The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1910-03-28

Inundated and nettled me every
time some well meaning person would
ask me what speed had been attain
ed with an automobile Maybe /
had just drived a circular track mile
in SO seconds, skidding all over the
ends of soft turn How cheap my
SO seconds seemed to look beside
the straightaway fellows % or 20
seconds. Nearly every dollar l pos
sess was earned with blood. my own
blood and attendant physical pain.
but it did not take me long to make
up my mind to buy the car which L
| used to break the worlds records for
every mark l went after in Florida
want to go on recorld as saying
that there is only one race course in
the whole world that will permit the
speed l made. That is the Daytona
! Beach course.
My frs. trouble in trying out the
car was to get goggles that would
enable me TO use my eyes after |
had reached the 120 miles an hour
gait My ordinary racing goggles al
most gouged my eyes out, the press
ure by the wind being terrific. At
ter a lot of experimenting l overcame
this difficulty. Then came the work
i of getting accustomed to great speed.
believe | am calloused to ordinary
dangers of automobile racing, but
here was a new dread and fear for
me. The limit of speed. l was go
; ing faster for mile after mile than
scientific automobile engineers figur
| ed could be obtained with out tires
being thrown off the wheel by cen
{ trifugal force. The loss of Traction
: was startling Fully a third of the
: distance the wheels were off the
ground The front wheels were shoot
ing up and down in a wierd danc'
: that caused me to shut down my mo
: tor until they would hold to th'
/ ground.
t l knew that the motor was capable
z of so many hundred revolutions pc
r minute. | knew that the gearini
. would admit of a speed of one hun
| dred and fifty miles an hour whel
2 the engine was wide open. 1t wa
: I'D to me to find out what the limi
u of speed really is. / would wait 70
e a particularly good stretch of beac
h and then | would let the great oil
l. car have its head Down would g
the throttle and the spark would b
advanced we'll along Then we woul
shoot through space. | would begl
/. to choke. everything before me woul
L become enshrouded in a haze and
II would suddenly feel as though l weT
Is in a nightmare. about to jump o
d some mountainous precipice. Then
Is would shut her down. l had drive
r faster than human ever travelled, fs
IS faster, for one hundred and forty-tW
IS miles an hour is about millio
at times as fast is it looks in prin
ID That is as near the limit of speed {
id human will ever travel.
~ More powerful automobiles may
s. built, though it is not necessary, f
st my Benz has never been open, b
W not even on Daytona Beach will tn
Us speed be beaten. l stuck to Il
nd wheel and kept the car as far ops
ne as l could until I felt myself becol
ne ing unconscious. Another second
en- so and it would have been all off.
a. Others may talk of speed but
IN am the only man in the world "
ever got near the limit Of speed
ne am under contract, foolTshly enter
ar into before | knew the chance
nd would have to take, TO drive my NJ
,v- car in competition at the opening
ev the board track on the coast,
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