Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

332 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. GABRIEL, THE WINNER OF THE PARIS-MADRID RACE OF 1908, ON ONE OF THE 1908 GRAND PRIX CLÉMENT-BAYARD CARS. These were very powerful machines, and about the fastest in the race. liability which is a vitally important quality of the other. Here the machine is called upon merely to make a sprint of several minutes, and as long as it can keep up the required speed during one race it can be tinkered with before the next event. Neverthe- less high speed at Brook- lands is a very severe test of the solidity of a car, for slight inequalities in the track, unnoticeable at speeds below sixty miles bore to 130 millimetres, and the mini- mum weight was also altered to 900 kilogrammes, but the prominent manu- facturers decided to refrain from further racing, signing a bond to that effect. Consequently the race fell through, and no important event was held that year. This seems to have made an unfavour- able impression on those who were responsible for it, as it is now proposed to hold the Grand Prix in 1910, but entirely without restrictions of any kind— a proceeding which is hardly likely to AN ENGLISH RACING CAR. assist the progress of design. Track racing is a branch racing that has come into prominence of late owing to the opening of the Brook- lands track, specially built for high-speed work, the banking being designed for speeds up to 130 miles an hour. This kind of work develops a car of a type totally different from the road racer, as the track car of motor Weigel on one of his own machines before the Grand Prix of 1908. DURAY ON ONE OF THE 1908 GRAND PRIX DE DIETRICHS. Track Racing. requires none of the re