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Show I Bill If Drivers of the F. I. A. T. Cars III Practicing While Yankees If INTERNATIONAL AUTO RACE 11 WILL BE HELD IN GERMANY IH ew ork Mo'or Clnl) Coiitcm-Bm! Coiitcm-Bm! plating an Economic Test HB of Importance. HJQ If tho Americans don't look a "lecdle HH oudt" that crack quintet of Italian F. I. HSB -A- T. drivers will carry oft tho Vandcr- Kfl bllt cup right under their noses. Hffifl With months ahend of them In -which to HIH becomo familiar with every foot of tho HwH Long- Island course, ovor which this I American classic of road racing- Is to bo held, iho native auto pilots have content- edly sat upon their haunches and watched tho foreigners sprinting around tho turns, over the rough and tho smooth, tho steep and tho 'evel places, basking In the misleading mis-leading light of an ill-founded assumption that they can win tho event without working for It. Such Is tho fallacy of tho prize lighter. who goes into battle without proper preparation and generally gets his head beaten off. Lancia, the fat Italian, who gave Thcry nuch a rattling, rousing run for first money mon-ey in tho Gordon Bennett race, will do favorite In the Vandcrbllt competition. This is now an assured fact. It must hurt somo of tho American cracks, but up to lctcst reports from New York it had not succeeded In putting tho fear of tho gasoline gaso-line god Into their hearts enough to mako them get out and hustle around the quor-" quor-" ler-century course a few times. Some of the American contestants have been rambling over tho route In a desul-tcry desul-tcry way, but tho concerted effort of tho " foreigners is altogether lacking. Too bad ) If a bunch of dusky-skinned southrons from the sunny slopes of tho lediterra-nean lediterra-nean can cross the Atlantic and give our -J Yankees lessons In hustling! Tho Italians. Lancia, Cedrino, Sartori, Nnzzarl and Chevrolet, are already on the r field, and thoy will enter tho elimination trials with a quart of blood in each eye. , Ab tho Irish mechanic puts It, "Thlm bloody Dagoes sleep a lot, but when they wa-ako up, they are hell Indnde." It would bo a shamo to put American manufacturers to tho expenso of crossing the seas to compote for tho Vandcrbllt :, cup another year when by a little ordl-' ordl-' nary caution it might be kept in this country, coun-try, and the amount of money spent In racing for It held In the United States, to eay nothing of the Bportlng aspect oX tho Economy Test. Another economy test of national Importance Im-portance is In prospect. Tho New York . Stfotor club, under the management of A. 13. Tucker, Is contemplating one. Tho Iong Island tests of 200 miles won by Dr. Parker's Franklin were very successful, and automobile men have been demanding Eomething of the. same sort on more extensive ex-tensive lines say, a series of short tours over typical American roads. New York M a central nolnt affords opportunity for many of these. Plans for "Winter Races. Already the makers and Importers aro preparing' for tho winter racc3 at Or-mond, Or-mond, and considerable advance specula-, specula-, tlon Is rife relative to the time In which , tho mile will be done. Two miles a minute min-ute is predicted by some, but the conservative con-servative element does not look for anything any-thing much below 35 seconds, Outo Highway. There Ls considerable talk In New York ot a national highway to extend across tho continent from New York to San Francisco, and over which an automobllo might travel at railroad speed. As yet the matter ls entirely visionary; r.o plans have been made, or Is It suggested sug-gested how tho . money ls to be raised, other than by Federal aid, but those who " strnd well up In the autolng game say . there Is more than a chance that such a highway will eventually be built. Foreign Auto Races. Negotiations aro proceeding between i Prince Solms.- the president of tho Aus trian Automobile club, and Baron Brand-er.stein Brand-er.stein of the German Automobile club, for an International road race between "Vienna and Berlin to be contested next year on the occasion of the Herkomer race, which will be most probablv held In Prussia. Itlch prizes will be ottered in or-. or-. dcr to attract-entrics to the races. It Is i stated that a powerful companv Is in the t- course of formation for tho construction of automobllo cabs to supplement tho few , vehicles of this description now plying In the streets of Berlin. Altogether there are 1270 automobile vehicles of varied kinds belonging to Berlin nnd Its environs and It is noteworthy that the percentage of accidents that these vehicles had to record re-cord last year amounted to 2.5 (32), where-, where-, as among tho 8052 droschkes tho percentage percent-age was -i.9 (29). |