Enthusiasm may be expected to run high in the presence of such
astounding triumphs, and it should, therefore, not be deemed surprising
that accounts of hill-climbing contests are generally lacking in
definiteness. The name of the car and the driver are always given with
scrupulous care, but such incidental details as length of ascent,
minimum, maximum, and average gradient, maximum curvature, and so on,
are generally left to the imagination.

Among the few exceptions to this rule was the hill-climbing contest at
Port Jefferson, Long Island, in which Ralph de Palma went up an ascent
of two thousand feet with an average gradient of 10 per cent. and a
maximum of 15 per cent. in 20.48 seconds in his 190-horse-power Fiat. A
little Hupmobile, one of the lightest cars built, reached the top in 1
minute 10 seconds. De Palma climbed the "Giant's Despair" near
Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, an ascent six thousand feet long, with
grades varying from 10 to 22 per cent., in his big machine in 1 minute
28-2/5 seconds. A Marmon stock car reached the top in 1 minute 50-1/5
seconds. Pike's Peak, Mount Washington, Ensign Mountain, in Utah, and
lesser mountains elsewhere have also been climbed repeatedly by
automobiles. As the mere announcement of the fact vividly exhibits the
staying powers of the auto in a long, stiff climb, the engineering
details may be disregarded.

Next to its ability to do the exceptional things when required, the
most useful accomplishment of the automobile is its wonderful capacity
for standing up to its work day in and day out in fair weather or foul,
regardless of the condition of the roads. This is shown every year in
the spectacular Glidden tours, otherwise the National Reliability
tests, in which a number of cars of various makes cover a scheduled