Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-19


| treme pressure and much steaming. Then
| 1t 10 'buffed,' which leaves rough sur
face for putting on the thick wear tread.
Another curing and the tire Is finished"
The theory Of tho food expert that
canned and storage goods should be
marked with the year Of their birth has
been put into practice In the automobile
racing game. Hereafter the vintage OF a
racer will be one OF the chief facts to be
in a recent ruling Of the A. A. A. contest
board. Now the purchaser OF an auto
mobile can really know whether the car
he buys is identical with the stock chassis
that wins speedway or road sH races aces .,,..
| and registration was not carried Tar
| enough to be entirely effective, still It is
| more satisfactory than the old way OF
| racing a particularly speedy model of an
| cient vintage, or one yet to be built, and
| advertising it's performance as that of
| the current issue. Under the old system
| the public gets the wrong impression.
While the victorious racer is in the strict
sense Of the rules stock chassis, in the
| spirit of the game 1t is not, as cars OF
| that model are not in the market.
Although the new system does not make
! it compulsory for the manufacturer to
come out frankly and give the year the
competing car was made, It amounts to
virtually the same. Each racing car will
be registered and given number, which
it will hold for the life Of the car. The
records of the A. \. A. will be gone over
and numbers assigned to all cars that are
in the racing game While the details are
not yet decided. the idea Is to arrange
the numbers serially as to the year Of
manufacture. SO the public can readily
| recognize the vintage of any car.
This arrangement will make the new
ruling Immediately effective.
BY referring to these numbers the
prospective owner can know whether he
is getting counterpart OF the car that
cleans up handsomely In a road race or on
speedway. The automobile public will be
able to see at a glance who are and who
are not racing stock GLASSES in both the
letter and the spirit of clean, honest compe-
tition. The whole racing game will be bene-
nted. The real purpose OF the A. A. A. will
be more apparent. The manufacturer who
races models of strictly current issue will
get credit for it, and more than ever be-
1ore the road race and speedway will be
partment and guides to the cars de-
Signer
An enthusiastic autoist in the middle
west has compiled the following:
Statist1cians have figured out that for
every mile of road covered in an automo-
bile the magnetic fires out about l. 435
sparks to ignite the fuel. That number
Is the fair average of the several calcula-
tlons made by the best engineers Right
! away we begin to talk In the big millions.
For instance / have machine that has
covered more than $4,000 miles "a nine
teen months Of hard driving all over this
country. During these runs the magnetic
shot out 155, 225.OOO sparks. and the wheels
of the car turned over 40 2s5, 600 times.
one year the 10000 automobiles said to
be in use In the United States travel
4,O15.OCOOO0 miles. figuring from such
records as 1 have at hand) that the low
average annual mileage for each car is
8, 125 miles?
Figure 1t out On this basis and YOU
will find that these 10000 automobiles in
| travelling 4.Ol5.OOO,OoO miles use up II, $685.
52o.oOO.OOO sparks from the magnetos in
| just one year, and that these sparks turn
the wheels of the autos just 1921, 265,-
OOv, coo times.
And to do all that work for just one
year more than $50, 10000 worth of gaso-
| line was converted into blue smoke from
the exhaust pipes, accepting as a basis
OF computation the figures of a Standard
Oil official, showing that 236, 10000 gal
| Ions OF gasoline were used for the autos
or the country in 1910"
"WithiD year or two the American
automobile manufacturer Is going to cap
ture the foreign markets Of the world"
| says G. Vernon Rogers, an automobile
! manufacturer Of Wisconsin.
| America will consume about 10000
CdIS tHlS year anu the rest or the world
| together will need about 10000 America
| is therefore the only country having a
sufficiently large market to permit of
manufacturing in quantities to bring the
prices down to the lowest possible figures
AN English automobile factory with q
national reputation will make 100 cars a
year; an American factory with O. name
! or the same standard will make 10000
There are a few French factories making
| l,CuU or Zoo cars a year. which gives
nj hiatt
pete than the English, but they spoil
their advantage by trying to turn out
| twenty or thirty different GLASSES, losing
all the gain OF quantity production. They
DO not seem to grasp the American manu-
facturers idea of what manufacturing is
and are really makers rather than manu-
facturers who build one car at a time
and are always ready to make changes
to suit their individual tastes.
Under these conditions it is ONLY a
question of short time before the
American motor car manufacturer will
control the worlds market. He might
have done SO before this concluded Mr.
Rogers. but he was too busy trying to
keep up with home consumption''
X X
| Recently statistics show that the high
priced cars are reducing the horsepower
and the lower-prced machines are adj
yancing it slightly. They are approach
| Ing more nearly a grand average Of
about thirty horsepower. The statistics
show that there has been an in
crease in the horsepower in the $1,000
$1,000 and s., 800 cars, but a dropping off
! in the $1,000 car. These figures show
pretty accurately the public demands
There has been a demand for more
power in the lewer-priced machines,
while year ago it was a case Of see
how much horsepower could be given
| for certain price 1t often was a case
of see how big body could be given
| with that price. The result was that
many cars had too much body. For this
| reason it's abuse has been rectified. In
| the case Of the $4,000 car dropping off
| in horsepower 1t would seem to indicate
| that there has been too much power in
may have been due to the great de-
| mand for speed year ago. This demand
! is ceasing and now an owner sooner
| would have a car we'll prOportioned with
| power and body than an abnormal Gre
| alton that had too much motor and not
| enough power.
] Not only has France caught the auto
| mobile racing fever. but it has got it
| bad. The revival of the Grand Prix
July . will be preceded by two races.
| be in June. 1t will in all probability be
| held over the Boulogne course which is
| only 40 miles from Paris, and is con-
venient for English, German and Belgian
| firms. The stock car idea appeals strong
ly to the foreign makers. The models
| will not be absolutely stock in the sense
| which the American rules demand, but
| the French have made considera BILE con-
| cessions to their speed mania, and have
pure speed to durability. The regulations
| admit any car having a cylinder ca ma CITY