AMONG surviving brass-era American cars, few have a story as rich as that of the 1911 Oldsmobile Autocrat known as Yellow Peril.
Bought new by John Henry Greenway Albert, it began as a standard touring car before becoming a one-off competition machine with custom coachwork and unusual mechanical experiments.
But racing was only part of its life.
The Old Cars website says that Oldsmobile also became part of the public identity of an Old West town, and survived with an unusually complete record of ownership, restoration and continued use.
Mr Albert, a Maryland-born mining engineer with a taste for speed and experimentation, bought the Oldsmobile Autocrat new in 1911 and quickly reworked it for competition.
With help from his chauffeur-mechanic, Columbus Ridge, he replaced the original body with aluminium speedster body work, enlarged the radiator core and added an experimental fuel-induction system of his own design.
Before long, he was running the car on tracks and road courses in Maryland, Delaware, Washington, and elsewhere along the East Coast.
The car’s best-known outing came in the Labor Day Free For All at Benning Race Track in Washington, DC in 1915.
Albert lost control on the rain-slick course, slid off the track and rejoined the field from far behind before charging back through much of the pack.
Then an engine fire near the finish ended the run but the incident became central to the car’s legend and helped secure its place in early American motorsports lore.
Outside of the racing universe, Yellow Peril made its mark on a more local level.
Much of the car’s lasting identity was shaped in Tombstone, Arizona, one of the most storied places in the American West.
There, dreams of quick wealth in a supposed Eldorado had long since given way to the harder realities of life in a desert mining town, a contrast captured in the nickname Helldorado.
Mr Albert, who prospered there as a mining engineer, brought both money and mechanical curiosity to the project when he bought the Autocrat and set about turning it into something very much his own.
He rebuilt the rear in a pointy speedster form using aluminium, then devised an unusual induction system that used exhaust heat, hydrogen and free oxygen to create a vapour drawn into the engine by vacuum.
The goal was not extra power so much as cleaner running and less carbon buildup over time.
The car was then painted bright yellow, and he gave it the now-famous name Yellow Peril and then raced it widely along the East Coast.
By his own telling, his only defeat came on that Labor Day 1915 in Washington, DC, when he skidded off course.
He was deeply attached to his cars, especially Yellow Peril, and when it was no longer a serious competition machine, he found a new use for it.
Drawing on Tombstone’s famous nickname, he helped establish the town’s annual Helldorado Days festival each October.
For parade duty, the car was modified again with a ‘mother-in-law seat’ so it could carry the Helldorado Queen.
John Albert died in August, 1968, leaving behind a lasting civic legacy in Tombstone and with Yellow Peril, by then closely tied to the town’s identity.
In the decades that followed, the car passed through several owners, was carefully restored and eventually appeared at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction in August 2017, where Ted and Mary Stahl acquired it.
Even today, the car remains operable both as a Brass Era machine and as a ceremonial parade car. Its huge engine, 38-inch wheels and imposing size make it feel very different from anything that came later.
That combination of competition use, civic afterlife and continued enjoyment invites closer attention to the model itself, and to the technical features that John Albert installed upon it.
Marketed as the Autocrat, the Oldsmobile Series 28 was a mid-range four-passenger model produced in Lansing, Michigan., for the 1911 and 1912 model years.
Derived from the company’s flagship Oldsmobile Limited, it employed four of the Limited’s large T-head cylinders rather than the six found in the Limited.
The Autocrat was available in five body styles painted the standard colours of Brewster Green, Royal Blue or Cardinal Red while interiors were hand-buffed leather.
Standard Autocrat features included 8-inch-diameter headlights; side lights; taillights; Trauffault-Hartford shockabsorbers; an Oldsmobile dragon horn and a tool kit.
Oddly, a top assembly on open cars and a windshield were optional. An air-type self-starter system was also optional.
The base price for an open Autocrat touring, roadster or tourabout was $3500, a huge sum in 1911, while the limousine was even higher in price at $5000.
The Autocrat received early publicity when Oldsmobile entered two factory prototypes in the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island, where team captain Harry Stillman finished 11th.
Only 1000 Autocrats were produced for 1911, making them rare when new, and even more so 115 years later.
Yellow Peril is powered by the Autocrat’s T-head inline four of 471 cubic inches (7.7litres) factory rated at 40 hp (30kW) and backed by a four-speed sliding-gear manual transmission. It rides on a 124-in. (315cm) wheelbase with a solid front axle, semi-elliptical leaf springs, a full-floating rear axle and later hydraulic rear brakes.
In 1962, John undertook a modest cosmetic refurbishment that included new paint and tyres, and he continued to display and operate the car until his death in 1968.
The Oldsmobile then passed through a well-documented chain of owners committed to preserving, restoring and driving it.
His widow kept the car for several years before selling it in 1976 to collector Thomas Hubbard, who wrote about it in the Antique Automobile Club of America’s Antique Automobile publication. Hubbard then sold it to Curtis Graf of Texas.
Under Graf’s ownership, Yellow Peril returned to competition in the Great American Race, running in 1984, 1985 and 1986 and finishing in the top ten in 1985.
Ahead of those appearances, Graf restored the car’s mechanicals with help from Tom Lester’s respected machine shop and restoration facility. T
The car subsequently passed to William Lassiter, who maintained it in running condition and exhibited it at select events.
In 1999, it was acquired by Phil and Carol Bray of Grosse Ile, Michigan, who were touring enthusiasts and drove it more than 15,000 miles (24,000km) in major events, including the 2001 Trans-Continental Tour and the 2002 Red Rock Tour.
Following another 2008 restoration, the car appeared at the Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance, where it received Best in Class honours.
Later, Ted and Mary Stahl acquired Yellow Peril for the Stahls Motors & Music Experience in Chesterfield, Michigan, where it remains today.
Despite multiple restorations and plenty of touring miles, the car still retains much of its original equipment, including its original engine, drivetrain and a substantial amount of its early bodywork. That makes it not just an authentic road-going competition car, but an unusually well-documented one.
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