The San Francisco call., 1909-08-13
REGAL "PLUGGER"
REACHES THE CITY
Tryout Car. Makes Splendid
Showing in Crossing the
Continent
Absence of Mechanical Trouble
Causes Trip to Be Trial Over
All Kinds of Roads
BY R. R. L'HOMMEDIEU

The Regal Plugger. which left New
York July 5, made its entry into San
Francisco yesterday after being out
SS days, of which 80 were consumed
In travel AS the car came up Mar
ket street with Old Glory extended to
the breeze from its stern it reminded
one of an occasion of little more
| than year ago when the motor cars
were racing from New York TO Paris
Yesterday, however, it was a different
proposition. Instead of being a con-
| test of speed, it was an occasion
planned by the Regal factory to thor
| oughly test a model of the coming
season. This car, fresh from the fac
tory, without duplicate, was sent
across the continent, away from the
base of supplies, to thoroughly test its
ability. Instead of being worked out
like most cars, on testing grounds,
close to the factory, it was sent over
a route that had all conditions of
/ highways that will ever be encoun-
| tered by an automobile. In the car
were w. H. Smith, factory represen-
tative, who drove the whole distance;
! George D. Wilcox and Richard P.
Byrne, agents for the Regal in New
| tire expert. Smith, in speaking of the
| trip, said:
The car behaved beautifully. The
only mechanical trouble we had was
two broken springs, and considering
| the conditions of the roads after we
left Chicago /. can hardly realize how
we escaped without using dozens of
them"
| Like all the "transcontinental trot-
ters,' he harbors the nightmare of the
gumbo of Iowa, but this, even in his
mind, was easy sailing compared
to the roads of wyoming, which were
badly washed out by storms and
| cloudbursts. In one case he lost "a
| hours in getting across a washout
The best roads that he encountered
! after getting past Chicago were in
| Nevada, while California roads were
| far superior as a whole to anything
outside of the eastern states The
| speedometer shows that the car, since
leaving New York, has travelled 4,031
miles. OF the four who came in the
| Regal. Wilcox was the only one who
has before been in California. Last
year. while connected with another
| concern, he piloted the international
racer, the Zust, to the Mississippi and
was among those who went down the
coast to meet the italian car when 1t
was being pi1oted by the Automobile
club of California into San Francisco.
d. E. Whitman, the local agent for the
Regal. met the Plugger at Sacramento
and piloted 1t in The car will be on
exhibition at his salesroom for some
time, after which it will be shipped
back to the factory to undergo a thor
ough mechanical examination.
| The need of better roads is the les
son of the Glidden tour of this year
and the tire ex-
Big Record of PFenfses pen srd In an the r95 con
Diamond Tire. ment to the auto o
mobile owner TO
pay his share for them cheerfully and
statement made by the Diamond rub
Der company whose annual analysis of
liic today. Various items show the re-
suit of the hard travel which for
great distances the tourists encoun-
| taking into account all machines in
the trip, the Diamond company states,
was $3.50. The record. of the 13 cars
which used Diamond tires, it is an
nounced, was $26.84. The average of
| thousand service reports on the Dia-
mond product in regular work is con-
siderably less than this. because the
general average of roads is better than
/ the Glidden route afforded.
! In addition to the 13 sets of Diamond
tires in use there were 81 sets of tires,
| six different makes being represented;
but in the reports of the Diamond tire
al trea tres eYsTy a NOT %ds sfa m
the official scores, however, there being
no penalty of any kind for tire changes
| or repairs. the whole Diamond report
| is placed on dollars and cents basis.
/ In view of the conflicting claims made
| every year also regarding tire service
! in the tour the Diamond rubber COM,
pany announced the victory of its
! product.
A Brooklyn man has produced what
/ he calls the only practical solution of
!. the joy ride prob
lem. His device
| Cures is simply a very
/ JOY hioins heavy strip of
MANILA paper
which is fastened to the rear tire and
rim by means of a corrugated wire
| which perforates it in four places
L ,ioIrI ,lnA Il