Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-28
NEWEST RACE
IS PROPOSED
TWICE ACROSS CONTINENT IS
THE LATEST
FRANKLIN MAKER SAYS GREAT
RACE is TO COME
Reliability and Endurance Can Only
Be Established by Such Con-
test, and Seattle Event
Doesn't Provide Enough

An automobile contest in which the
competing motor cars shall cross tho
continent, not once, but twice, making
a round trip between the Atlantic and
Pacific and covering 5000 miles, is be-
ing advocated by H. H. Franklin. a
car bearing the name of Mr.. Franklin
as it's maker has for five years held
the record for the run from San Fran
cisco to New York.
The prospective run from New York
to Seattle is directing attention to
across the continent contests, but Mr..
Franklin would have run both longer
and more exacting than this. He would
have rigid rules absolutely prohibiting
repairs and thus making the event an
endurance and reliability contest
rather than a race. whereas those IN
charge of the race to Seattle plan to
have as few regulations as possible,
the idea being to get the car through
to the finish in quick time even though
in q battered condition. Mr.. Frank
Inns view of what such a contest
should be is as followss
"a reliability contest in which the
competitors shall drive their motor cars
from ocean to ocean and back again is
an event which the future has in store
IOG A1HeTiCd lie way DSlWCCh lllC
Atlantic and the Pacific has been
blazed by pioneer automobilists and it
lies plainly marked and inviting all to
the test.
Reliability and Endurance
Reliability and endurance competi-
lions are constantly increasing in ri
gidity and a round trip with the east
ern and western coasts of the country
as it's limits is logical outcome of the
present tendency. If the Glidden tour
lists this year go to Denver a long step
| will De taken in making automobilists
| realize the immediate possibilities of
| the great transcontinental run as a
test of the staying qualities of an au-
tomobile.
ut is five years since Whitman and
Carris in ten horse. power Franklin
runabout shattered all records by
making the run from San Francisco
to New York in thirty-two days, twen-
ty-three hours and twenty minutes.
1.-TWO years later they cut the rec
ord in two, crossing the country in
Franklin in fifteen days, two hours and
twelve minutes, and this record stands
today for the transcontinental run.
"Those trips were demonstrations Of
endurance of ability to overcome all
sorts of road conditions and do it in
good time. Since their time the reli-
ability contest has developed, having a
constantly increasing stringency of
rules and requiring a constantly higher
standard of road performance. But
the endurance contest has not been
made one of more than a few hundred
miles, the Glidden tour alone of Amer
lean competitions extending through
a string of states.
Great Race to Come
at remains for the great American
reliability contest to be established.
The route is practicable: it is hard,
but it provided a fair test of motor
car under all sorts of conditions and
on a trip sufficiently long to insure q
thorough demonstration of what the
car can do.
ITO make this the supreme test there
might well be a requirement that 40
repairs of any sort be allowed on the
trip.
IAN annual run between the nations
greatest eastern and its greatest west
ern ports would almost inevitably be-
come great national event-one which
the whole country would watch with
the keenest interest"