The San Francisco call and post., 1913-12-13
STATE HIGHWAY
IS IN FAIR
SHAPE
Claude MCGEE of Howard Au-
tomobiie Company Drove
I Down to Fresno

A drive OF 200 miles between lunch
and dinner time is generally consid-
cred rather strenuous by even the
most enthusiastic speed burner. The
state highways when completed will
make half day trips of this length
not only entirely feasible, but the oc-
cupants of the car will not be any more
fatigued than they are from driving
half the distance over ordinary roads
at the present time, says Claude Nc
Gee OF the Howard Automobile COM
pany, Buick distributors. who drove
down to Fresno last Saturday with
Fred Gross. also Of the Howard Auto
mobile company. in one of the new
1914 2s horse power Buick touring
cars.
According to the two veteran driv-
ers. there are just 2s miles of road be-
tween Oakland and Fresno that are yet
20 be put in shape. These % miles are
divided into three sections, the first
OF which Is encountered at the north
ern boundary of Stanislaus county.
and extends south in the direction of
Modesto for five miles.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Mr.. McGee said:
The next break in the highway is
three miles long, and is encountered
TWO miles north of Atwater. The
third and last gap begins two and
half miles north of Merced, and ex-
tends south 81 miles to the little town
of Fairmead
Construction work is in progress on
both the long stretches and they will
grow shorter from week to week.
Dublin boulevard is also completed,
with the exception of about quarter
of a mile at the foot of Bulmer hill.
This short piece of road>is graded and
has a temporary dressing on it, and
should give no trouble except during
or just after very heavy rain. The
bridge across the San Joaquin river
at Bridgetown has also been repaired
and is again in commission.
There is still a great amount of
work to be done on all of the state
highway over which we travelled be-
fore il will be absolutely completed.
as there has been very little work
other htan grading done on each side
of the concrete strip which forms the
main roadway. This does not in
terfere in any way with the use of
the TOdu. however.
"On the down trip there was no eff
fort made at speed, and plenty of time
was taken to secure accurate road
data, and also to make photos OF some
of the more interesting portions OF
both the improved and unimproved
roadway.
RETURN TRIP
.On the return trip We decided that
we would test the little Buick out
just to see how 1t would perform on
long run where the maximum speed
which the new state law will allow
was maintained and the speedometer
hand was held just at 80 miles per
hour for almost the entire distance
of 1913 miles. At one time on a par
ticularly straight and level piece of
highway the throttle was opened
wide. In a short distance the speed
ometer showed 55 miles per hour.
We decided that that was as fast as
any one could ask a fully equipped
touring car to run, so slowed down
again to the 30 miles per hour mark.
In spite Of this continued high speed.
not the slightest trouble was expe-
rienced with the little Buick, not even
q drop Of water being put in the radi-
ator on the entire trip Of 400 miles.
The same set Of Goodyear No-Rim-
Cut tires was used on this run that
was used on the little Buick roadster
when 1t lowered the road record more
than IT hours between here and Port
land last September, and the only
trouble experienced with them was
one puncture. which was caused by a
nan we picked up on one of the new
bfidges"