AUTOMOBILE 

 NOTES 



WILLARD NIXON 



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RECORD SMASHING 

 Talk about the notable race meet at Or- 

 mond Beach has scarcely subsided. That 

 the 1905 struggle on the Florida sands was 

 a notable one is on account of the unex- 

 pected success of the attack on the mile 

 record. 



Doubtless to many of the knowing ones 

 the results were not surprising, but when 

 it is considered that . the record breaking 

 mile in 39 seconds registered by Mr. Van- 

 derbilt last year in a 90 H. P. car was 

 beaten by a car of equal rated horse power 

 this year, an idea of the satisfactory out- 

 come of the meet is obtained. 



Mr. Macdonald, of England, in his 90 

 H. P. Napier smashed the mile record to 

 smithereens, his best time being 34 2-5 sec- 



onds, a cut of 4 3-5 seconds from the record. 

 Mr. Bowden, of Boston, brought a wonder- 

 ful leviathan to the beach, a Mercedes con- 

 taining two standard 60 H. P. motors, all 

 the work of reconstructing the car being 

 carried out under the owner's supervision, 

 it is said. This monster racing machine 

 fled along the beach in the fastest time ever 

 officially credited to an automobile- — 32 4-5 

 seconds for the mile, or nearly no miles an 

 hour. Mr. Bowden's marvelous mile, how- 

 ever, cannot be rated as an official world's 

 record, and for this reason : the racing rules 

 of the Automobile Clubs in 1900 limited 

 the weight of racing cars to 1,000 kilo- 

 grams — equivalent to 2,204.6 pounds. But 

 the Bowden machine weighed 2,600 pounds, 

 considerably over weight, and so Mr. Mac- 



The 120 H. P. Mercedes Owned by H. L. Bowden. Record 34 1-5 Sec. 



207 



Photograph by Spooner. 



