Barney Oldfield driving a front-wheel-drive Christie racer, circa 1913. Photo courtesy of Jack Shea and Fred Hill.
To many racing fans, the terms “motorsports” and “front-wheel drive” are mutually exclusive. With a few notable exceptions, racing at the highest levels has almost always favored rear- or all-wheel-drive cars, but at the dawn of the 20th century, inventor John Walter Christie set out to prove that front-wheel drive was a viable alternative for both production cars and racing cars.
A machinist by trade, J. Walter Christie had a passion for all things mechanical. In 1899, he established the Christie Iron Works to construct and refurbish strengthened gun turret components for U.S. and British warships, and with the proceeds built a state-of-the-art machine shop in Manhattan. Shortly after, Christie began to work on a line of automobiles, and a metal lathe developed for his maritime machining work inspired him to focus his efforts on vehicles driven by the front wheels.
The 1904 Christie racer, entered in the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup. Photo courtesy of VanderbiltCupRaces.com.
To be clear, Christie was not the first inventor to experiment with propulsion via the front wheels. The Cugnot steam carriage of 1770 was driven by a single front wheel, steered via tiller, and European automakers such as Gräf & Stift and Latil also tried to popularize front-wheel drive, but the challenge of driving the wheels that also provided steering proved to be daunting (particularly when front suspension was also factored into the equation). Christie’s design incorporated telescoping U-joints to resolve the issue, but this was hardly his only innovation. Starting with a transverse-mounted engine (of his own creation), Christie used crankshaft-mounted spur gears to drive the front wheels, originally through a transmission arrangement that featured dangerously exposed gears. This was amended with later evolutions, some of which featured dual right front wheels and tires to allow for the stresses of high-speed cornering.
Christie didn’t set out to build race cars, but as was common in the day, believed that racing victories could be used to sell road-going cars. Even before the official founding of the Christie Direct Action Motor Car Company in 1905, Christie was testing his design in speed trials at places like Ormond Beach, Florida, and the lessons learned were applied to the car that Christie entered in the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup. Though he had no hope of victory against the better-funded and well-established teams from Europe, Christie sought the exposure that even entering the Vanderbilt Cup would draw. Underpowered and considerably slower than the rest of the field, Christie gained more exposure than he bargained for when he collided with the Fiat of race leader Vincenzo Lancia (who would go on to found Lancia Automobiles), putting him out of contention and effectively handing the race to the Darracq of Victor Hemery.
At the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup. Photo courtesy of VanderbiltCupRaces.com.
Christie would try again for the Vanderbilt Cup in 1906, without success, but for 1907 set his sights even higher: Despite his cars lacking a record of racing victories, he constructed an entirely new racer to contest the French Grand Prix. Though carrying on Christie’s front-drive tradition, the new car was monstrous in proportion, boasting a V-4 that displaced an astounding 20 liters (1,214 cubic inches). Despite its sheer size, the Christie-built racer weighed in at a reported 1,800 pounds, at a time when most competitors were struggling to make the 2,200-pound weight limit. The car was the first American-built car to contest a Grand Prix event, and despite the fact that Christie tested the car to a top speed of 120 MPH before the event, it lasted only four laps before retiring with engine and clutch trouble. That placed the car 33rd out of 37 entrants, and Christie was criticized upon his return to the United States for jeopardizing the reputation of the entire U.S. automotive industry.
Later the same year, Christie was critically injured when driving one of his front-wheel-drive racers at an event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when he collided at high speed with debris from an earlier crash. The accident left him with a concussion, a broken wrist, back injuries, and a cut on his right eye that doctors feared would impact his vision. Though others would have taken this as a sign, Christie returned to campaigning his cars on the barnstorming circuit, with star driver Barney Oldfield and the “daredevil drivers,” in 1908. In the fall of 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was paved with brick, and in December of that year, Christie piloted one of his front-drive racers to a flying quarter-mile record of 8.37 seconds at 107.53 MPH; seven years later, Oldfield would use the same 140-hp Christie racer to turn the Speedway’s first lap above 100 MPH.
The 1907 French Grand Prix Christie racer with its 1,214-cu.in. V-4 engine.
By 1910, the company had constructed just 10 cars, including six racers, two roadsters, a touring car and a taxi cab prototype that Christie hoped would change the fortunes of the Christie Direct Action Motor Car Company. Instead of providing the marketing support his automobiles desperately needed, racing proved to be nothing more than a costly distraction. Worse, among those who’d piloted Christie automobiles, the cars had developed a reputation for their heavy steering and challenging handling, the result of an extreme front weight bias. When the taxi cab manufacturing business failed to take off, Christie focused his efforts on constructing front-wheel-drive tractors to tow (previously horse-drawn) fire apparatus, and the Front-Drive Motor Company (which would enjoy a reasonable amount of success) was born.
For all their innovation, the Christie front-wheel-drive racers were never a competitive success. Several of Christie’s designs, like his coil-spring front suspension, would appear on later race cars (including the Lancia Lambda, constructed by Vincenzo Lancia, Christie’s foe in the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup), but years would pass before Cornelius Van Ranst and Harry Miller would revive the idea of building front-wheel-drive racing cars. Even this era passed quickly, and modern motorsports shows no sign of embracing front-wheel drive (outside of production-based racing) any time soon. Still, front-wheel drive has become the layout of choice for modern automakers, so perhaps J. Walter Christie’s racers played more of a role in automotive history than they’re given credit for.