats, including all ten Miss Americas, all of the Miss Detroits, all of the Baby Gars, Baby Americas, and Gar Jr. boats.