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INSTEAD of a distinctly technical contest, such as was held last year, the Glidden tour of 1911 was more of a pleasure event held for the double purpose of emphasizing the good roads movement in the South and at the same time of giving the 1912 models their frst practical demonstration. Te distance covered this year was only .half that covered in 1911, being the 1,454 miles between New York city and Jacksonville, Fla. The tour started on October 14th and ende October 26th. In all some 77 cars were included in the caravan, of which 64 competed. Fourteen, or about 22 per cent, fnished with perfect scores, whereas last year, out of 27 contestants, none escaped without penalization. Instead of the rigid technical examination that occurred at the end of the tour last year, the rules this year merely required the reaching of controls on time. The cars were divided into teams of three, the winning team, of course, being the one with the fewest marks. In addHion to this, the Chamber of Commerce of Anderson, S. C, donated a $1,000 prize for the car having the best score. The frst few days of the tour were very enjoyable, but the toufists encountered a cloudburst at Roanoke, Va., after which they were obliged to travel through exceedingly muddy roads, as well as to ford streams at several places. That they succeded in doing the latter with the water almost up to the frames of the cars in some instances, speaks well for the manner in which the carbureters and magnetos are protected in the modern automobile. In our report of the tour last year a warning note was sounded regarding that most important part of the car-the steering gear. The breaking of steering knuckles or the failure of other parts of this gear were in 1910 of much too frequent occurrence. This year but one such accident was reported, but that, unfortunately, was a fatal one. On the day before the tour ended the pacemaking car of J. P. Walker, in which the owner, his wife, and S. M. Butler, chairman of the Contest Board of the A. A. A., were riding as passengers, ran of the road into a feld and upset when going at high speed. The chaufeur escaped unburt, but Mr. and Mrs. Walker were both severely injured, and Mr. Butler was crushed beneath the car and killed. The accident, which occurred at Tifton, Ga., after the 42-mile run from Cordele had been made in an hour, was caused either by the steering gear, giving way or from the car becoming unmanageable when driven at high speed through deep sand. The chaufeur claimed the former was the case. There was a great deal of racing throughout the tour, and it is a wonder that there were no other serious accidents. The winning teams, with the points charged against them, were as follows: 1. Tarrytown (3 Maxwells) ..................... 0 2. Atlanta No. 2' (3 Stevens·Duryeas)........... 18 3. Jacksonville (3 Cadillacs) ................... 28 4. Atlanta No. 3 (3 Fords) .................... 125 5. Live Oak (3 Cadillacs) ...................... 279 6. Nashville (3 Marathons) .................... 509 The fourteen cars which had perfect scores were made up as follows: 4 Maxwells, 3 Cadillacs, 2 Stevens-Duryeas, 2 Fords, a Columbia, a Mitchell, and a Flanders. The winner of the Anderson trophy, who was picked . by lot, was Goveror Hoke Smith, of Georgia, with his Maxwell. Miss Roberta Marks, of Athens, Ga., was the only lady driver. She piloted her silver-plated Columbia, flled with several lady friends, through to the fnish with a perfect score. The fact that 11 of the 14 perfect-score cars were low·priced machiles shows that the modern lightweight touring car, which can be bought for about $1,000, is, if anything, more dependable than a heavy high-priced machine, especially when i comes to traveling at high speed over rough and muddy roads. Under such conditions the light car has the advantage in every way, and to make it all the better, it is the cheapeft to buy and to run.
