Auto racing

“ I confess that motor racing appeals to me as the greatest sport evolved by man. Competitive effort for any reward except the gain of money is exhilarating and ennobling to the individual character. The curse of commercialism is the ruin of every sport and any degeneracy of motor racing as a sport is due to the financial issues new involved in each race—the immense value of victory and the commercial disaster of defeat. ”

“ It is advisable to slow down to the pace at which the car can be pulled up immediately a horse shows signs of wanting to monopolise the whole of the road. This danger is very much increased if the horse is attached to a cart with a long piece of timber projecting at the back, as a very small movement of the animal may completely block the road. One or two very bad accidents have occurred thus.
In driving at high speeds avoid trying to look behind. A Belgian nobleman was lately killed owing to taking a glance behind him when driving a racing car. ”

“ Two of the requirements for entering the race were that the car had to be made in the school shops and that it must have a certain kind of a wheel, which in this case was one condemned by a local factory, thus making the wheels and wheel base of all cars alike. Two boys to a car constituted a racing team, and during the race they could exchange positions at their pleasure. The necessity of "nursing" their cars down the steep grades and around difficult corners developed into an important factor. ”

“ Even with the aid of racing, however, the development of the motor-car has been a matter of slow growth, and by many new recruits to the pastime it may be learned with surprise that a competition was held in France so long ago as 1894, from Paris to Rouen, when the cars of Panhard et Levassor and Peugeot Freres shared the leading honours, with motors of 31/2 h.-p. The times are not recorded. It was not until June 1895, however, that the foundation of a series of classic events was laid by a race from Paris to Bordeaux and back, 732 miles, when a 31/2-h.-p. ”

“ Since the days of Roman chariot racing the records of man describe nothing that parallels automobile racing, and, so far as we have any knowledge, chariot racing, save for the plaudits of vast throngs of spectators, was tame and uneventful compared with the frightful pace of sixty and eighty miles an hour in a throbbing, bounding, careering road locomotive, over roads practically unknown, passing persons, teams, vehicles, cattle, obstacles, and obstructions of all kinds, with a thousand hair-breadth escapes from wreck and destruction. ”

“ In less time than it takes to write we saw that it was an enormous racing automobile, probably undergoing a test of speed. We were running at our own highest pace, perhaps forty-five miles an hour; the thing approaching us was coming at seventy or more. You may imagine the rush of air as we passed each other. One glimpse we had of a masked automobilist like a figure of death in an Albert Dürer cartoon, or the familiar of a Vehmgericht, and then we were gasping in the vortex of air caused by the speed of the gigantic car. ”

“ Dozens of the racers owned their own cars, and others raced at their own expense. New cars were built for every race, each new car making a big advance over former cars. Cars were not ready until the very last minute before the race, and in consequence none was particularly handicapped. In each event were lines of untried cars formed up to test their capabilities over hundreds of miles of unknown road. ”

“ From hacking to racing is but a step. The man who has learnt to ride (or thinks he has) , being already a member of the race club, takes his steed for a quiet canter round the course. The old racer no sooner finds himself on the familiar track than he is off with the speed of flames, and our young friend, being powerless to check him, with his feet out of the stirrups and hanging on to the back of the saddle for dear life, is carried a mile or so before a sudden swerve at the exit rail deposits him on the turf. ”

“ In most gasoline carriages it is necessary to provide a slow-speed gear for hill-climbing, as the motor cannot put forth a sufficient effort to ascend a steep grade at the normal velocity. With this racing-machine such a gear is not required owing to, the enormous power of the motor. ”

“ Trueman was waiting at the garage, and he caught the lad's hand in a cordial grip.
"Glick went back on me sooner than I had expected," said he. "When he quit, yesterday afternoon, he told me that if the drawing hadn't been on Friday I wouldn't have got Number Thirteen. What an idiot! There are twenty-one cars in the race and some one had to have that number. My hopes are all wrapped up in you, King. If you want a start in the racing business, win the cup for the Jarrot folks."
"If the car has the speed, and no accident happens to the motor, we'll win," declared Matt. ”

“ Ditn't you beat oudt a Limidet Egspress Drain mit a modorcycle? Und hain't you peen racing pubbles efer since ve left Ash Fork?"
"All that hasn't given me a racing record. When a manufacturer puts a twenty-thousand-dollar racing-car in the field, he wants to be more than sure that his driver has plenty of nerve and skill. About the only way he can be sure of that is by looking back over his record and seeing what he has done."
"Vell, let dem look pack so far as dey blease ofer your recordt. Dey vill findt some surbrises, you bed you."
"The race for the Borden cup is only two weeks off, Carl. ”

“ There have been many meets since Rheims, some international, some of local importance; indeed almost every citizen of a civilised country has had a chance to attend some one of them without too great a journey, but what I have said of one meet is true to some degree of all: that racing and contests in general, especially between different makes of machines, is of the greatest use to the development of the aeroplane, just as competition among automobile manufacturers, in putting out racing machines, helped the development of that vehicle. ”

“ The ordinary class of circuit is a very close approach to a racing-track, with gasoline and tire stations established at many points of the course. On the European Circuit such advantages would be out of the question, everything would have to be taken as it exists naturally. In a sense, such a competition would be a return to the contests organized in the early days of the automobile, the Paris-Bordeaux and Paris-Berlin races, when the driver had ever to be on the alert for unforeseen difficulties unknown on the racing-circuit as understood in recent years. ”

“ Under the conditions that obtained in the old days the competitive element entered into it in the rivalry of the various manufacturers, for they entered in the hope that they could beat their rivals, but the purpose of the race was to prove to the general public that a motor car would go, and was capable of covering long distances in a speedy and reliable manner ”

“ Most of the experimenting went into the building of racing cars. The idea in those days was that a first-class car ought to be a racer. I never really thought much of racing, but following the bicycle idea, the manufacturers had the notion that winning a race on a track told the public something about the merits of an automobile—although I can hardly imagine any test that would tell less. ”

“ Motor Matt had for years been eager to make good as a racing-driver. He was at home with a gasoline-motor, and speed, to him, was its highest expression of power. The race for the Borden cup offered him a chance to enter the racing field, and he was not the one to turn back from the goal simply because he was encountering a few difficulties at the start. ”

“ Track racing and road racing are very different, and it is not by any means certain that a successful rider on the track will be a consistent winner on the road. Track racing requires a lot of judgment as well as speed and dash. On the road there is no finessing for position in sprints for the tape, when speedy men are often left behind or shut in by astuter competitors who may be no faster in the final rush but who secured the better position by good jockeying. ”

“ The introduction of pacing by multicycles and motors next took from cycle racing what interest was left. A motor race, in which the machines are run at top speed, is more exciting than the spectacle of a motor being driven at a rate which the cyclist can follow with the protection of a wind-shield. In America this system of proving what cyclists can do with racing machines was carried so far that in 1899 a board track was laid down on the Long Island railway for about 2 m. ”

“ In the early days of the industry, motor-racing was a sport. Now it is rapidly being reduced to a business. "Win at any cost," are the instructions a firm gives its drivers. If a driver makes a mistake he is condemned for all time, and the reputation of his employers suffers in the estimation of the public. For this reason the rule of winning at any cost is carried out strictly.
Colonel Plympton was secretary of the Stark-Frisbie Company, and had entire charge of its racing affairs. Mr. Tomlinson was an intimate friend of the colonel's, and had engaged to secure Matt a position with his firm. ”

“ In the more commodious cars there is no difficulty in complying with a condition so essential to the comfort of the occupants; for, as it is, motoring in winter is a trying ordeal to all but the most robust. The motor car has assumed the form of an open conveyance owing to the fact that it has been developed on racing rather than utilitarian lines, and to the diminution of wind resistance being necessary to the attainment of high speeds. This is a factor of small account, however, when the pace is kept within legal or reasonable limits. ”

“ In Europe, where there were many miles of smooth macadam roads, road racing by wealthy owner-drivers was a popular sport. Backed by motor car manufacturers and tire makers, road racing eventually became big business there, and contributed a great deal to the rapid improvement of motor design and mechanical reliability, which, in turn, gave Europe undisputed leadership of the motor car industry up to the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1914. ”

“ But in such a race as that of yesterday nothing is proved except that the individual car that wins is better than the individual cars that lose, or that it has a better driver. Some weight may be given to the argument that the tests are needed for the development of the product, but the tests can be made under absolutely safe conditions. A car may be run a thousand miles and at top speed without endangering the lives of dozens of other participants in the race, for there need, for this purpose, be no race. So the contest must be considered, not as a practical commercial test, but as a sport. ”

“ If standing on an incline or in loose, heavy ground, more engine power will be required to start vehicle without stalling engine.
(2) It may be necessary to keep vehicle from rolling by keeping pressure on front brake hand lever. Brake pressure is released after vehicle starts in forward motion.
(3) Open throttle and engage clutch at same time to provide power needed for starting, without racing engine unnecessarily.
(4) Motorcycle starts should be made without excessive application of power, with consequent unnecessary spinning of rear wheel. ”

“ There have always been a few amateurs who have raced for the love of the sport, but the greater number of prominent racing men have raced for the benefit of a firm, so much so that, at one time, an entire section of racing men were classed as “makers’ amateurs.” They did not confine themselves to the race track, but appropriated the public roads until they became a danger and a nuisance, and road-racing finally was abolished, though record rides, as they are called, are still indulged in, being winked at by the police and by the cycling authorities. ”

“ Only actual trials over the course could show what was needed and what was superfluous, and since the weight of each car must be limited, great care had to be exercised in making changes.
By inquiring of people they met, the boys learned that the Stark-Frisbie people had their garage across the river, in North Ottawa, while the Bly-Lambert folks were as far away in the other part of town as they could get.
The racing talk was in evidence everywhere, the merits and demerits of the various machines giving cause for many warm arguments. ”

“ In the course of a series of thrilling and exciting incidents, as well as humorous and tragic accidents, he writes of the conditions of motor racing to-day, regretting the passing of the old conditions. Regarding the sport as the greatest evolved by man, his criticism of some of the attributes of present-day racing may suggest the curbing of tendencies which he regards as deleterious. ”

“ All such dragging reduces speed and tires the team with pulling which is energy utterly wasted.
"I hold the ideal racing chariot should have a chariot body as narrow as possible, not much wider than the width of the driver's hips; should have the wheels as close together as possible, to diminish the drag of one wheel against the other, should have the axle set as high as can be managed. ”

“ Practically all flat racing in the United States is held on “dirt-tracks,” i.e. courses with soil specially prepared for racing, instead of turf courses. At Sheepshead Bay there is a turf course, but it is only used for a minority of races. Dirt-tracks, which are, like many other things in American racing, a legacy from the once hugely popular harness-racing, are conducive to great speed, but are costly in the extreme strain on horses’ legs. ”