THRILLS OF MOTOR RACING

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 210, 1 June 1926, Page 13

THRILLS OF MOTOR RACING

MILE IN 26 SECONDS What are the sensations of motoring at 140 miles an hour and more? At such speeds objects of cither side of you become blurred The eye cannot pick them out individually. The story of the racing driver who, passing through a village, said to his fair passenger, '.“That is a pretty village,” and received the replj’, “Yes, wasn’t it?” is amusing, but not accuiately descriptive. If they had been travelling really fast they would not have been able to note the fact that the village was pretty! At speeds which cause ’vision, on either side of you to be blurred driving tajtics obviously have to be altered. It becomes necessary to steer a course by means of objects that lie directly ahead in the line of vision, and it is not much use unless such objects are at least 300 yards ahead. Take my coming attempt on the world’s short distance records on the sands at Southport, writes Major 11. C. D. Segrave to the “Daily Mail” on the day before the event. I have selected four points by which to steer my course, three houses sticking up in the sand dunes and a distant weather cone.

In each case the object is several miles ahead. When the first house approaches too near and becomes blurred—objects come to you, you do not appear to be going toward them at high speed—l shall immediately picx up the next house, and so on. The best impression of speed is obtained when road racing at night. Next to the road comes the race track. Compared with either of these speed on wide expanses of sand is far less pronounced. Speed in an teroplane at high altitudes is calm and serene compared with the sensation of speed on a highway It is only when approaching the ground that you obtain any real sensation of speed in the air.

After travelling at very high speeds it is necessary to be extremely careful when changing over to a touring car. Motorists know that after a long burst of, say, 45 miles an hour on a clear toad, 20 or 15 miles an hour seems a mere crawl. After 140 miles an hour, 60 miles an hour is a dawdle. There is a case on record in which a mechanic, after a race, was given a lift in a touring car. Arrived at liis destination, and thinking the car had almost stopped, be stepped out of it and was badly injured. As a matter of fact the car was moving at 35 m.p.h.