Page:Motoring Magazine and Motor Life December 1913.djvu/12

10 MOTORING MAGAZINE AND MOTOR LIFE December, 1913. the day it led the Grand Prix, and was acclaimed the fastest 90 Fiat ever made.

Garbutt is justly proud of the Nazzaro Fiat, every part of whose engine was selected by the clever Italian driver, each bearing the initial "N." Wherever Garbutt goes, the splendid workmanship on the engine awakens admiration.

Garbutt's old racing car, known as the Stewart-Garbutt car, which Garbutt built, and with which he broke the amateur record for a mile, was sold and never afterwards heard from. It dropped from the knowledge of the man who made it as completely as if it had taken wings.

This has been the case with ever so many of the ex-racing cars. As soon as their speed days are over, they are rebuilt or taken apart, and form integral parts of a host of other racers.

Bert Dingley's Pope-Toledo racer, known as El Valiente, was sold to ex-Mayor Hazzard, who attempted to duplicate the spectacular flights of the Reo Bird by installing two engines in the car. The Pope-Toledo, however, refused to do double duty.

Tetzlaff's white Lozier that turned the fastest lap in the first Santa Monica road race, was rebuilt, as was his 90 Fiat. This latter car was driven in the Corona race by George Hill.

The Lozier car, with which Tetzlaff broke the world's stock car record and the American road race record at Santa Monica in 1909, was sold to Charles Twitchell, the inventor of the Twitchell air gauge, Tetzlaff getting $500 more than the car originally cost him.

Mrs. J. B. Mitchell, wife of Manager of Borland Electric Car Co., distributors for Southern California, in her Borland Roadster.

Dingley's Pope-Toledo No. 2 is now the property of Carl F. Fischer, president of the Indianapolis Speedway. A quiet family life is to be hoped for this old car.

The Marmon Wasp, that long, tapering skyrocket on wheels, which Ray Harroun piloted to victory in the first 500-mile speedway race ever run, is now in the proud possession of Howard Marmon, head of the automobile corporation of which his name is a part. In the wonderful machine, Harroun covered the five-century at a rate of speed better than seventy-four miles an hour.

Old No. 8, the blue-bonneted National which little Joe Dawson drove into first place in the second 500 mile sprint with an average of better than seventy-eight miles an hour, is an object of much interest in the National factory at Indianapolis. Last May it was given a few sprints around the track, and the famous old boat proved that it was far from flirting with the scrap heap.

It was respectable service for the 1911 Cadillac that captured the American twenty-four hour record of sixty-three and one-third miles an hour. Since retiring from speed stunts, the Cadillac, as a service car for Don Lee, has covered 75,000 miles, and as Don Lee says: "She still has speed."

Speed! The thing that made the fame of these cars, and which counts more with their drivers than faithful service.

Speed gone or on the wane, and one by one these racing cars are dropped from the roll of honor, and even their names pass from the memory of man.

The Blue Streak, the Yellow Peril, the Black Death, the Gray Wolf, and all others—may Mercury, the god of speed, justly reward their efforts.

In this season of glad tidings and good cheer comes an announcement that makes the motorist stop and wonder if really the age of miracles has passed.

Quietly, without the blare of trumpets, the ringing of bells, or the firing of canons, it has been announced that the main street of Mayfield, the connecting link in the highway down the peninsula, is at last really going to be paved.

One has to pinch himself on hearing this announcement to make sure that it is not a dream.

The amount of money expended on printer's ink and other incidentals necessary to publish the articles of scorn that have been written concerning this road in the last ten years would almost have paid for its construction. The town with the name that brings thoughts of the aristocratic section of London has evidently awakened from its Rip Van Winkle slumber. It is to be hoped that it is a real awakening, and that it will not turn over and go to sleep again, for it has been impossible for those using the El Camino Real to pass this town by. They had to go through it in a Dante's passage to the other side.

There is supposed to be an end to everything, and it is hoped that kind fate has at last put an end to the bad roads of Mayfield.

Yet the News Letter fearing that this report may not be true, quotes from a late issue of the Daily Palo Alto Times the following:

"At the regular meeting of the Mayfield town board of trustees, recently, a contract was signed to pave Main street under the plans prepared by F. A. Nikirk, city engineer. The construction company was placed under $2,000 bonds to complete the work within 120 days.

"The action of the board will result in the closing of a gap of about one mile of bad roadway through Mayfield. The proposed work has been under discussion for two and a half years, and has been strongly urged by residents of Mayfield and Palo Alto and by motorists who use the peninsula road from San Francisco to San Jose.

"The new roadway will be built the width of the street from gutter to gutter for about one-half mile, and the remainder of the distance it will be twelve feet wide on either side of the Peninsula electric right of way, later broadening out to twenty-four feet. This is considerably wider than the State highway."

It is "Big Bill" Hanrahan who has the contract, and woe unto Bill if the job is not done quicker and better than man has ever known.