Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RACING MOTOR CAR. 327 lengthened wheel-base and improvements in steering-gear made it possible to hold a machine on the road at speeds hitherto unattainable; and the increase in the power of the engines has never ceased, even in the days of cylinder bore restrictions. Gabriel, it will be remembered, won the stage to Bordeaux on his Mors with an aver- age speed of some 65 miles an hour. It is said that he went through "speed” without changing a tyre, and surprise is sometimes expressed at this, in view of the multitudinous tyre- changes of modern days. But the reason— apart from the question of luck—is simple, lor the first time the tyre manufacturers had overtaken the designers in the matter of speed. At first the cars travelled at a faster speed than the tyres would stand, and the drivers suffered greatly in consequence from bursts and punctures. But in 1902 and 1903 the standard of tyre resistance was higher than the strain of the speed which the cars could develop (except for very short periods downhill), and therefore the limit of tyre en- durance was not reached. Thus Gabriel’s car could probably not sustain a speed of 90 miles an hour for any length of time, the usual top speed being (in the race, not at a sprint meet- ing) in all probability 80 to 85. At this speed the tyres could hold out—and did so. Where- as in modern days, with maximum speeds of 105 or 110 miles an hour, the tyres cannot stand up under the stresses. From which it will be gathered that the designers have again outdistanced the tyre manufacturers. The same freedom from tyre worries assisted Jenatzy greatly in winning the Gordon- Bennett race in Ireland in 1903 ; and it should be remembered that the car he drove was a stripped tour- Racing in ing Mercedes of ordinary pat- ^re^an^’ f9°3* tern, as the big 90 horse-power cars of that make had been destroyed by fire. Here again the comparatively low top speed was a great factor in the life of the tyre. THE NAPIER WHICH WON THE GORDON-BENNETT RACE OF 1902. In the car are Messrs. Edge and Napier.