The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-09-10
s'Little Mystery"
 Visits Waterbury
Worlds Champion Midget Speed Car Thrills Flun-
 dreds-PilOted By Designer

The routine of the Democrat news room was interrupted shortly before g o'clock this morning by the screeching of fire engine sirens as several pieces of apparatus sped by on their way to a nearby fire. Shortly thereafter they returned and all was quiet. But not for long, because the sound of another siren broke the stiffness, and a rush was made to the front window to learn if another fire had brought out the engines.
 It was not a fire engine, but Lit tie Mystery" the worlds champion midget speed car with Kenneth L.. Morehouse, movie stunt flier, de- signer and owner of the machine, at the wheel. He is paying Water bury a visit as part of his nation wide goodwill tour. The siren that sounded was presented him by the chief of the Jacksonville, Fla, po- lice department as payment of a bet. The chief wagered Morehouse that his samll car could not beat the fastest police cars in the city over a distance of four blocks. If the chief lost he told the famous aviator he would give him the best dNdlldDie lhO Cllys hO siren is now one of the chief adornments of the attractive car.
 Cost $9,16O
 Morehouse intends to visit Mayor Frank Hayes, Police 'Superintend- ent Joseph H. Mclean and Frank J. Green, secretary of the Cham Der of Commerce before the day is over.
 The car, which cost $9,160 to construct, caused no little commo- tion as it sped to the Democrat of- flee and the Hotel Elton led by Q police car operated by Patrolmap John McWeeney. The drive through the city was started about o'clock this morning and after a brief stay at this office, the machine was parked at the Hotel Elton lobby.
 Holds Records
 The car is capable of 130 miles an hour as was demonstrated by Warehouse on the Indianapolis speedway last year. Officials at the track thought it was suicidal at- tempt but the driver only smiled and took away with him over $20.- 900 in prizes. In reaching 130 miles per hour over the famous track, Warehouse broke all exist ing records for small cars. The car is 51 inches long. 21 inches high and 34 inches wide.
 The liliputian racer includes in its manufacture fine main bearings on diamonds and all other bearings on rollers; a four cylinder air cooled motor developing A horse power, twin ignition, dual carbure- tion and a superchargers and four wheel brakes. The compression ra- tio is nine to one, the motor requir ing three ordinary storage batteries to turn it over. It makes 50 miles on on a gallon of gasoline and among other things has knee ac- tion front wheels, and an automatic shifting device with four speeds forward and two reverse. Second speed does 90 miles.
 Parks Car in Hotel
 Its designer is a native of Shar- on, Conn. His father was recently injured when struck by an automo- bile and at present is a patient at the Sharon hospital. Warehouse was made famous for his daring stunts in the moving pictures at Hollywood, Cal, deliberately crash ing 10 planes for the sake of re- alism in "HelPs Angels. He was one of the first to write the name of a cigarette over New York city in a plane. One of his most recent feats was to ride his car around the rim atop the Empire State building in New York city.
 Warehouse met Clyde Jennings, manager of the Elton, from the seat of Little Mystery" and se- cured permission to park the car in the hotel lobby. He will keep it in room 404 of the hotel during the night.