Dodge’s aero-engined 1926 Gold Cup Racing Runabout

Story By David Traver Ad olphus, Hemmings
Photography courtesy The Worldwide Group

Horace Elgin Dodge, Junior, thought he might be able to do with boats what Dodge Senior was doing with cars. He wanted to sell them nationally,as a retail commodity and not as an individual purchase like a house; and he wanted to create a rival to Chris-Craft, Hacker and Gar Wood, as Dodge competed with the other major manufacturers.

After the elder Dodges, Horace Senior and his brother John, died in 1920, the next generation, Horace Junior and John Duval were too young to take the reins at Dodge. Starting in 1923, Horace Junior began to shop the idea of a Dodge boat around at the National Automobile Show (New York Auto Show), and using feedback from that venture, started producing Dodge Watercars in 1924, available through your local Dodge dealership.

With millions in his pockets after the sale of the company in 1925, Horace Junior had the wherewithal to take his vision to an Olympian plateau, and The Dodge Boats Works’ vice-president, George Crouch, designed a 37.5-foot runabout for him to race.

The eponymous Horace seats 12 in three cockpits; the rear position faces the gauges of the 650-horsepower Wright Typhoon V-12 that helps it reach speeds of 60 mph or more. She competed in at least three Gold Cup contests as D37, winning the 1926 Potomac River Championship race, finishing second in the 1926 President’s Cup, and dropping out after 11 laps of the 150-Mile Sweepstakes.

Horace sits proud, with a seaworthy hull and upright bow angle, and displaces
9,000 pounds, making her yare in rough conditions. She is decked with doubleplanked mahogany, and a straight-grain spruce and resin-impregnated canvas sandwich below the waterline. The wide engine dictated in part the seven-foot, eight-inch beam and the Wright V-12 is cradled in a white oak engine bed, which also makes up the framing and keel. Between races, Horace docked aboard the Dodge family’s 257-foot steam launch, Lady Delphine, as their tender.

As the boat itself suggests, Horace Junior himself was no shrinking violet. He was famous for his adventures with wine and women, and the boat’s later history has his imprint all over it. He put its size and speed to good use, fitting it with hidden compartments that held five 55-gallon kegs of Canadian whiskey, for midnight runs across the border on Lake St. Clair during Prohibition.

Stored during WWII, Horace emerged from the Dodge family’s Grosse Pointe,
Michigan, estate in 1983, when she was fully restored. Today, she resides in the
collection of Grundy Insurance President Jim Grundy, the only V-12 Dodge
you’re ever likely to see.

The Grundy Weekly Reader decided to use this article after our company received a letter from the Weymouth & Smith Agency, stating: "Perhaps, this is the first boat that has ever appeared in an issue of Hemmings Motor News. Such elegance, artistry and what a piece of history!"

We were inspired to share and hope you enjoy!