Imperial Valley press., 1935-02-02
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BY HENRY McLEMORE

United Press Staff Correspondent
MIAMI, Fla, Feb. 2. - Gar Wood
doesn't expect to be behind the
wheel when it happens, but he
wouldn't be at all surprised if Gar,
Jr., one day in the future, drove a
Miss America XIV or XVI over the
waters at 200 or $50 miles an hour.
Sitting ON the porch of his pala-
tial home here tdoay, the worlds
speedboat king said his record
speed of nearly 125 miles an hour
which he hopes to break on the
placid waters of Indian Greek here
next month--would some day be
doubled.
"A speed of $50 sounds fantas-
tical, yes" he said, "but no more
fantastical than 125 would have
sounded when I took up boat rae
ing. Why, I remember the first
time / ever drove boat in a real
, race. 1t was in Dubuque in 1910, and
the spectators nearly jumped into
the water to congratulate us when
we did 10 miles at an average OF
80 miles an hour, for new worlds S
speed record. I remember when i
stepped out of the little boat, shak-
| ing like a leaf, that I said to my
self:
"'Gar, they'll never go any fast
er than that and it seemed i'm
possible, too. I remember just like
it was yesterday how scared I was
when we went through bridge on
that run. It seemed as though we
we're flying. Yet, the Miss America
X that I'll drive next month will
drift almost 80 miles an hour, and
there are stock cruisers thatll make
75."
Woods Miss America x, now In
Detroit getting the finishing touch
es, weighs more than 10 tons, and
its four mighty motors will develop
approximately 1900 horsepower
Thirty y-eight feet long, and 10 feet
broad, it's far and away the big
gest racing speed boat Wood has
used. He doesn't know how fast 1t
will go, but Miss America TX, with
less power, and racing In the fresh
water of River st. Clair, made
nearly 124. So he is confident that
the new boat, with more power, and
running in salt water which is not
so light as fresh water, thus Offer
ing more buoyancy and a better
bite for the propellors, will better
the mark.
Discounts Danger
| Wood is inclined to belittle the
danger of high-speed racing on wa
| ter; says there is no real danger
save when running in shallow wa
ter.
"And the danger in shallow wa.
ter is not the danger of hitting q
sandbar or anything, for Miss Am
erica x, when the throttle is open
and she is hitting we'll above hun.
dred, doesn't draw quite an inch o.
water. AS matter of fact, she coulc
race in a saucer If you could fine
one big enough. The danger of shall
low water is that if something went
wrong, and she dived, she wouldn't
have room to plunge and woulc
crack up ON the bottom. And al
that speed, the bottom would be just
like stone wall"
We asked if Indian creek furnish
ed deep water.
mo, it doesn't. don't guess the
racing course averages much bet
ter than eight or nine, and the
boat is nearly three times that long
1t behooves us to keep her on top.
Wood revealed that nut" inven-
tors poured hundreds of suggestions
in to him a year. One mid-westerr
boat expert advised Wood to cover
the bottom of his boat with series
of rollers like those used to lift bag
gage-"It will reduce friction, ano
the boat will just roll along" An
other inventor urged the use oi
eight propellors on the sound theory
that if two propellors drove the
boat along at 1875. eight would in
crease the speed to around 500. Still
another thought paddle wheels
would help, especially If the boat
was built like fish, fins and all
And one genius said that the ulti-
mate in speed would not be reached
until a boat was designed on the
exact lines of an oyster shell, so it
! Il I.t.N 1,n TO-