Sports / Business & brands
Gar Wood
1880–1971 · powerboat racer, inventor, industrialist
Detroit inventor and boat builder who dominated powerboat racing on the Detroit River and became the first person to travel over 100 miles per hour on water.
- Born
Mapleton, Iowa- Died
Miami, Florida
aged 90- Birth name
- Garfield Arthur Wood
- Also known as
- Garfield Wood
- Detroit years
- 1910s–1940s
- Field
- Sports, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Wood came to Detroit as a young man and made his fortune with a hydraulic hoist for dump trucks, founding what became Gar Wood Industries. In 1916 he bought a racing boat called Miss Detroit, and the hobby became an obsession. He built ever faster boats, powered by aircraft engines and named Miss America, and between 1920 and 1933 he won the international Harmsworth Trophy again and again, several times on the Detroit River before huge crowds. In 1920 he set a world water speed record on the river, and in 1931 a match race there against Britain's Kaye Don and Miss England II drew national attention. He became the first person to exceed 100 miles per hour on water and set his last record, over 124 miles per hour, in 1932. Honored in 1936 at Detroit's "City of Champions" banquet, he later built fine runabouts at Algonac, where he is buried.
Highlights
- First person to travel over 100 miles per hour on water
- Won the Harmsworth Trophy repeatedly between 1920 and 1933
- World water speed records with his Miss America boats, the last in 1932
- Founder of Gar Wood Industries (hydraulic truck hoists)
- Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, 1990
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Played here · 1916–1933
Detroit River race course
Wood set a world water speed record here in 1920 and raced Kaye Don here in 1931; the Detroit Gold Cup hydroplane races are still held on the river.