The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-20
HIGH-PoWERED AUTOS.
Reaction in Favor of Moderate Powers
 Probable.

IEODdU1Gs It is not only in the matter of fuel cost that high-powered cars "come high" Tire expense is still the largest unavoidable item of vaudeville rnain- tenance. The high-powered vehicle, even though not driven at excessive speeds, is very costly in respect to tires as compared with the low-pow- cred cars.
 The fact of the doubled weight of the former as compared with the lat- ter is sufficient to make this plain, Ev- cry ton mile covered at given speed takes a certain, though not definitely, measurable toll out of the tires, and the two-ton vehicles call for about E twice the rubber per mile as does the one-ton car. But when it is realized that the car of high power is capable K of maximum speed roughly double that of the smaller vehicle, the tre- mendous tire cost incident to the oper- ation of the former is hinted at Ap- t parently no one knows, or perhaps N dares to try to find out, just how tire expense per mile increases with the speed, but it certainly mounts up at a. disheartening rate. As an extreme ex- ample, let one look over the records of tire troubles in Gordon BennettM race. That will be sufficient.
 The wearing out of improved roada& by automobiles and the dust nusance& created thereby has lately become al very serious matter. It is an economid loss and source of discomfort that fall on all alike Heavy cars are worsd offenders than light ones, but agaiit& speed is the crucial point. The wea of roads increases at some high bu S undetermined rate with the velocity 0 la the vehicles causing it--perhaps irI proportion to the power expended al the driving wheels. Above about 25 miles per hour 1t becomes so great with heavy cars that it Is doubtful i the public will much longer tolerati the financial burden which it imposed Space does not permit the nentionint of other points in which high- powered cars involve large comparative wastes
 Thus far in this country there hal been very little reaction against ca1t of very high power. They are apparI
  Europe the movement has to certai extent set in. People are finding tha "the high-powered game, 7 If persistel in, is sad drain on the pocketbooE Cars of 20 and 24-horsepower aiI much moro in vogue there among ped pie who can afford larger ones thas is the case here. One may wait wit interest to see the matter work itsel out in this country
 Constant reference has been made this article to the limits placed by lal upon automobile speeds Personall the writer believes that after automl bling has emerged from the fad staS it will be realized by motorists, as class, that maximum speed of 20 25 miles per hour is best for them, well as for the non otoring publ This realization will be the deternnl ing factor deciding the horse power the average automobile engine of near future. The maximum legal spe is high enough to give the automobl an enormous advantage in traveli ability over the horse, and yet it is Il a speed at which the hazard, to and limb becomes extreme, nor which damage to tires and roads comes unbearably great. Furthermol it is rate of speed sufficiently hi for the purposes of real pleasure dr ing, in which a sense of moderate i1 ton and an opportunity to view country traversed are the real essg tials.
 Of the single-seated runahout ty of low-powered car of 12 to 16 hor power, either in the buggy" form built on more conventional lines, no ing can here be said. It has been raj CT neglected in the past except bj few far-sighted manufacturers have not fallen into the fallacy t the automobile is the competitor of | lightning express. Its future field sane automobiling no one can begin stimate-Harper's Weekly.