Clean Air Car Race Coordinating Committee records

The Clean Air Car Race was a race of lower-emission cars from the campus of MIT in Cambridge, MA to the campus of Caltech in Pasadena, CA, held starting August 24, 1970. The race consisted of college and university led teams each entering a car that produced lower emissions or used an alternate fuel source. There were the following categories: internal combustion engines, steam engines, pure battery-powered vehicles (electrics), liquefied natural gas engines, liquefied petroleum gas (often propane) and turbine-powered vehicles. It included pre-, during, and post-race emissions testing as part of the factors for determining a winning team. In the process of setting up the race route, the organizers established the first U.S. transcontinental electric highway of charging stations.

The idea for the race was inspired by “The Great Electric Car Race of 1968” which was a cross-country electric car race of entries from MIT and Caltech travelling in opposite directions to the other school. The conception for the Clean Air Car Race took place in the fall of 1969 in correspondence between Professor Richard D. Thornton of MIT and Professor Jerome Shapiro of Caltech, discussing the possibility of a race open to all low-pollution vehicles. Subsequently, Dr. Milton Clauser, director of the Lincoln Laboratory and his twin brother, Dr. Francis Clauser, Dean of the Engineering School at Caltech, became key advocates for the race and attempted to get funding from General Motors.

The race was announced in November 1969. The race organizing committee formed in Mid-January 1970 with Robert G. McGregor, a master’s student in Mechanical Engineering at MIT chosen as the MIT student chairperson. The rest of the initial MIT committee consisted of Steve McGregor, assistant to the chair (junior majoring in history at Boston University), Dick Holthaus, director of finances (from the MIT Sloan School of Management), Ty Rabe, director of public relations (sophomore in mechanical engineering and business management at MIT), and Jason Zielonka, director of communications (senior in electrical engineering at MIT). In the spring, Craig Lentz (graduate student in Sloan School of Management) joined as an assistant to the finance director but eventually became the race coordinator, equal to the chairperson in most matters. Alberto Darna (MIT junior in business management) and Ron Francis (junior in civil engineering) were appointed to select the race route and set up electric changing stations, respectively. Members of the committee would be added, leave, or change roles throughout the race but most of the core team persisted throughout. MIT served a large role in coordinating the race due to more people and resources. Caltech eventually had one student volunteer for the committee (Blair Folsom) and was later replaced by another (Hal Gordon) who organized a small committee to organize post-race activities in Pasadena.

The coordinating committee was able to gather donations or discounts from several major companies and organizations, including General Motors and Ford, to many aspects of the race such as cars, lodging, mobile emissions testing labs, and more. The National Air Pollution Control Administration (NAPCA), part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) and later the EPA, became the primary monetary funder of the race and the documentary reports and films. James Killian helped in his role as MIT Chair of the Corporation when he could, looking for a good public relations story in the wake of protests on campus over the Vietnam War and MIT’s involvement in military research.

Participants arrived on MIT’s campus on the weekend of August 15 for a week of pre-race activities and emissions testing. The race began on August 24 in Cambridge, MA and lasted through August 30 with stops in Toronto, Detroit, Champaign, Oklahoma City, Odessa, Tucson, and ended in Pasadena. Post-race activities extended from August 31 to September 2.