cutting through the mountains of scone pass to barstow for refueling then on out across the joshua tree desert to las vegas up to the hoover dam and back home again well whatever were taking the race serious they wanted to be sure they had the right driver and observer as one member put it this was no race for a character with a hot temper heavy foot and they were choosing in a genuine and jim and i went down to the shop here jim was introduced to the mechanic and looked on the final adjustments were being headed out for the official refueling station to fill up with gas that was going to play the very important role of a measuring  you know it takes more gas to move a heavy car than a light one so to make things fair for all the cars participating in the economy run a ton mileage formula is going to be able to get tons mpg if you take the weight of your car how long i work with teenage kids i'm always being surprised by their fantastic imaginations take the names of their clubs the bright vibrant colors of their cars and jackets to me these were all the  that our approach was right and we weren't going to keep them in a glass cage we're going to show on the road and teach him the right way to drive on a give them all the facts then give them the wheel and let them shoulder their own responsibility now we could only wait and see at six o'clock the next morning there was a light mist the first car was off on the run and another car followed every two minutes heavy fog and mountain driving as tough a combination of gas eating driving conditions as you can get and the boys had to average a realistic thirty five miles an hour for the cars in order to come in on time and they had to conform to all the traffic laws and top number one car the capital letter a wise man from what here lay for a long time behind a tanker before the road was courteous truck driver signal that there was a safe clear road you had any doubt as to whether the boys would be getting a real kick out of the run you could read your answer as i did travelling up and down the line of gaily colored cars in the face of the driver like don pratt of the buccaneers remember this is not only a story about office or an automobile it's also about the role these teenage kids were watching it like doing the job of navigation just like the boy mark twain did on the mississippi river all the time being the road was straight and clear maximum safety speed fifty five mph they were moving to barstow the road like a river had its branches they converged barstow and so did the traffic second and the cars crawled like flies on sticky paper you couldn't even get into third gear and the gas was burning up fast as my lock of the driver for the  it that was all part of the game of test imagine getting a thrill that fifteen miles an hour sweating on gas the wide spread between the cars on the road narrows and they piled into the station bumper to bumper i was waiting anxiously for jim hammer to come and i kind of choked up a little when i saw him make the barstow car club owners lined up the cars for the next starting position then they all joined us for a lot  an hour for lunch was only a brief respite for a two day not much time to relax the building tension but i don't think jim or i will ever forget that crazy  the officials whose job it was to patrol the roads marked the times check on possible violations were members of the peace officers car club their faces were smiling to beginning to feel mighty proud of their first project