Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-16
By John B. Foster.
NEW YORK. Saturday,

September Is, 1906
For the third successive year the annual
contest by motor cars for the Vanderbilt
cup will be held this fall over the course
on Long Island. on Saturday, October @.
Prior to that on Saturday, September %,
the eliminatory trials. to decide which Of
the American cars shall compete against
the foreign cars, will be held over the same
course.
Fifteen cars will compete in the elimina-
ton trial Among them are some of the
best-known automobiles which are made in
the United States, and several makers who
have never entered before will try this year
to find a place among the elect for the
grand race on October 8.
For the Vanderbilt cup there will be four
teams representing Germany. Italy, France
and the United States The French and
italian teams will be represented by five
cars the German by three and the Amer
lean by five. OF course. 1t is impossible to
tell what five will represent the United
States until after September o.
The distance around the course Is 29.5
miles in round numbers. That may not be
quite the fractional figure, but it Is correct
enough to give the reader an idea of the
mileage that must be traversed on each lap
of the course. AS all cars which finish must
make ten laps. both in the elimination and
cup races, 1t Is apparent that about 20
car can hope to be honored by merely fin
ishing the required distance. which has
proved in the past no mean task.
May Be Some Fast Trips.
1t is barely possible that the course will
OCCASIONALLY be taken in thirty minutes. 1t
will depend largely upon the condition of
the roads and the ability of the cars to sur
mount two rather steep hills which have
been included in this years route but which
have never been a test in the race before.
Ten laps At unlimited speed would mean
three hundred minutes of time. about
five hours. 1t is not at all probable that
the race will be run that quickly, as that
is the minimum limit and there will be de-
lays because of tire trouble and because of
other accidents of more less moment
which may happen to some of the cars, but
1t would not be surprising if the contest
were finished In about six hours, If some
machine is fortunate enough to run through
In good condition. Those that scale walls
or smash into telegraph poles will be num-
bered with the ALSO started"
A motor car race over highways which
are partially adapted to 1t is the most
thrilling contest imagina BILE In all sport. If
1t were possible to conceive an oval race
track with a circumference of thirty miles,
with eighteen locomotives running upon It
at the rate of sixty miles an hour. trying
to pass one another at times and taking all
manner of risks to do SO. a conception
would be had of what a motor car race is
like.
Were track to be specially built for
that sort of thing. however, 1t would be
free of hazards. such wicked turns. stone
walls on curves telegraph poles inoppor
tunely placed where a sliding car would
be likely 10 catch its axle and throw the
unfortunate driver and mechanician to al
most certain DEATH low embankments over
which car speeding at full rate would be
likely to plunge and railroad crossings.
which act somewhat like a springboard and
give speeding motor upward jump and
a forward plunge of four five feet. All
manner of things like this happen on the
Long Island circuit. and yet it is considered
TO be a tolerably fair course, as natural
highways go.
A Hobby of the Rich.
When the first Vanderbilt cup race was
held In the United States a great many
people thought that it rich men 8
pastime and not poor mems pleasure. There
was some opposition to it on Long Island
but, as 1t happens. most of the race runs
through the property of those who favor
that sort of thing, and when it came to a
test before the county officials the race car
ried the day, except on the part of one su-
pervisor. and his vote not enough to
induce the people of the immediate section
TO hold a mass meeting to protest against It.
Two or three weeks before the race was
actually run there began to be such a de-
mand for accommodations about all the
section In and around Garden City and
Hampstead that whatever opposition had
existed to the race was abandoned. The
residents found that the first gold mine in