Description

Black and white check with red felt lettering: "Official Flag//The Great Electric Car Race//August 1968".

The Great Electric Car Race of August 26 to September 4, 1968 resulted from a challenge to MIT engineering students made by Wally Rippel, a senior at the California Institute of Technology who was passionately committed to the advancement of electric-powered automobiles. The race pitted a Caltech-designed vehicle travelling a specified race route from Pasadena, California to Cambridge, Massachusetts while an MIT-designed vehicle travelled in the opposite direction. "Victory" flags were waved when each car crossed their respective finish lines. This flag was used at MIT to mark the completion of the race by the Caltech Team.

This race was the first collegiate electric car competition (and only the 2nd and 3rd transcontinental crossing by an electric vehicle). It has also been considered instrumental in stimulating the development of modern electric vehicles, including the various hybrid car models now popular with consumers. While nothing survives of the MIT vehicle, a Corvair equiped with Nickel-Cadmium batteries weighing some 2000 pounds, this flag is a suitable souvenir of a race that continues to inspire MIT students to the present day.