With the advent of racing on a large scale the manufacturers built special racing machines to insure the name of their product being among the first three in the summaries. Speeds began to increase and trials for a "mile-a-minute" were made. Racing was held on dirt or horse-racing tracks, in the earlier days. Then, about 1911-13, came the board tracks, or the so-called motor dromes and a circuit of such tracks, generally from a to m., sometimes 2 m., was established. But this form of motorcycle racing was soon abandoned due to the number of fatalities. Racing then went back to the horse tracks and later to the automobile speedways, of a mile or so. What racing is being done to-day is held either on horse tracks or on the automobile speedways. Most motorcycle competition work is confined to hill climbs, racing hav ing been dropped by a number of factories. The control of racing is now handled by the American Motorcycle Association.
The A.M.A. records show that Jim Davis, at Beverly Hills Speedway, Los Angeles, Cal., did a mile in 32.43 sec. in 1922. Three years later at Laurel, Md., his time for 5 m. was 2 min. 41i sec. Joe Petrali at Laurel did io m. in 5 min. 231 sec. ; 25 m. in 14 min. 85 sec. and loo m. in 59 min. 471 sec., or better than a mile a minute for the entire distance. Records by R. Hepburn on a dirt course at Dodge City, Kan., in 1921, stand at 2 hr., 17 min. 54 sec. for 200 m. and 3 hr. 3o min. and 3 sec. for the 3oo miles.
Record beach performances at Daytona Beach in 1920 stand as follows : i kilometre by Gene Walker in 19.32 sec. or 115.79 m. per hour; 1 m. by Gene Walker in 31.53 sec. or 114.17 m. per hour. (W. A. BA.) MOTORING. The increase in the popularity of private motoring is one of the most remarkable developments of modern times. Assuming that there were 1,300,000 motor-cars and motor cycles in use in Great Britain in May 1934, the total value at even oo apiece—a very reasonable estimate—would have amounted to 130 millions sterling. If these 1,300,000 vehicles covered 5,000 miles a year, or on the average say too miles a week, it would work out that 6,500,000,000 miles are covered in a year by motorists in Great Britain alone, or about 70 times the distance of the sun from the earth! In 1897 less than twenty people, all of them enthusiasts, daily execrated by the public at large, possessed a private motor vehicle. But the private owner can no longer be regarded as using a car for pleasure only. Every day use for every day purposes is now the usual work of a pri vately owned car. Prior to the World War, motoring was to some extent confined to well-to-do people, whereas to-day the majority of motorists are people of quite moderate or even very limited means. People possess and use cars to-day not so much because they want to as because they must do so. In short, the question is not so much whether a person can afford a motor car as whether he can afford to be without one.
Causes of Rapid Growth.—Apart from the great demands of business, the very rapid recent growth of motoring has been due to factors which may be enumerated as follows :—(1) Cheap prices for really good cars; (2) the adoption of the hire purchase or "purchase out of income" system; (3) improvement in the quality of both mechanism and tyres, resulting in reduced main tenance charges; (4) improved engine efficiency resulting in reduced fuel consumption and lowered running costs.
Dealing with the factors categorically we find :—(1) Owing to the very large increase in wages subsequent to the World War, and the corresponding increase in the cost of all manufactured articles, it became necessary to study and apply scientific methods of production to a much greater extent than had previously been considered necessary, for it is a well-known fact that when labour is both cheap and plentiful there is less incentive than when wages are high to pay attention to this matter. Hence since the war it has come about that partly at least owing to much higher wages prevailing the introduction of more scientific methods of production has revolutionized many industries, to their great advantage, and this change has been particularly evident in the motor manufacturing and affiliated trades.
(2) The introduction of the hire purchase system in regard to motor-cars has resulted in large numbers of persons joining the ranks of motorists who would not have done so had it not been for this convenient method of extended credit. The economic pros and cons of the system need not be considered here. It is sufficient to say that the hire purchase of pianos, furniture, houses, etc., has been in existence for many years and that it has certainly been responsible more recently for an enormous increase in the number of motor vehicles in use. There are, in fact, thousands and thousands of young professional and business men to-day to whom the motor-car or cycle has become literally a necessity and the hire purchase system has provided them with an easy means of obtaining their equipment.
(3) Just in the same way as increased demand and larger out put, as the result of scientific production, have enabled prices to be reduced, so improvements both in design and equipment have similarly resulted. Wheels, tyres, transmission gears, brakes and electric equipment are all more efficient, while lubrication, which was at one time not only a dirty business but also little under stood by the average owner, has now been arranged so as to render it practically automatic and fool-proof. Tyres give much longer mileages than previously, which may be attributed partly to the improvement in the quality of the tyres, and to a very large extent also, to the improvement in the quality of road surfaces. Gears have longer lives because in the first place they are better designed, and, in the second place, because the steel from which they are made has been greatly improved in quality.
(4) The improvement in engine efficiency has been particularly marked. Efficiency in this respect means the amount of power derived from the engine which is transmitted to the road surface, in relation to the power put into the engine in the form of petrol or other fuel. A modern engine of good class will give on a gal lon of petrol double the mileage which an engine of similar dimen sions would have given only a few years ago.