The machine is throbbing under you with its cylinders beating a drummer's tattoo, and the air tears past you in a gale. It is June 20, 1903. Now his agent is telling a group of rube reporters about the thrilling rigors of unimaginable speed. Average lungs can't overcome the outward force and the result is like strangulation.
Blood rushes to the head, temporary but complete paralysis of mind over body occurs.
The thrill of such speeds, and such hype, was not confined to flacks. Men were white-faced and breathless, while women covered their eyes and sank back, overcome by the recklessness of it all. The car had been designed and built by Henry Ford, an obscure Detroit automaker. It was Barney Oldfield who made Ford a household word. Of course 999 was nothing like the regular cars Ford made, but they were pretty good, too.