Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

LANCIA TAKING A CORNER DURING THE VANDERBILT CUP RACE, LONG ISLAND, 1905. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RACING MOTOR CAR. BY GERALD ROSE. FEW persons probably, except the de- signers and drivers of the racing cars which compete in the great contests held from time to time upon the open highroad, realize the marvellous amount of care and thought which go to the successful procluc- „ . „ tion of such machines. By Racing Cars. ... the plain person they are classed with the taxi-cab and motor ’bus as ordinary “ motors,” though some, perhaps, vaguely recognize their métier from the fact that the bonnet is large and the seats are small. Not unfrequently, indeed, one hears a passer-by dignify as a racer ” some inoffen- sive, low-powered touring chassis which is out on a test run, fitted with the meagre seating accommodation usually allotted to those un- fortunates whose task it is to guide a car (1,408) 21 through its infantile maladies upon the road. But even the little crowd which has happened upon a real racing car, and which, after a furtive glance at the axle-caps, stands detail- ing history to the newcomers, often does not realize that the object of its interest has surely a worthy claim to be ranked as one of the most remarkable pieces of modern machinery devised by the mind of man. An exaggeration ? Think the question out. Here is no engine bolted to a solid bed-plate, working under unchanging conditions ; no tur- bine, humming evenly in the twinkling engine-room as the bow-wave curls from the big liner’s fore-foot; no 100-ton locomotive, running to schedule in ponderous contempt of the endless miles of smooth shin- What is demanded of them. VOL. III.