Automobile Notes of Interest.

The New York Times
August 5, 1906

Jefferson De Mont Thompson, Chairman of the Racing Board of the American Automobile Association, will return from abroad this week on the steamer Oceanic.  A meeting of the board will probably be held soon after his arrival, and definite arrangements will be made regarding the Long Island course.  Additional plans for the running of the elimination trials late in September will also be announced.

Some opposition has been aroused in Rochester over the one-hundred-mile automobile road race that it is planned to hold near that city on Labor Day, Sept. 3, over a twenty-five-mile route.  Elaborate arrangements for the event have been made, not only by the Rochester Club but by the members of the New York State Association, and the difficulties probably will be smoothed over.  Stock touring cars only will be eligible.
Ralph Mongini, the Italian racing automobilist who has been selected to drive the Matheson car in the Vanderbilt Cup race, has been in the city recently driving at Long Beach a big touring Matheson car for preliminary practice.  The racer will be shipped to New York for trial runs on Long Island toward the end of the month.

New has just been received in this city that the big Italian cup contest over the Brescla course, scheduled for the first week in September, has been abandoned owing to the fact that the Government found it impossible to assign sufficient soldiers to guard the course.  Lancia, Nazzaro, and the other Italian drivers who are to compete in the Vanderbilt Cup race, will, therefore, come to America somewhat earlier than was at first intended.  The Fiat racing cars will probably arrive about the middle of September.

The H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company has decided to open a branch house in Boston.  Since 1903 the Franklin car has been sold in Boston by A. R. Bangs, and the decision of the company to open a branch is the result of careful study of the Boston situation, and a determination to give its New England trade all the advantages.

Now that the American Automobile Association tour is over, the members of the New York Motor Club are beginning to interest themselves in the coming endurance run to be held under the auspices of the club on Aug. 29, 30, and Sept. 1.  The run on the first day will be from this city to Albany, then to Springfield, Mass., and from the latter city back to New York on the third day.  Nine entries have already been received and several more have been promised at an early date.

Horace De Lisser, President of the Ajax Standard Rubber Company, manufacturers of the Ajax tires which are being used by a number of the unlicensed machines, has just made announcement that he will guarantee each tire to run 5,000 miles.  The Ajax tires were used on C. W. Kelsey's Maxwell car, which won the Deming Trophy in the recent American Automobile Association tour.  The Ajax Tire Company was organized as an independent concern last spring.

The automobile has found a new use in the sporting world.  N. Earle Taylor has been coaching a crew at Lake Quinsigamond, near Worchester, Mass., from his Pope-Hartford automobile.  Seated in his car he overlooks the lake, and with a megaphone shouts his directions to the crew.  He says that the way to successfully coach a crew is to get an automobile and thus keep with them as you can't in any other way.

The Aerocar Company reports sales last week of aerocars to Charles E. Miller and H. Moses of New York and J. G. Oakley of Mount Vernon.  The company has just started a new agency at Cincinnati in charge of Joseph T. Monfort.

An excellent demonstration of the popularity of White steam cars was afforded all along the route of the recent A. A. A. tour.  At every large town through Central New York local parties in White steamers were on hand to greet the tourists.  Some of the White cars had come from St. Louis and Kansas City, some were returning West, and others followed the tourists for a few days.  At Saratoga Spencer Trask's machine, in natural wood finish, was particularly conspicuous.

As nearly all the great touring and racing events of the past 2 years have been won by cars equipped with Truffault-Hartford shock absorbers, there was no great surprise at the showing of the winning cars in the recent Glidden tour, which were equipped with these devices.  Percy Pierce, with his Pierce Arrow, won the event last year with Hartford suspensions on the car, and this year all three Pierce cars that started finished with perfect scores.  Every one on the tour agrees that shock absorbers played an important part in preventing the breaking of springs and tire troubles.

There is no question that the results of automobile contests have much to do with the selection of a car by intending purchasers.  The general public, at least that part of it which is buying automobiles, watches closely the results of all contests, and a choice is often determined thereby.  An illustration of this is seen in the case of the Oldsmobile.  After finishing the Glidden Trophy contest with a perfect score, Ernest Keeler made a 505-mile nonstop run from Bretton Woods to New York, driving a 28-30 horse power Oldsmobile.  The day after Keeler reached New York and the news of his performance became known four cars were sold by the Oldsmobile Company.