The Mobil Economy Run

FUEL-EFFICIENT FUN! The Mobil By Sheryl James Economy Run It was an oh-so-Detroit scene that April 9, 1967. As hundreds of spectators and news media looked on, 41 cars motored past the official finish line in front of Cobo Hall. The vehicles, all American-made models, were completing the wildly popular, annual contest known as the Mobil Economy Run. Winners would be declared in seven different classes as soon as official experts made their measurements. But these drivers and cars would not win for best racing times. They were vying for best gas mileage rates. 28 | MICHIGAN HISTORY ithin a short time, it was determined that the Oldsmobile Toronado, at 16.4821 miles per gallon. But cut 1967 Mobil Economy Run winners included this boat some slack; it was in the Luxury Cars class. Wthree Plymouths—the Valiant, Barracuda, and The 41 contenders had begun this test five days earlier, Belvedere II—in, respectively, the Compact Six-Cylinder, April 4, in Los Angeles. They had driven 2,886 miles over Compact Eight-Cylinder, and Intermediate Eight-Cylinder all kinds of country and city routes, over mountains and classes. These models averaged between 20.0111 and plains. They had made overnight stops in Stateline, Nevada; 24.5722 miles per gallon of gas. Salt Lake City, Utah; Denver, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; The other classes were won by such models as the and Chicago, Illinois. Each day’s route was kept secret Buick LeSabre, Chrysler 300 (the original version), and until the driving began—usually in the wee hours of the the Chevrolet Impala SS. Lowest mileage went to the morning. The competitors in the 1967 Run made a fuel stop in Craig, Colorado and were saluted by a high school marching band. Courtesy of the Museum of Northwest Colorado. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 | 29 Needless to say, Plymouth folks were giddy over the produced most of the vehicles that competed, was not the results as they spoke to the Detroit Free Press. “We’re very destination point more often is a mystery. proud to win four out of seven,” said a “jubilant” Robert As auto aficionados know, racing and automobiles Anderson, Chrysler Corporation vice president and general have always gone hand in hand. Henry Ford drove his manager of the Chrysler-Plymouth Division, though he own vehicle in Detroit’s first auto race in 1901, mainly to was misinformed on the total Plymouth wins. earn money to start his third business—the Ford Motor Standing at the finish line, Anderson continued, “It’s a Company. But the Mobil Economy Runs chronicled a tribute to the versatility of our engineers. I don’t remember different kind of race, and a lot of American historical a time when one car performed as well as the Plymouth did trends as well. on the stock car racing circuit last year and then came back It all began when a prototype run was launched in and performed so well in the economy run.” 1936 by the Gilmore Oil Company of California, which Today, most people equate great car races with the merged with Mobil Oil in 1946. Mobil took over formal Indianapolis 500 or the Grand Prix circuit. But those with long memories will recall that the Mobil Economy Runs were equally well-known. Also often called the Mobilgas Economy Runs, these races occurred from 1936 through 1968, with the exception of the war and post-war years 1942 through 1949. Sponsored by Mobil Gas and sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC), the events involved not race cars, but new-model passenger vehicles driven on designated cross-country routes over several days. The cars, drivers, and routes were strictly supervised so the “winners” could honestly claim that they achieved the best gas mileage. The Economy Runs all began in Los Angeles, but the end points varied. On three occasions, they concluded Top: All drivers followed the same route and were given their maps on a day-by-day basis. in Detroit: in 1962, 1963, and 1967. Above: Arthur Hesskamp, Carl Diehl, Bob Knoll, and Robert Cahill were Chrysler engineers who Exactly why the Motor City, which participated in the Runs. Both images courtesy of Bob Knoll. 30 | MICHIGAN HISTORY sponsorship of the event in 1950. The first Runs were Strict rules governed the Mobil Economy Runs from the two days long, from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon, outset. All competitive cars had to be bought at dealerships but eventually were expanded to six-day events that ran by USAC representatives. Detroit was central in this; from the West Coast to points at or near the East Coast. one 1960 Detroit News article details that nine of about In 1956, the United States Auto Club began to sanction 50 passenger cars competing in the Run that year “were and supervise the events; this relationship lasted until the secretly selected last week from Detroit assembly lines and Economy Runs warehouse stocks.” ceased in 1968. The cars were According to checked to be a report by John sure they were Heitmann, a standard, not professor of history enhanced for better at the University performance. After of Dayton (Ohio), being approved, records showed the hood and that, through chassis of each was 1967, 815 cars sealed. The cars drove a total of then were shipped 1,504,117.8 miles to the location of and averaged the Run’s starting 21.5019 miles per point. gallon. Occupants Calling the of each vehicle Mobil Economy included a driver, Runs “the largest a relief driver, single public and a USAC relations effort of official observer. any corporation According to his during the 2006 New York immediate post- Times article, WWII era,” Bob Knoll, then Heitmann noted an engineer for that despite the Chrysler’s road passage of time test department, and considerable drove a Plymouth manufacturing Valiant in the 1964 differences, gas Mobil Economy mileage rivaled Run, along with that of today. For John Galicki, who instance, a 1936 worked at the four-cylinder Chrysler Proving Willys achieved Ads like this, for a 1952 Mercury, made a point of trumpeting the model’s award-winning Grounds. 33.21 mpg; a performance in the Mobil Economy Run. Courtesy of Time magazine. Each car’s trunk six-cylinder 1961 held a special Ford Falcon reached 32.68 mpg; and even a 12-cylinder tank filled with gas that had been measured. The drivers 1938 Lincoln Zephyr got 23.47 mpg. But why, we might were allowed 2,500 “break-in” miles. This enabled them ask in 2012, were people obsessed with gas mileage in an to get to know the cars prior to the competition. But they era awash in cheap gas and a consumer base that seemed were accompanied during this period as well as during the unlikely to care much about miles per gallon? Heitmann official Run. The USAC observer could penalize for any suggested that, “apparently, until collective memories of the deviation off course, traffic violations, speeding, rolling Great Depression faded, Americans continued to place a stops—you name it. “It was like driving with a very high value on thrift.” attentive mother-in-law in the back seat, an eagle eye on SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 | 31 the speedometer,” Knoll wrote. During the actual Run, drivers would be penalized for arriving late to checkpoints. This meant they had to spend time idling after the morning start, putting them behind the other cars. Over time, the Runs reflected American life as it changed through and beyond World War II, into the Space Age and social upheaval of the late 1960s. For example, though the first automatic transmission cars ran in 1953, such a transmission was required in all competing cars after 1955, except in compacts in 1961 and 1962, according to Mobil records. The first women drivers competed—and won—in 1957. By 1960, 20 of 56 drivers were women, according to the April 18, 1960 issue of Time magazine: “Among them were a grandmother, seven housewives, a bobbysoxer, a women’s club president, a would-be astronaut and a café singer.” Women took first place twice and second place once. Time’s write-up further documents the era’s attitude on women and the battle between Above: Shirley Shahan, a drag racer by profession, proved she could drive economically in the 1967 Run. the sexes. “To salve male Courtesy of the National Hot Rod Association. Facing page: Mobil stations distributed brochures to motor- souls, the female showing was ists, driving home the lessons to be learned from the Runs. Courtesy of the Old Car Manual Project. not entirely based on driving skills. Explains blonde Mary Davis, 31, Hollywood restaurant owner and one of the we were leading him.’” class winners: ‘We women did damned well in the mouth Time went on to describe that to the “tall, slim Mary department—and we didn’t do too badly in the driving Hauser, a Hollywood housewife who knows little about the either.’ At the stops along the course, the women indeed innards of the automobile (‘I don’t even know where the oil did a good job of talking their male competitors into states stick is’) the economy run seems relatively simple.” Hauser, of nervous exhaustion. Said Mary Davis: ‘Anyone who’s on who won one of the classes, told Time, “I think male the road for hours at a time like this is inclined to be tense drivers are high-strung, tense, too worried about stepping and irritable anyhow. All we women did was say things like, on the accelerator without thinking.

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