Los Angeles herald., 1910-11-27
SPEEDY CARS ARE
SOUGHT BY YBUYERS
Baseball Manager Says Average
Owner Wants Machine with
Most Ginger Fiz'
FEW PEOPLE WILL 'FESS up
Content with 25 Miles an Hour
but Want a Fast Car
When Challenged
FEW PEOPLE WILL "FESS up

Does the average buyer want fast
automobile? That is a question often
asked. The average buyer says he
doesn't But the average buyer is il
logical, for when all is said and done
he buys the car which shows the most
of what Hughey Jennings calls ginger
fiz.'
"That's a strange thing about buy
ers," says the famous baseball manag-
er. Il know that was my own attltude
when ! first decided to buy car. |
protested that l didn't want any speed
Just good, reliable car that would
take me there and back at a moderate
rate. Still, after taking demonstrations
in various machines, / found mYsell
looking most favorably on the one that
climbed hills easiest and couto show
her heels to others on the road on call
OF the driver. When the salesman
proved to me that the ability to do
these things also proved the car $
ability to take me there and back al
any pace desired-Well, | bought tle
fast one, an EN- F 80.
still ! considered myself an eXcep-
ton and argued to myself that after
all | had more sporting blood IN my
veins than the average man But
find | am the rule--We all protest we
don't want speed, but we buy the car
that has the most snap and ginger.
IN lily I6ctuL UP IIpili AStA@'4N
New York 1 had this peculiar phase OF
human nature illustrated many times.
"T set out to make an average OF
about twenty-five miles an hour over
the 500 miles found that at this pace
/ overhauled a good many cars.
would invariably toot for piece OF the
road to pass, and though there was no
note of challenge in my horn, almost
invariably the man ahead would look
and give me run for it. Since my
car has f1fty-f1ve to tifty-seven up her
sleeve, [ usually passed-unless 1t was
another EMF 80, and then 1t was
case of nip and tuck.
1.-THE fastest run I had was between
Buffalo and Batavia over beautllIl
piece of road. ] noticed that the axle
ahead betokened a car of the same
make as my own, but as 1t contained
boy and an old lady-evidently the
young drivers grandma did not
doubt that l would be given tlle Iodu
without an effort.
IT footed twice and the car ahead
pulled out to the right to let me go by
I was Just abreast, and noddlng my
thanks for the courtesy when the ola
lady tapped the boy driver on the arm
and said something to him. He smlled
and cut loose My first impulse was TO
Weld and take their dust, but some
thing in erandma's eye told me she was
aching for a race, so | opened up TOO.
For two miles we ran neck and neck
without an inch of difference between
+hc front tips of our tenders. The two
cars were twins in every respect
didn't have an ounce difference IN
pover. I shifted my spark lever
notch or two up. then down, but the
old lady was tapping the boy on the
arm and laughing, and Whatever L ulu
he seemed to make a similar maneu-
yer. for he held his place and neither
could gain an inch.
"How long we would have raced that
vav I don't know, but we met a
+breshing machine in the road, and II
was =. case of one or the other to ylelQ
or demolish that traction engine. L
pride myself on my nerve. and deter
mined to bluff my opponent cut, but
reckoned without the old lady. she
never hlinked an eye, but still tapping
the how on the arm, told him to go 1t.
Within a hundred feet of the threshing
outfit 7 decided it would be well TO
observe the rule ladies first ana
iammed on my brakes as hard as l
could And not an instant TOO soon
either. for the wheels slid even on the
dry asphalt, and it was only by the
closest maneuYer1ng that mlsseu the
engine and got past.
.s5Tho last [ saw of the old lady she
was looking back, beckoning me to
come on and laughing fit to kill Yet
TIL bet that when grandma and grand
ma went to buy a car they both argued
they didn't want a racer, but just a
o11iet-tempered one that would take
them there and back I don't know
whether they were going there or back
but I'll bet they arrived before the
folks were expecting them