Evening star., 1936-11-15

more than ITO miles an hour. 1t was one of the
biggest thrills of his life, he admitted"
The Packard Proving Grounds at Utica.
Mich. are puzzling sight from the air. Of
course you have no trouble identifying the
two-and-a-half-mile speedway as you ap-
proach Utica from Detroit. But on the west
side of it there spreads beneath you tangle
of curving lines which look as though gigan-
tic kitten had been playing with huge ball of
yarn and got it unraveled.
Those lines, you learn later, are eighteen
miles of roadway so constructed as to repro
duce every type of surface and condition that
motorist can encounter in any part of the
United States. Their nicknames afford an
ample idea of their nature: Heartbreak Hill,
the Roller Coaster. Torture Lane, Sahara
Desert. At the north end is water dip long
enough and deep enough to stall the motor of
any automobile that is not practically am
phibious Through this dip Packards are
driven at top speed, at snail's pace and
medium.
The test drivers here are fellows of prodi-
gious endurance. since they are often called
upon to 60 1000 miles at full throttle or even,
for the supreme test, 25.OOO miles nonstop.
For such purposes car is kidnapped" out
of the assembly line, picked at random. The
Packard drivers are not expected to be dare
devils, though they do strain the strength of
the vehicles to the utmost.
I'VE never have had fatal accident here"
says Colonel Vincent, because we all know
what moments laxness at the wheel may
mean" One of them blew left front tire
while high on a turn but oontrived to stop
safely without any application of brakes.
WAS thrilled? Hell, no. I'm not emotional"
he explained afterwards. Allen Lincoln. of the
graveyard shift, drove one evening at top
speed through fog so thick that he could hardly
see more than twenty feet ahead of him.
Didn't that thrill you?" he was asked. Eyes,
once, he replied. when felt something like
cold, dammy fingers at the back of my neck.
A big bat had flown into the car"
OF daredevil drivers the most eminent
are wild Bill" Simons, 'Slim" Corum and
Luther Johnson. veterans o the Indian
apolis classic. Cliff Bergere, who drove the
wrecked car in Gabriel Over the White
House" Jimmy Lynch and, last but far from
least, Lucky" Teter, holder of nine worlds
records. There seems to be literally nothing
that these breakneck virtuosi will not attempt
in motor car - and get away with it. Their
job is to do the utmost to smash up the auto
mobiles they are driving.
You may have seen some of their exploits
on the screen. particularly in the picture.
Trial by Torture" made for the Chrysler
Corporation. In that picture, Jimmy Lynch,
tearing along in Chrysler at sixty miles an
hour, suddenly wrenches the wheel around to
make an upside-down plunge, the car landing
on its roof and then righting itself. How can
man do that and live to grin about it? To re-
assure you. the driver is strapped into his seat.
and wears padded helmet 50 as not to dash
his brains out on the roof. As you watch this
performance you are informed that Jimmy
is doing his dMnedest to break something, a
cylinder, piston or maybe spring. But he
does not succeed not even when he speeds
over an ice-rutted road and dashes into a
snowbank - not even when he rushes over a
succession of railroad tracks until the car is
turned over on its side or skids, with its rear
wheels humping terrifcally over row of rail-
road ties, administering blows of piledriver
force to the springs of the car.
(Confinvsd on pogs 17)