Reliability tours and races were the most important. All the contests, however, had this much in common: they were competitive tests designed to show prospective purchasers which make of car was best. They may be regarded primarily as marketing devices.
Of the dozen or more reliability contests held each year, easily the most important was the Glidden Tour. A Bostonian, Charles J. Glidden, in 1903 offered a cup to be completed for annually in a tour of not less than 1,000 miles. The first competition was to be held in the summer of 1905. It was open to all members of the American Automobile Association or “any club in the world recognized by them.” It was evidently the donor’s purpose to promote private touring and automobiling in general, and not primarily to found a competitive publicity contest for manufacturers; hence the stipulation that each car entered must be driving by its owner. But while some lay owners did enter, most of the contestants were manufacturing executives, many of whom themselves drive their cars.
Thirty three cars started the first tour run through New England. Twenty-eight of hem finished. Scoring of performance was based on the frequency and seriousness of the troubles which each car encountered. The best score was made, and the cup won, by Percy Peirce, driving a Pierce-Arrow. Certificates of performance were awarded to the 28 entrants who finished the tour. Among the manufacturing executives who received such certificates were J.D. Maxwell (Maxwell), Walter C. White (White), R.E. Olds (Reo), Charles E. Walker (Pope-Hartford).
The tours in the years which followed were held in various parts of the country, in the East, the West, and the South. That of 1906 was noteworthy for the defects in the car design to which it pointed, that of 1907 was marked by a seemingly feverish excitement on the part of contestants and by several accidents, that of 1908 by dissention among the tourists and by protests against the scoring of the award.
By 1909, the number of entrants (which had been 46 in 1907) had dwindled to 21. The reason for the decline, given by F.B. However, one of the officials, was that manufacturers “were enjoying too much prosperity. They said, why should we enter this contest when we are unable to supply the demand now? The advertising will do us no good.” The year 1909 wasone in which production had increased about 100% over ht precedeing year. It wasone of several years in which the auutomoible industry had seen “dealers come to the factory, stand in line, and beg for cars.”
Immediately after the tour of 1906 had been held, a technical observer, Albert L. Clough, stated that the contest showed exclusively how imperative was the need for improvement in front axle construction. Both better design and materials were needed. Even those high-priced cars which were equipped with axles of the tublular type could not traverse 1,200 miles with out the axles become bent. The tubular axle was then still made of material of the same quality as had been used in bicycle stock and could not stand the strain of country travel.
The same writer further pointed out that springs, as a rule, were woefully weak spots in the chassis and that if breakage were to be avoided in the future, either long semielliptic type must be abandoned, or else better material must be employed. Tires also were punctured upon innumerable occasions during the journey of 1,200 miles and brakes rapidly wore out whenever a mountainous stretch was encountered. The part of the car which gave the least trouble was the engine; relative to other parts, its performance was striking.
And while road racing’s popularity would decline somewhat by 1910, the construction of large wood plank circular racetracks across the country beginning in 1913 ensured that automobile racing was here to stay as an important spectator sport in America.54
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