MOTORING 



By WILLARD NIXON 



ANOTHER TRANSCONTINENTAL TRIP. 



Two Oldsmobile runabouts left New York 

 recently on a run across the continent to 

 Portland, Oregon, — a trip of 3,500 miles in 

 all. The run is in reality a race for a prize 

 of $1,000, offered by the Oldsmobile Co., and 

 as a consolation the driver of the car who 

 reaches Portland second will receive the ma- 

 chine which he operates. The cars have been 

 nicknamed "Old Steady" and "Old Scout" 

 respectively, and are driven by Messrs. Huss 

 and Megargel. The intention is that both 

 cars shall arrive at Portland in time to at- 

 tend the opening of the Lewis and Clark Cen- 

 tennial Exposition. 



At this writing the two machines have al- 

 ready covered more than half the distance 

 with minimum difficulties only, the last re- 

 port advising that one of the cars went 

 through a bridge in Nebraska, causing a de- 

 lay. This is the fifth transcontinental trip 

 and promises to be especially interesting on 

 account of the fact that Diamond tires have 

 been fitted to one of the cars and Fish tires 

 to the other, so that some valuable advertis- 

 ing on a subject of great importance to every 

 automobilist ought to be obtained. The 

 last car to cross the continent was a four- 

 cylinder Franklin driven by L. L. Whitman, 

 who covered the road from San Francisco to 

 New York in thirty-three days, record time. 

 The present trip, it is estimated, will take 

 about a month and a half, barring accidents 

 or serious delays. 



HILL CLIMBING CONTESTS. 



Such hill climbing events as have been 

 held this season show an increasing popular- 

 ity in this branch of automobile sport, for 

 the recent competitions at Worcester and 

 Springfield, Mass., and at Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 were well attended by automobilists and ex- 

 cellent time scored, and all without acci- 

 dents. 



Hill climbing competitions combine the ex- 

 citement of a race with the value of a good 

 sensible test ; the race feature is very good 

 because in these davs of increased motor 

 sizes, cars rush up the hills chosen for these 

 competitions at exceedingly good speed, and 

 as far as the real test goes, it may be stated 

 that every automobilist wants his car to go 

 fast, but is particularly keen that it shall 

 show up well on the hills. That is to say, he 



wants a car that not only has sufficient power 

 to climb all hills that he may meet, but he 

 wants a car that will have sufficient power to 

 climb them without having to change gears 

 unnecessarily often. At first it was a ques- 

 tion in a man's mind as to whether a certain 

 car would, if purchased, climb the steep hills 

 in his locality. Nowadays there is no ques- 

 tion on this score; the only point is, "Will it 

 climb these hills on the high gear, or how 

 many times will I have to change gears in 

 covering a certain specified route?" Conse- 

 quently hill climbing tests are good events, in 

 all respects, and every automobilist should do 

 all he can to assist the promotion of such 

 contests when they are being gotten up in his 

 locality. 



MOUNTAIN CLIMBING EVENTS. 



Two mountain climbing events will be held 

 this season, one in the White Mountains and 

 the other at Pike's Peak. Last year the 

 White Mountain climb up Mt. Washington 

 was spectacular and very dangerous, and 

 from recent reports it seems likely that those 

 in charge may select a different course this 

 season, Mt. Willard, at the head of Crawford 

 Notch, having been named as a better place 

 than Mt. Washington, although the climb is 

 shorter — two miles instead of eight— although 

 a great deal safer and the road in many places 

 much steeper, thus affording a better test of 

 modern motor cars. The writer went over 

 the carriage road up Mt. Willard recently, 

 and it seemed very narrow and steep and was 

 in places partially blocked by fallen trees, 

 but it undoubtedly can be put in excellent 

 condition at a very little expense and seems 

 in many respects an ideal course. 



The proposed test at Pike's Peak is an en- 

 tirely different proposition, and I am ad- 

 vised that Mr. George A. Wahlgreen, of 

 Denver, who first conceived the idea, did not 

 find until the promotion of the event was 

 well under way that the expense of prepar- 

 ing the road and of holding the test was al- 

 most prohibitive, but so much publicity had 

 been given to the affair that he found he had 

 to carry it through at any cost. Although 

 the snow is still thick on the mountain side, 

 the course has been carefully inspected, and 

 from the condition of the surface and the 

 fact that the automobilists of Colorado 

 Springs have become exceedingly interested 



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