Evening star., 1936-11-15

Elsewhere you will see ten spring
pards in a row, similar to the take-of
aaces for ski-jumpers. Along comes
Lucky" Teter in Plymouth. bound
ng off one after another. all four
sheels high off the ground. bouncing
until you would swear he must be
ihaken to pieces. As though this were
Dot enough, the apparently suicidal
kNow makes the Plymouth leap over
Ind through a picket fence. headlong
hto high bank, around curve. all
d top speed and then of the edge of a
Soung precipice, the car tumbling
6ckeningiy end over end. To do this
ort of thing and live requires. of
kourse, not foolhardy courage but in
tredible skill.
"They call me Lucky because !
manage to stay out of hospitals" Teter
has said. "As a matter of fact l have
pothing but contempt for the guy who
takes unnecessary chances. Before 60
ing into the business Of driving cars
Upside down safely first learned a
lew things about driving them right
bide up safely"
Test drivers of the daredevil brand
are showmen. Their principal value to
automobile manufacturers is in pub
licity. Nevertheless, the engineers also
benefit by their spectacular stunts
After a car has been driven at sixty
miles an hour of a platform into thirty
feet Of water or off a ki-jump onto the
hard. hard earth. it is promptly dis
assembled and all the parts examined
to see how we'll they have withstood
the murderous strain.
The entire United States is Our
proving ground" is Chrysler's motto.
You cannot. say that firms officials,
reproduce the atmospheric conditions
of Arizona, the altitude pressure of the
Rocky Mountains in a single testing
field. So Chryslers. Dodges. De Sotos
and Plymouths are taken literally all
over the country. Up Mt. Wilson in
California they are driven to try out
their road climbing ability. the car
buretor's resistance to air pressure at
great heiP"ts. Then they are subjected
Ito the below sea-level pressures, the
heat and sand of Death Valley.
Beside the drivers sit engineers with
instruments. thermometers, graphs
and all that sort of thing. After and
during each rigid test these experts
take the temperature of the block, the
|oil. the carburetor. the gas. the water.
the tires. clutch, gear box. Every de-
tail of transmission and running gear
lis examined.
More than thirteen years ago Alfred
|P. Sloan. president of General Motors.
began to dream of a method of de-
|termining definitely the quality. the
strength, the mechanical perfection of
Cadillacs, La Salles. Bucks, Olds-
mobiles, Pontiacs and Chevrolets. Up
10 that time the only way of finding
out how good cars we're was to send
them out over the country. In this
fashion defects came to light, but the
extent Of the defect could not be es-
tablished with any precision. The
method was not only slow and cum
bersome. but it left a lot to be desired
in accuracy. Also. there could be no
control over road conditions. traffic
and 90 forth. Many of the cars met
with accidents. and without contribut-
ing anything to the information of the
engineers. Furthermore, there was a
risk to human life.
And So" says A. J. Schamehorn,
from that dream OF MIR. Sloan's
sprang this Proving Ground at Mil
ford. Mich. You are now in the worlds
largest and most complete outdoor re-
search laboratory. On these 1858
acres you can see twenty-five miles of
roads, scientifically constructed to
meet all the tests that our engineers
demand. 1t is a community by itself.
Since 1924. when the Proving Ground
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