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place of radiators) with cracked ice from big cans. Then the streamlined body is lowered lovingly over the chassis.
A service truck, from the rear of which extends a long springboard, backs up in front of the racer, and Cobb carefully lowers himself from the board into his seat. Then a streamlined housing is dropped, like the cockpit enclosure of a racing plane, over his head.
Since the "Red Lion” has no starters, there seems a common misconception that the car is started by being towed by the service truck. This is not quite true: the truck comes up behind the racer’s tail, a pushing-pole is inserted in its special socket in the racer's tail, and the truck pushes.
You'd realize why if you once saw one of those racers start! The truck rumbles forward, building up to some 40 or 50 miles per hour. Suddenly comes an explosion, then another, and finally a roar from the racer’s engines. There may be a little spurt of smoke from the exhausts — and suddenly the racer is no longer there! Fifty miles an hour is literally a standstill for a car like the "Red Lion” — Cobb doesn't shift into high until he’s doing better than 200 — and once she starts, she whisks herself out of sight faster than the eye or brain can follow.
Six Miles To Stop
Running to the start of the course, Cobb manipulates his two handthrottles until the two motors are synchronized; then as he hurtles down the course he opens up — accelerating for six full miles to build up maximum speed for the measured mile.
He comes by the judges’ stand with a roar and a streak of polished silver.
And as he flashes past the end of the measured mile, he starts decelerating: from 370 m.p.h. it takes the full six miles left to bring his car to a stop.
At the end of the course, the body is again removed, while tires are changed, fuel, oil and cooling ice replenished, and the car is turned around for a run in the opposite direction. The rules demand that two runs must be made in opposite directions over the same course, within an hour, if the record is to be considered official. Newspaper readers will recall that on his first attempt this year, Cobb stalled his engine on one run, shifting into high at 200 m.p.h., and could not get restarted in time to make his return-run within the specified hour. However, he certainly made up for it a few days later when he officially covered 1 mile at
John Cobh: ‘"How fast did 1 go?”
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