Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-06-04
AUTOS MAKE TERRIFIC SPEED
Staunchness Of Modern Machine is
Shown at Indianapolis.
CARS sUSTAIN sEvEREsT TESTS
Twenty-N inc of Forty Cars of
Twcnty-Tour Different Makes
Spin Mt seventy Miles an
Hour for seven Hours.

Hour for seven Hours.
Seventy odd miles an hour for nearly |
seven hours including all stops-that is
the feat accomplished by twenty mine out
of forty cars Of twenty-four different
makes at the 5OO-mile race at Indianapolis
last Tuesday. 1t is of enormous conse-
quence to every owner Of motor car,
present or prospective, to know that prac-
tically three fourths of all the cars sub
jected TO that terrific and Icing continued
strain sustained the test. Really more
than three -fourths sustained. it. 70, at least
three cars were wrecked, not by any defect
in themselves. but by the errors or mishaps
of others.
Forty-six cars were entered for the race.
The prizes offered by the management
totalled s25,OOO including first and second
prizes of $4,000 and 5000. About $4,000
more offered by tire makers, oil max
ers, carbureter makers, and so on, on the
condition that the winning car should have
used their particular type OF accessory
The owners of the forty-six cars spent far
more than the total of the prizes in prep
aration for the race and in the race itself
The tire bills alone ran into the hundreds
and loss on damaged machines into the
thous ands; oil, gasoline and wages to ten
or twelve men for each company added TO
the total. The drivers, as a rule raced for
the pride and the glory few of them were
paid for the labor and the risk.
Before the race began six cars withdrew
or were disqualified because of inability
to make the seventy-five miles an hour
required of all who took part, leaving forty
to face the starters flag
Each Had n Crew.
Each of these forty cars had its own
crew. All but one Of them CHarroun's
Marmon, the winning carr carried also a
mechanician, whose duty II was constantly
to force fresh oil supplies to bearin gs licked
dry by the fierce friction of the drive; TO
watch and warn the driver of the approach
OF other cars; to identify, analyze and
patch upon the instant, heedless~of burns
and danger, anything that could be patched
at seventy miles an hour. Important fac
tors these mechanicians, though little
known or regarded by the public. More
daring than an ordinary engineer. for they
can see the approaching peril and must sit
qmescent, trusting wholly to the driver.
When the rear tires OF Greiner's car ex-
ploded on the twelfth lap and crushed 10
death s. p. Dickson, mechanician. beneath
Its overturned mass nothing but his bare
name could be learned by the eager news
paper men.
Each car had its own Dit where e-rirnv
pitmen waited to change tires and pour
OIL gasoline or water into the emptyinR
tanks. Seconds count in this and pitmen
drilled until they can shift a tire in less
than iirteen seconds, may help to win or
lose the race. Harrouns Marmon, the
| winning car, stopped only four times In
| the 800 miles, while Mulford's Ioz,er
stopped eleven times. Yet these two and
Bruce-Brown's Flat, which came third
were within thirty seconds of each other
at the finish.
But the driver II is who bulks large IN
the public view. Crouched in his car ba
sits. bending slightly forward like an aimed
arrow; his left hand rests on the steel
driving wheel. guiding the power of mora
than fifty galloping horses; his right hand
clutches the emergency brake potent To
curb and stop those fifty horses at will.
ms rect play on the clutch as an organist
plays on the pedals of his pipes No weak
man can hold that wheel or can tread that
clutch for 800 miles Ever the wheel must
shitt' shift, shift. and each shift trans
lates Itself into more than ninety feet in
a second. No time to think is allowed.
action and reaction must be Immediate
| When Jagerburgers car broke a knuokla
| joint. hurled Wood its mechanician. into
the middle of the track and began a dance
OF death in front of a dozen crowdinR cars
there was no time to think. Close behind
harry Knight. In his Westcott, threw him
sell desperately on the wheel. Car ana man
ne grazed by a hairbreadth, but ruined his
own chance OF winning. Carried on by its
impetus his car went capatulating broad
side down the track, sweeping Lytle's An
person and Hearne's Fiat before him for n
hundred yards, and whelming them All
in tangled mass, while through the pas
sage thus cleared Numbered the following
cars.
Spectacular Features.
! AS In all races the spectacular features
were at the beginning and the end. The
9o0luehts were not spectacular. They
could not be. The track was too large thu
distances too great The huge motor cars.
dWarfed by their speed. seemed almost
toyiike as they whiEzed around and around
and around. Even when the three cars
were piled together in the great though al
most harmless crash OF the day. there was
nothing spectacular to be seen In a nile
OF crumpled iron hundreds Of yards AWAY
Ihrlihng enough, hOrrifying enough. per
maps II was TO those who could imagine
"hat that mass Of scrap might hide: but
not spectacular
But the start was superlative. Far away
to right and left in a great curve stretched
the broad speedway bordered by banks
OF seats, tier above tier, filled with 100 oOo
people gay with tossing flags. roaring
with cheers. The drumming bands. soon 20
De drowned by the roar OF the motors
the electric contagion that goes with great
} crowds and the impending threat OF hover
ing death set the pulses Of the dulIest
looker-on aquiver. One by one the car.
came out and cireled the track. In them
sat almost every driver OF note in ali
america and each as he passed was Wildly