The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-07-11
KING CAR GOES 10000
MILES,, NO REPAIRS
MOTOR is NOT STOPPED ONCE
ONLY CHANGE MADE is
BEING CREWS.
Test Conducted By American Auto.
mobile Association and Took IA
Days at New York.

New York, N. Y, July 8, 1876
More than ten thousand miles in two
weeks day and night driving without
mechanical adjustment or repairs of
any kind, is the record just establish
ed by seven passenger eight cylinder
stock King car, in a test sanctioned
and supervised by officials of the Am
erican Automobile association on the
Sheepshead Bay speedway and Long
Island highways. Night and day for
336 hours, the King eight touring car
with driver, mechanic and $50 pounds
OF sand on board, made the grueling
test. During the fourteen days and
nights, the motor was not stopped
once nor was any adjustment made
upon it, the stops only being for the
purpose of taking on gasoline, oil and
water and changing driving crews.
Not even a Champion spark plug was
removed nor the valves touched The
total time lost in making the neces-
sary stops was about 151a hours.
The technical men who were in
charge of the test and who examined
the various parts of the car at the
end OF the run, were unanimous in
asserting that the King could have
gone on for another 10000 miles and
another on top of that, without any
renewal OF parts or major equipment.
the desire of the King Car company
was to demonstrate to the motoring
public that the King car could be run
for mileage greater that the average
mOtOriSt puts behind him in two years
without any requirements of parts
or more than ordinary adjustments.
The vehicle was a King registered
stock seven passenger touring car
with a 120 inch wheelbase The tire
equipment was Firestone 34x4 inch
castings and tubes, nOn-skid treads
being used in the rear. The motor
| is V-type eight with a bore and
stroke of 3x5 inches. 1t was fitted
| with ali AtwaterKent ignition system
and Champion, Toledo made, spark
plugs. A Ball and Ball carburetor
| was fed from a carter gravity tank
Ward-Leonard starting and lighting
equipment was used with a Willard
$50 battery. This car sells for 1880
Since the time lost in stops totalled
1872 hours out of the grand total of
1886 hours, the average speed of the
car was "a miles per hour for 1886
miles. During the running the car
consumed about 35 quarts of oil, an
average of about 1850 miles of run
ming per gallon.
Stops made during the test for sup
| plies and changes of crews consumed
1512 hours. In two years running an
owner would have to consume this
amount Of time in the maintenance
of this car, but much of the time lost
| in changing crews and in delays due
| to the exhaustion of the pit men,
would have no analogy i'm private
operation, so that the figures quoted
are an extremely generous allowance
However, on the figures as given, two
years work out at an average of al
most nine minutes per week, is con-
clusively proved by this test to be
the time necessary to keep a King
eight in perfect running condition for
10,850 miles.
The test was conducted under the
direction of F. E. Edwards represent
ing the contest board OF the American
Automobile association, assisted by
H. A. Tarantus of Motor and ]. E.
Shipper of the Automobile, Alexander
Johnston of Motor and M. C. HORNE
of Commercial Vehicle, whose services
were required for the long grind.
The car which was used was selected
at random from the assembly floor at
the King factory in Detroit and was
Immediately turned over to Mr.. Ed
wards for inspection to determine it's
stock status. The car was then sealed
and shipped to the Sheepshead Bay
speedway, where it arrived on Thurs
day, June Is, on which day at 12:14
p. M, it started on it's record breaking
flight, which ended triumphantly on
Thursday, June 18th at 12:14 p. NJ