The Vanderbilt Cup Elimination Race
1905
Scientific American
THE VANDERBILT CUl' ELIMINATION RACE. The leading machines in the elimination race for the selection of the team which is to represent America in the Vanderbilt cup contest, were, as reported in our last issue, a Pope-Toledo 60-horse-power machine, a 120-horse-power Locomobile, a 40-horse-power Royal Tourist, a 50-horse-power Haynes, and a 60-horse-power Thomas. The two leaders and the last are racing ma chines, built specially for long-distance racing of tlie class to which the forthcoming
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... belongs; the other two are stock touring machines. Among those that failed to get placed were three racing machines-a 90-horse-power Pope-Toledo, a 40-horse-power White steamer, and a 60-horse-power Christie; the first two having been built specially for this race, and the Chris tie racer being the one that has this year done such good work in the Florida and Cape May races. The Vanderbilt Cup Commission, before the race was held, announced that they reserved the rigltt to select other cars than those which might win, should it ap� pear to them that the American team would be strength ened thereby. In accordance with this policy, they de cided to substitute the White and Christie machines in place of the touring cars, and the 90-horse-power Pope-Toledo in place of the SO-horse-power Thomas. The chairman of the committee explained that the members felt that the two touring cars which showed an average speed of less than fifty miles an hour, would have but little chance of winning in a race in which, because of the faster course, the average speed was likely to be between sixty and seventy miles an hour; while they considered that the 90-horse-power racer with a driver like Lytle, with experience in road rac ing, would be a better combination than that afforded by the lower-powered Thomas car and its less-experi enced driver. That the failure of the three winning cars to be se lected for a place on the team should be a great disap pointment to their owners and builders was inevitable; [or it cannot be denied that, although their average speeds of 48.79, 47.44, and 46.26 miles per hour would not give much expectation of their winning against the fast and powerful foreign machines that are entered, the performance was an extremely creditable one for machines that were built merely for touring pur poses. In any case, it is gratifying to note, as the result of the race, that America stands in a much stronger po sition this year than she did last; for there are at least eight machines that may be considered strong candi dates for a place on the American team, namely, the five that finished first in the trials and the three which were subsequently selected by the cup commis sion. Our illustrations show eight of the ten machines which competed on the 23d ultimo. The only two not shown are the 60-horse-power Franklin (whose lengthy eight-cylinder air-cooled engine, however, appears upon page 282) and the six-cylinder, 90-horse-power Pope Toledo, which broke a transverse member of the sub frame that supports the engine and transmission, dur ing the second circuit. The winning Pope-Toledo No. 2, with Dingley at the wheel, is shown at the starting line, which it crossed at 5: 32 A. M. This machine fin ished its first round at 5: 59: 58, thus covering the 28.3� mile circuit in 27: 58, or better than a mile a minute. This was the fastest time made by any machine. The other circuits were made in 31: 07, 33: 35, and 28: 10 respectively, and included two stops on the second and two on the third round. The first three stops were occasioned by broll:en vibrators and were of short dura tion, while the last one was caused by dirt in the car bureter, which it took about five minutes to clean out. 2,184 pounds. No. · 5, the Locomobfle racer, probably was capable of the greatest speed of any machine en tered, for its engine was by far the largest, and has de veloped under test well over 120-horse-power. Joseph Tracy, who drove the huge machine both here and in the last Bennett race in France, used every precaution in order to' make a good showing, He traveled the 113 miles without a stop, and covered, the circuit in two minutes less time the last two laps than he took for the first two. · His times were 31: 27, 31: 13, 29: 56, 29: 13 for' the four 'laps. : A ,variation of but .14 seconds in going 28.3 miles certainly shows very skillful driving. Tracy tried to make the rounds in 30 minutes each, and how well he succeeded is shown by the above figures. This racer has had necessary changes made in it since the Bennett race. The chief of these is the complete The 60-Horse-Power 6 x 6-Inch Engine of the Pope-Toledo Car. Exhaust Side of the· 50-Horse-Power 5 x 6-Inch Haynes Engine. This view shows the corrugaled copper water jackets and the automatic carbureter, aB well as the spark coil lying horizuntally Oil a hoard just over the flywheel. Note also the special radiator of this car. The Etear-driven pump, meChanical oiler, and belt-driven fan are clearly shown. A!I>O an auxiliary ot! tank and spart> coil on dusl!.
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican10071905-280
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