Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-17
new RECORD MADE
|NRUN TOR|CHMOND.
Packard "TWin Six" Touring
Car Covers Distance in
4 Hours So Minutes.
FASTEST TIME EVER MADE
!. BETWEEN TWO CAPITALS
Start Made Sunday Afternoon From
I The Star Building, With Ideal
Weather Conditions. =

living lSiO tWlH
1-25 touring car, Samuel A. Luttrall.
accompanied by Charles c. Milburn
and Howard S. Fisk. automobile editor
of The Washington Star, broke the
Washin Acknowledgement atltomobffe rec
ord last Sunday by one hour and forty
Eve minutes. The time for the run
was four hours and ffty-ave minutes:
The former record was held by H. A.
jerks in Locomobile six" who ne
gotiated the trip in six hours and
forty minutes Sunday, June 10. 1915.
The first record was established June
rs. 1910, by John r. Thomas in
Maxwell touring car. in seven hours
and eleven minutes.
The new record is the fastest time
ever made by an automobile between
the two capitals. with official observ-
ers. The distance is 13S miles
The start on the record-breakipg
trip was made from The Star build
ing Sunday afternoon at las O'Clock
The weather conditions were ideal,
the atmosphere being clear and crisp.
It was the initial trip of a Packard
twin six or tweve-cylinder car in the
state of Virginia. At the conclusion
Of the <dn the machine was placed on
exhibition at the state fair at Rich-
mond, Va, during the week of the fair
Route From the Capital.
The route from the National Capital
was west on Pennsylvania avenue to
14th street and thence south, crossing
the Highway bridge over the Potomac
river and following the railroad tracks
in a southerly direction to Alexandra,
Va Turning to the right at KING
street. the Old Telegraph road was
picked up at the western terminus or
the city For the first half mile the
road was being reconstructed. with the
result that for nearly = half mile the
road, which had been ploughed up, re-
sembled more of farm than hlgh-
way The machine plunged up and
down to the hub caps in the heavy
turf, narrowly escaping being m1reo
while passing horse -drawn venice
which was being extracted from the
mud.
Picking up the completed portion OF
the Old Telegraph road, no time was
lost in reaching Pohick and heading Tor
Occoquan. At Occoquan the macadam
road from Lorton station terminated,
and on the outskirts of the town the hrst
real Virginia roads were encountered
About Ave miles distant, the f1rst cor
duroy road was encountered, and In
many places this was found to be a
boulevard as compared with some OF
the muddy stretches.
Stretch Of Water Covers Hole.
At one point on the run, before arriv-
ped into, a large hole in the road. al
most tipping over, the road itself being
completely inundated a distance OF
nearly fifty feet. Later on good
gravel road appeared, and this was fol-
lowed into the town of Dumfries. which
was reached at $40 o'clock.
Ploughing through a sea of red mud
beyond Quantico creek. an effort was
made to negotiate steep grade in the
direction of Joplin. beyond which Al
slight improvement in the road was
Mount post Office, about mile beyond
which fine gravel highway appealed
strongly to those in the party. This
road continued to Stafford Court House,
which was reached at o'clock. 1t was
about two miles from this town that
the worst roads were encountered on
the entire trip.
The first steep hill to be negotiated
was about 35 per cent grade, the mud
being about two feet deep. Mr. Lut-
trell attempted to take the hill on high
gear, but the car sank down in the mire
to depth of nearly eighteen inches
The mud apron in the front of the
machine leveled off the road, scooping
1t up as the car assembled the grade
Three Attempts to Negotiate Hill.
1t was necessary to back down the
road about seventy-five feet, go into
second gear and endeavor to attempt
to storm the hill for the second time
Slight progress was made by follow
ing the same tracks and scooping more
of the mud off the top of the road A
third attempt was finally necessary,
this time the car being backed dis
lance of about 100 feet and the low
gear used. The third time the car
conquered the sea of mud. and as it
shot over the top of the grade literally
took the crown of the hill along
with IT.
Following this experience, a stream
was forded about two miles farther on.
the water being about three feet Deep
which rolled over the top of the radi-
ator, putting the first two spark plugs
out of commission for few seconds
About a mile beyond another sti1
grade was encountered, similar to the
one few miles back. No chains being
used at any time on the entire run, II
was necessary to make three separate
attempts to storm the hill. the last
time being successful Chains were
carried along in the car. but 1t being
desirable to save as much time as pos
sfble they were not brought out, the
car being sufficiently supplied with
power TO get through
Former Record Is Clipped.
Tho last six miles into Fredericks-
burg was covered over another fine
stretch of gravel roadway. the arriving
time being 4:3o o'clock. In the run
from Washington to Fredericksburg, a
distance Of sixty-four miles. one hour
and forty minutes was clipped of the
former record
Passing through the town, the motor
lists picked UP a good gravel roadway
practically the remainder of the dis
tance into Richmond. The route was
via Spottsylvania Court House, Wal
lers Church. Partlow, Chilesburg Man
tico. Coatesville, Elects Station and
Ashland. From Ashland into Richmond
the road was not SO good, it being worn