Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-17


provement of the motor car has come
. as the result of wheel
brakes, demountable wheels and devel-
opment In divers and sundry descrip-
tons
With this pronouncement Mai. H. O.
d. Segrave, British racing car driver
explained the motive behind his speed
tests with the Golden Arrow racing car
which eliminated Monday with his
= plotting his superspeed vehicle over the
hard, wave-packed sands of Daytona
Beach. Fla, at rate of speed hitherto
only referred to in theory-23l miles an
hour-a speed that viii not be used
in actual travel over the highways of
the Nation for maybe a decade, per-
haps longer.
Mai. Segrave sees the top speed Of
The Golden Arrow as the top speed OF
the motor car as it is known today.
Every precaution was taken to In
sure the safety of the driver at the
maximum speed it was figured by the
foremost automotive engineers Of the
Nation a machine could travel over
the earth's surface in the construction
Of this Superseded machine. Tires were
the limitations.
About $4,000 was spent, and more
would have been Spent--there was
more available from the immensely
wealthy anonymous hackers of the
British daredevil-to develop tires that
would stand a strain Of higher speeds
and motors could be built or forces de-
vised that would force an object
through the air at a higher speed. but
for the safety of the pilot Of such a
vehicle tires were needed. and, with all
the precautions taken with the ground
contact of the Golden Arrow, the limit
was set by these same famous auto
motive engineers at GAS miles an hour.
The Golden Arrow made 23l miles
an hour under rather unfavorable con-
ditionS on the first serious test to be
made with the machine. Maj. Sc
grave believes that the machine wiz
make the speed for which it was de-
signed-245 miles an hour-but he is
not anxious to try 1t unless some one
comes along to better his newly es-
tablished mark. which bids fair TO
stand for a long time.
What Price Speed?
Mai. Segrave is through with super
speeds as they are known today. He does
not say he will not go 231 miles an hour
or even more, sometime. but he will not
attempt it with the facilities at present
available. The death of Lee Bible in j..
M. Whites Tri-motored juggenaut is
believed to have strengthened his re-
solve to be through with super-Speed
forever.
The question arises now as to what
questions with which the average mo-
torist is confronted do the accomplish
ments of Maj. Segraye and the Golden
Arrow answer?
If. In a decade or so, the facilities
for fast motor travel are such that
machines of the sort that Mai.
Segrave 'roared down the sands OF Day.
tona Beach in will be practicable for
the man in business or for the Gov
eminent in time of great emergency
are manufactured in quantities. what
will the accomplishment of Maj. Sc
grave in his machine, that is but blur
in motion, mean?
The third question. of course, is, VIII
the State and national authorities,
which in the past few years have IN
dicated a growing respect for speed on
the road, as evidenced by the raising
of sneed limits. or abolishing them
altogether in the rural sections OF the
country, recognize a need for speed
such as Mai. Segrave has developed.
or will the airplane answer the ques-
ton? OF course, there are advantages
to the plane which cannot be denied.
The plane does not need costly places
upon which to ride, but it does neeo
costly places upon which to land ana
take of.
Golden Arrow Is Answer.
The answer to all these questions is
In the Golden Arrow itself.
From the earlier experiments with
the giant mystery machine with which
Mai. Segrave startled the world with
a speed in excess of 200 miles an
hour, a great deal was learned Wnlcn
was applied to the construction OF the
Golden Arrow.
Mai. Segrave regards the motive power
for such a vehicle, strange as 1t may
seem, as merely matter OF mathemat-
les and as one of the simplest problems
of ALL But the matter of getting
bulky object through the air resistance,
WI ich is tremendous at such speeds as
Mai. Segrave has Travelled, is still an
other thing, and knotty problem to be
dealt with.
Most of the preparations for the con-
structioc of the Golden Arrow were with
regard 20 streamlining the machine SO
that it would present the least resistance
possible to the air through which 1t
was to pass and at the same time to
guard against machine that at enor-
NOUS speeds would tend to leave its
natural element of the road and take
to the air-a problem that involved
utilizing air resistance and frustrating
1t at the same time.
Time was-and no distant time. either
when 20 miles an hour was regarded
as a speed at which no man could
travel in safety. Why not 200, 500,
even 500-when human research tells
xr,Iaa m he oUnfdAA
such speeds?
Faster Speeds Aim.
AS long as man longs to be at a
place other than for the time being po-
sition, men will be working on the
means of getting him there faster and
faster
Intolerable physical limitations of hu-
man travel have ever irked man and set
the best brains of civilization to work to
devise means of making quicker and
ever quicker the travel between TWO
points. The telephone, telegraph and
the new telephoto. which some believe
soon will have an instantaneous phase,
may have their uses, but motor travel
is concerned with the accomplishment
of personal contact, and by reason OF
the size of the vehicles used, can be
made to carry the necessary human ao-
juncts for the business deal, the pleas
ure party or the emergency.
On his visit to Washington before he
went to Florida for his trial trips, Maj,
Segrave was discussing, naturally, auto
mobile speeds with a group at dinner
being given for him by the officials oil
the contest board of the American Au-
tomobile Association. He was compar-
ing American and British cars.
There are 10 makes of cars in Eng
land" said Maj. Segrave, naming them
which can do 100 miles an hour OF
better. There are, I'm sure, not that
many in America. The Englishman
moreover, when he feels necessity de-
mands, travels 100 miles an hour"
He objected that American cars are
not being built to make enough speed.
Americans Less Speedy.
The average motor car driver in this