30,000-MILE TOUR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 953, 22 April 1930, Page 6

30,000-MILE TOUR

ALL-AMERICA ROUND TRIP ONE SET OF TYRES USED In Akron, Ohio, recently there was completed one of the most momentous motor tours that ever set forth upon the highways of America or any other country. It was the homecoming of the B.F. Goodrich Rubber Company’s Silver Fleet, a caravan of 15 motorcars which, for 10 months on end, had been continuously on the road through -15 States of the American Union, into Mexico and Canada. Thirty thousand miles, with 15 machines over roads good, bad and indifferent, through every kind of weather from semiarctic to sub-tropical, without a tyre failure and without an accident of any description. That is briefly the record established by this remarkable tour.

Late in the autumn of 1928 the B.F. Goodrich Rubber Company, one of the largest of the great rubber manufacturers of Akron, Ohio, decided that something must be done to create a brand new type of tyre advertising. The result was the Silver Fleet, a caravan of 15 silver-finished vehicles rolling on Goodrich Silvertown cord tyres, a trade name derived from Silvertown, in England, where the first pneumatic tyre was made. The fleet was prepared in New York City, and on January 21, 1929, set forth upon the highways of America. DIFFERENT TYPES OF CARS The purpose of the tour was threefold. First, it was a performance demonstration for the tyres; second, a goodwill tour; and third, a safety campaign, attempting to do in a nation-wide way everything that might be humanly possible to reduce the shocking number of motor-vehicle accidents, with which America is so sorely plagued. The motor-cars were 14 In number. A huge Mack lorry was the 15th vehicle, bringing up the l’Pfli’ ami sprvinp - n 111 p-<ro p-p. van

for the 23 members of the tour party. No two of these vehicles were of the same make. They were touring cars, saloons, sports roadsters, light-weight and heavy-weight machines. The purpose was to have as much of the total of American automotive production represented as possible, and it is estimated that the selection of vehicles chosen represented approximately 90 per cent, of the total annual motor-car output of the United States.

A detailed account of the Silver Fleet’s experiences during the 10 months it was on the road would fill several bulky volumes. Hence, for the purposes of this article, only the highlights can be given. America is a vast country, and a tour of 10 months through this land of climatic extremes had to be considered from the standpoint of weather conditions to be encountered. For this reason, leaving New York City, with its snow and ice, in the dead of winter, the first leg of the 30,000-mile trail was down the Atlantic seaboard into Florida. By a circuitous course the tour was continued down the east coast of Florida, across the Tamiami Trail to the Gulf of Mexico. and westward through the gulf coast States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. FETED EVERYWHERE At every point along the route, members of the tour party were greeted and entertained by mayors, city and State officials, clubs and public service organisations. For those in the party, the tour became such a surfeit of entertainment, that getting sufficient sleep was the allserious problem. The Silver Fleet seldom kept to the main-travelled highways. Bad roads were purposely sought out. Consequently the 15 vehicles slipped and slid through some 1,500 miles of mud through the Southern States, and not infrequently one or more cars had to be dug or pulled out. Westward across the great States of New Mexico and Arizona, the Silver Fleet made its ’way through the hundreds upon hundreds of miles of sand, sagebush, gnarled desert mountains and -waterless wastes into the great gardens of California. THROUGH THE SNOW From San Francisco the tour continued into the North, past the great snowpeak, Mount Shasta, and still northward into the vast forests and mountain regions of Oregon and Washington. Far up on the side of Mount Hood, in Washington, and late in the month of May, the cars battled in an Arctic blizzard for one whole day. A few days later a similar storm was encountered on the slopes of Mount Ranier, in Washington. It was a remarkable tour. There was not an accident of any description, and not a tyre failure. All of the original ‘ six-ply and eight-ply tyres were going strong at the finish. The four-ply tyres had worn out These are 15,000 mile tyres, but all of them lasted 18,000 to 21,000 miles. Significant is the fact that several years ago such a tour would have been wholly impossible. Prior to 1929, America had neither the roads nor the motor vehicles of sufficient dependability to have made such a journey feasible. Moreover, this tremendous tour was carried out over the only piece of land on earth where it is possible to motor 5,000 miles more than the distance round the world at the equator, with a single language serving all the requirements | of contact between members of the | party and the inhabitants of the van- j ous States.