Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-19
BY MAI. III. o. ID. SEGRAVE.

You often have heard the expires.
sion: las quick as thought" as II
thought were the quickest thing in the
world. II Is nothing Of the kind. The
l. 00.horsepower car which l brought
to America Is quicker than the swift.
est moving human brain.
Let me explain this more fully
When the eye sees something or your
finger touches something, the time
taken in communicating that mes
sage to your brain is a of second.
II you are an average human being.
This Is. known as reflex. Few human
beings have a quicker reflex than this.
though there are some exceptions, of
course.
The swiftest known reflex is that of
monkey. which has an average re-
f1ex OF 20 of a second.
If you think ii over and do a simple
sum, YOU will find that car when
travelling at 200 miles an hour will
cover Just about AZ yards in a of
second.
Big Premium on Time.
This means that If see anything
in the way when I am going at that
speed. or notice a bump in the ground
or feel anything going wrong with the
car. l shall be Al yards nearer the
danger before the message reaches
my brain and able to take the neces-
sary steps to avoid it.
Or, to put 1t another way, the
minimum distance In which l can do
the simplest thing, even If it is only
taking my foot off the gas pedal, or
switching off the engine, will be nearly
so yards.
Even a monkey-assuming I could
train one to drive the car-would be
unable to do anything under 2O-odd
yards.
The difficulty alone answers the
question which / often have asked:
What is there to this business of
just driving fast anyway"
1t also explains why 1t is impossible
to attempt these speeds except where
a long stretch OF perfectly clear and
smooth sand is available.
1t Is difficult for those who have not
experienced high speeds on land to
realize the necessity for quick think
ing on the part of The race driver, so
to make it palmer / will translate the
problem into the terms of ordinary
motoring.
Average Far Different.
Take a man driving a car at 80
miles an hour. He sees, say, hole
in the road ahead. The message Is
communicated to his brain, which in
turn orders his hands to defect the
steering wheel, or his feet to apply
the brakes, as the case may be. And
all this can be done, assuming he
possesses the average human reflex,
before the car has travelled more
than Z yards. So he has plenty of
time in which to act, in most cases.
But imagine what it would be like
IL he was powerless to do anything
until his car had travelled nearly
seven times this distance
Or again picture the appalling traf-
fic wrecks which would occur If driv-
ers suddenly contracted a disease
which slowed down their ref1exes
seven things. If this happened, with
other things, the automobile industry
would cease to exist.
But the man travelling at 80 miles
an hour has another advantage over
the ,000-horsepower car at 200 miles
an hour. He can see right ahead of
him except for perhaps a couple of
yards Immediately in front of the car.
In the big car at 200 miles an hour,
/ cannot see anything closer than 200
yards ahead, and from what / have
explained of the speed Of refiexes. 1t
would not be much use to me II
could.
Think this over, too, and try to