From Our U.S.A. Correspondent.
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Philadelphia has had a reliability run for heavy vehicles, and this, it report be true, is the first organized affair of the kind which has taken place in America. The projected trials of the Automobile Club of America have not materialized, and the Philadelphia run was organized by a local paper, " The North American," the technical arrangements being left in the hands of the Quaker City Automobile Club. Considerable interest has been occasioned, but the results were spectacular rather than instructive; the journey was of two days' duration, from Philadelphia to Atlantic City and back, a total distance ot 120 miles. Many persons seem pleased to think that so great a distance can be covered by a loaded car, carrying its load for 48 hrs. without interruption, and one is inclined to share these feelings on examination of the photographs of some of the competing vehicles; 69 cars entered, and 61 finished-88 per cent., which, all things considered, is a fair performance. The report of the incidents of the run is somewhat illuminating, and reveals the dangers and difficulties of such a journey, but the spirited manner in which some of the competitors met their trials is exemplary.
The rules were elaborate, and were certainly framed with the idea of securing results of some value, but the behaviour of some of the drivers must to some extent have frustrated this issue. It was not a manufacturer's contest, being mostly in the nature of a commercial-vehicle parade, but several of the cars were entered by their makers, others being put forward by the business houses owning them. It is regrettable that only one Packard truck t A newcomer made its bow on this occasion, the Packers, concernine, which the same paper observes : " it went from Camden to Hammonton at a dizzy speed, actually ontstepping the fleet little ears of class A. [The Packers is of 3 to 4 tons capacity.— The mammoth actually did the 30 miles in 1 hr. and 32 mm., which was 24 min. faster than the schedule time for cars of class A, averaging 20 miles an hour for the distance." Alas: this was not the end of the matter ; here is the sequel. " Both tires on the rear wheels wore down absolutely to the rims, and there was not a chance in the world for the truck to make the return journey on them.. . . Local merchants will want to know more about a truck capable of carrying three tons at a speed which is just as great as that which is possible to the small ears." It strikes an outsider that the American equivalent of the Road Board will also be likely to require some niece information on the same subject, after this vehicle has got clown to regular work. Whether the remarkable speed, or too small a tire section, or that only other alternative, extremely-bad tires, caused this unfortunate ending to tha. performance, the spectacle, with rubber at $2.50 a pound, of these tires, thus reduced to their lowest terms in a few miles of running, must have been, to the owner, peculiarly mortifying. Troubles with solid tires are not unheard of, and one case occurs to my mind, where, in certain reliability trials in England, a tire came v off at an early stage of the run, but that a set of tires should behave in the manner described indicates something radically wrong somewhere. In the matter of computing the cost of running, the regulation was worded as follows: " The driver's card will show the total amount of gasoline and lubricating oil used, and, in case of electrics, the electrical current used will be gauged by a meter. Gasoliee will be charged for at theuniform rate of 16 cents a gallon, lubricatinu oii at 50 cents a '-'Dalton, and electricity at 4 cents a kilowatt. It will thus be possible to tell just what it cost each contender to make the trip." The italics are mine, and, if anything had been intentionally devised for misleading the public, it could hardly have done so more effectually than such a computation as this. It strikes one as being just about as sensible and as comprehensive as one's endeavooring to learn the Post of keeping a horse by nit examination of the furrier's hill for shoeing! Not a word about tires or wages. or the first cost of the vehicle : nothing hut just the fuel. which, as everyone knows, is as a rule somewhere about 20 per cent., or less, of the total cost of nperating. This method has presumably been applied in arriving at the tabulated results of the cost of working, and, in the sense in which the run was originally conceived, namely, to enable intending purchasers to ascertain the cost of working, they are perfectly useless. The figures are too numerous to publish in full, but the highest and the lowest in each class are given, and these are the bare cost of lubrication and fuel, whether in the form of petrol or electricity. As such, they are interesting, and, when the full results are published, they will afford an interesting example of petrol and oil consumption of the various makes, but they will not afford anyone the smallest indication of the actual cost of running. Out of charity to the aforesaid "intending purchasers," it is to be hoped that someone will point out the items omitted, or ultimate disappointment will he the only lasting result obtained by the general public. The following are the figures converted into pence per ton-mile: Manufacturers Division. Cost in Pence. Highest. Lowest, 14 ton and under ... 3.36 .63 14 to 3 tons (one entry) .98 .98 3 to 4 tons ... ... .60 .379 Private Owners. Cost in Pence. Highest. Lowest_ 14 ton and under ... 2.84 .444 14 to 3 tons (one finished) .81 _81 3 to 4 tons ... .865 .35 4 tons and over... ... .62 .365 Electrics. 1-.1, ton ... to 3 tons 3 to 4 tons Cost in Pence. Highest. Lowest_ .686 .5 .48 .35 • .. .41 .392 such as they are, the above figures are instructive; they show the enormoils variation between different makes on the point of relative engine economy, due—to a great extent—to the experimental nature of many designs on the American market. The electrics are, it will be noticed, muchmore uniform, due to the fact, which I have before pointed out, that this. classof vehicle has been brought very near to perfection, whilst the same cannot by any means be said of the petrol commercial car at the present stage of its development in the States. In spite of its shortcomings, such a trial as this is of great use to the trade, though not to the public, and, with more experience, a more useful: set of records will, no doubt, be kept on future occasions. H.K.T.Tags