Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-06-03
EIGHT
SETSNEW COAST
TO COAST MARK


New York City and Los Angeles
were brought three days, 10 hours and
% minutes nearer By automobile. re-
Gently. Z. G. Baker, accompanied by
w. F. Sturm, an indianapolis news
paperman, completed the cross-eon-
tinent run in front of The Times build
ing, Times Square. at 2:53 O'Clock p,
m. in seven days, IL hours and 81
minutes. The distance covered was
3471 miles Baker, who has made six
trips across the continent, four times
in automobiles and twice on motor
cycles, broke his own record, made
last year in II days. seven hours and
| is minutes in q Stutz. The car used
this year was a fully equipped stand
ard eight-cylinder Cadillac roadster.
A special ferryboat transferred the
car from Weehawken to West Forty
second street In close to three min
utes Three traffic policemen on mo-
torcycles cleared the way along For
| ty-second street. The Sust-covered
car with its two travel-stained pas
sengers riveted the eyes of pedes-
! TRANS, and n crowd cheered the wind
up at The Times building
Baker. with eyes red from loss of
sleep and the dust of the road, said OF
the trip:
In Missouri.
Our best days run was SGT miles
We would have averaged over 500
miles a day if3it hadn't been for the
bad roads we struck in Missouri. from
Kansas City to st. Louis. 1t took us
1S hours to drive that distance. about
300 miles, and it was rain and mud
all the way. 1t took two hours to do
10 miles, and at one place | pulled
lGut into the field around five autos
stuck in the road.
A postal card was handed to Baker.
We beat it. here he exclaimed.
That postal was mailed Just after we
passed through Emporia, Kan. We
beat it by nearly an hour. This is
the second time on the trip that we
got in ahead of the United States mail.
Six hours before we left Los Angeles
a letter was mailed to me at Dodge
City. Kansas We arrived in Dodge
City Wednesday. two hours in adj
vance of the letter, having covered
about 1900 miles. We left los An
geles at 1901 last Monday morning.
and arrived in Kansas City. Mo-, at
7:30 Thursday evening. We covered
the distance from Kansas City to New
York in three days, IL hours and Is
minutes. For several days our run
was better than $50 miles. Our fast
T est time was between Los Angeles
and San Bernardino, So miles an
hour"
Did you stop to sleep on the trip"
asked one of the reporters,
Baker ran over his fingers. Nine
teen hours, all told.s he answered. II
cant tell yet what our actual running
time was. I'll have to figure it out
after ! get some sleep, but we did not
waste much time by the way All we
did was to give the car gas and oil
and drive 1t to the limit
Never Lifted Hood.
"The engine didn't miss shot, not
even spark plug needed cleaning.
We never lifted the hood except for
oil and once to adjust the carburetor.
1T takes % locomotives to make
the trip we did in the car. looked it
up, and the distance by rail Is shorter.
3240 miles. The regular railroad
schedule between Los Angeles and
New York is approximately 80 hours.
The train runs over smooth tracks.
and as. we had to contend with des-
erts, mountains and Doggy roads, we
think the auto did pretty we'll against
the locomotive. Our route from Los
Angeles was through Flagstaff, Ariz.;
Albuquerque, n. NJ; Trinidad, Colo;
Dodge City and Emporia, KAN; Kan
sas City, NO.; st. Louis, and thence
to indianapolis, Ind, through Column
bus. o., and via Wheeling to Pittsburg,
and then to Philadelphia and through
Trenton to Jersey City"
Mr.. Baker drove the car himself all
the way. In computing the new coast
to-coast record three hours in time
was subtracted because of the differ
ence between Eastern and Pacific
time.