?Jay Leno's 1913 Mercer Raceabout was the Lotus Exige of Its Day - RoadandTrack.com (blog)
And yet, as Jay Leno points out in the video below, it was good for an honest 100 mph well before WWI broke out—an astounding pace for the time. It took decades before street-legal cars could regularly best this Brass Era car (admittedly, some did in the interim, but not frequently). Yet the little Mercer won races, was owned by playboys, and had a Mustang-vs-Camaro style rivalry with its main competitor, the Stutz Bearcat. Watch Leno start up the Mercer and take it for a spin. Source: www.roadandtrack.com
