2015 INDUCTEES
Model T Era Legends
Charles Edward Hayes - Manufacturer
In 1912, Charles Edward Hayes (1872-1945) left Boston, Massachusetts, for Richmond, Indiana, to become president of the Pilot Car Sales Company,
the sales affiliate of Pilot Motor Car Company. Pilot could not produce cars as fast as Hayes could sell them. Therefore, Hayes and a group
of investors formed a company to build the E.I.M. cycle car.
Sales of the cycle car were poor, so in 1916, they formed the Laurel Motor Car Company of Richmond, Indiana to build the Laurel full size car.
In 1918, the company reorganized as the Laurel Motors Corporation of Anderson, Indiana and merged with Robert Roof’s own Roof Auto Specialty Company.
Roof became their chief engineer, with Charles Hayes as general manager.
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Henry A. House Jr. - Wire Wheel Manufacturer
Henry A. House Jr. was born on March 1, 1865, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Henry’s father, Henry House Sr., was one of the foremost inventors
of the 19th century. He was awarded many patents for improvements in manufacturing textiles, hats, paper plates, shredded wheat biscuits,
and many other products.
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MODERN LEGENDS
Rick Rawlins - Driver, Collector and Restorer
Over his lifetime, Rick Rawlins has collected antique sporting cars that include Mercer, Simplex, Packard, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Bentley,
and Model T Speedsters. He has vintage raced modern Formula and sports cars, as well as Model T‘s.
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Victor Jacobs - Driver, Collector and Restorer
Victor Jacobs was a successful business executive who lived in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is known as the father of the
Model T speedster hobby in Australia. In 1968, he found the remains of a Fronty-powered Model T racecar originally built in Australia.
Over several months, he restored the racecar and drove it extensively until his death in 1992.
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2015 RESTORATION of the YEAR
King’s Special - Restored by the Cronk family
Then donated to the Duke Hunt Historical Museum in Thunder Bay
Brothers Art and Arnold King of Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada, built the King’s Special between 1923 and 1925. They
invested $2200 into a 1919 Model T chassis, and produced a racecar that was eventually unrivalled in North-Western Ontario (it
even raced in the U.S.A.!). The home-built, single-seat racer was propelled by a Roof Victory 8 single overhead cam Model T
engine, with full pressure lubrication, a Scintilla high-tension magneto, twin Winfield carburetors, a geared water-pump, a
counter-balanced crankshaft, and a severely lightened flywheel.
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