Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-16
COREY TAKES A
NERVOUS RIDE
NEW LOCAL DEALER HAS A
NOVEL DEMONSTRATION
FACTORY DRIVER DIFFERENT
FROM LOCAL SALESMAN
Throws Mud and Swishes Around Cor
ners with Utter Abandon So
Long as Chewing Tobacco
Holds Out

Bekins Motor Car company, who mas
recently returned from an eastern TRIP,
where he secured two two-cycle cars
for his local trade, viz, the American
Simplex and the Atlas, talks interest
ingly of his experience at the factories
of these two cars, while having these
cars demonstrated to him by factory
experts. Mr.. Corey, among other
things, said:
"a demonstration in a motor car by
q good driver who is trying to sell you
q car of that make is real pleasure.
He will make it as smooth, as safe and
as agreeable as skill can suggest lie
will give you a thrilling dash OF
breathless mile or two, over the finest
bit of road he knows, on that smooth
straightaWay north of BairdstoWn.
He takes you up Second street hill,
but the car looks as though 1t would
stay together and you only hold your
breath a little as your near the top.
You go down Broadway with him in
the afternoon, perhaps, but he is sim
ply thinking of the impression on you
and you receive no vindictiVe glares
from angry pedestrians or drivers. All
is smooth, pleasant and designed to
make you feel particularly safe and
at home in that particular make of
car.
But you seldom are invited to
demonstration in q testing car at the
factory. The driver does not want you
along, except possibly for the grim
satisfaction he receives from your eX-
preston during the ride He is think
ing only of the performance of the new
engine, set in shining contrast to the
battered frame of the old testing chas-
sis used for that purpose. The future
owner of that engine is to have the
benefit of this trip and that particular
engine will not reach him unless it en-
dures the hardest trial the tester can
invent.
HE is usually a hardened man,
often a race driver, for in America the
racing drivers are generally men who
between the big events test cars at
their respective factories. This in
sures that they are more absolutely
reckless and daring than the European
racers, who, having once made good,
are employed by the makers for no
other purpose, and live with their pet
cars, practicing and tuning them up
to a nicely. The American driver wins
his races as a rule by sheer grit, nerve
and skill.
Always Has a Chew
"Imagine such a man, forbidden by
the factory rules to smoke, but with
his teeth set hard in a chew of to-
bacco seated in an old greasy, muddy
car, stripped of tenders, running
boards and hood, from which CLEANS
the nice, neat three-cylinder valVeleSs
engine which that morning is to have
it's first try-out on the road. l was
provided with an old oil-stained over
coat, covering everything but my shoes
and face. 1t was a spring day in Mas
sachusetts and the roads were just
little sloppy, so our start from the
Atlas factory was apparently the sig
nal for the mud to begin to fly. 1
could not give my whole attention and
admiration to the remarkably good
performance of the young engine on it's
first run. fer the car was chasing flu
riously over some of the worst roads
you ever saw. A shower bath, so per
cent mud, is the only way l can express
most of the trip. The car bounded
along, fairly jumping from one high
spot to another. There were no chains
on the wheels, and though we were on
unfrequented roads my pulse could not
quite emulate the smooth purring of
the engine. Some steep hills were en-
countered, the little two-cycle ValVe-
less motor showing a remarkable pull
ing capacity at slow up speeds, doing
even better than the average four
cycle, four-cylinder would ordinarily
do in demonstration, but always with
scarcely a word of comment from the
tobacco-cheWing driver who has al
ready put too many of these engines
through with the same result.
Mud Is Plentiful
"'Oh, yes, she's a good little en-
CINE he would say, when 1, digging a
lump of mud out of my eye, would
squint forward at the quiet power
which was ever drawing us on at hair
raising speed. Never again will [ Won
der at the pounds of dirt 1 oftentimes
find under the tenders of my own car.
One does not realize until some such
experience that the power in the old
hulk of a testing car is just the same
as in the shining touring ear or run
about, which is the development of
many minds, working out the problems
which make for perfect comfort and
safety.
IT wondered a number of times
whether this stolid driver was really
trying me out as to nerve or was ex-
erting himself to prove the remarkabl
pliability of the car in all its parts as
he shot me around curves, up hill
down dale, through gullies, swishing
around right angles, slowing down,
speeding up again and making the
wonderful little car cavort like one
possessed of demoniacal life.
Glad When It's over
How you would feel while taking
such a ride, beside such a driver, whose
life appeared to be about the most
worthless asset he possessed, I, of
course, don't know; but for my part
he did not have to pass me the la
comic information in a few monosylla-
bles that the seat on which we were
riding and which was not even bolted
on had flown off at a corner a few
days previously and thrown him and
his companion hurting through the air
in order to make me feel perfectly con-
tent and satisfied as I stepped out of
the rakish looking car and onto terra
firma once more. l was satisfied with
the demonstration in more ways than
one. The fact that I signed a contract
for a large shipment is proof in one
direction, but I won't begin to tell you
how my nerves quivered with appre-
hension as proof in another direction
of my satisfaction at feeling some
thing hard and substantial underneath
me in place of rakish testing car
that was cutting through space at al
mile minute"
CRICKET CLUB TO PLAY
The Los Angeles Cricket club will
start its opening of the season this
afternoon on the Windward field at