Life — January 6, 1910 — page 73: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

aac TLR E* This is the Reo F our-éylinder Roadster, $1250 —the only car that really won the New York-to-Atlanta reliability contest. That's what you want to know—which car really proved itself the best? Twenty-six cars got perfect scores, but you don’t want twenty- six cars; you want one car and you want the best one. Here is how the Reo proved itself the best of the thirty-eight cars which competed. When the contest was over, RM Owen issued a public chal- lenge to all the other perfect-score cars, to submit themselves to an exhaustive and rigid examination, the examiners and judges to be Mr Winthrop FE Scarritt, referee of the contest, and the technical com- mittee which checked the cars out at the start. The findings of this committee were to be final and their report made public through the press of the United States. ‘This committee was to examine every car that finished with a perfect score, charge it with any repairs or replacements that were made en route, or with any that might be necessary to restore each car to perfect condition, and the car which suffered the least penalties under this examination was to be named the real winner of the contest. What was the result? A lot of discontent among the challenged cars, but not a single ‘one took up the challenge. Why? The competitors of the Reo were willing enough to make the run under the rules of the contest—which were fairly easy—be- cause they thought there was a very good chance of getting through, but those who saw how the Reo acted during the run, and how it looked at the end of every day's run, realized that they hadn’t a ghost of a show. . Therefore, it was announced that no car had accepted the Reo challenge. Send for the Reo catalogue, also “ Number 31,” the story of New York-to-Atlanta. R M Owen & Co Lansing Mich Gen’l Sales Ag’ts for the Reo Motor Car Co Members of the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, Licensed under Selden Patent, Of course, under the rules the Reo was not the only car with a clean score, but every man who has dollars to pay for a car can make up his own mind which car proved itself the best; and every fair- minded American, whatever car he owns, will realize that the confi- dence of the Reo in issuing this challenge, and lack of confidence of the other cars in not accepting it, are conclusive evidence that the Reo was the real winner of this contest. The Reo has been built for five years, and all that time (whether 1-cylinder, 2-cylinder or 4-cylinder) it has proved in every endurance contest, and in private use, its get-there-and-back ability. It has en- tered public contests against cars of all prices up to $6,500, and in every case has been the lowest price car receiving a perfect score. It has never asked for favors, or allowances on account of price or class, and particularly in this most sweeping challenge it has stated most clearly that it will stand on its own merits without regard to price. This is no accident or happen-so. It is not dependent upon any particular invention or device, but upon that thorough perfection of material, and workmanship and design which is only possible in a car at such a price by taking advantage of all the modern business and factory methods of making and selling. It seems queer to say it—but it is so—there was no car on the run, and there is no car in the world at any price or horse-power which will give the motorist more of what a motorist wants than this $1,250 Reo—unless the motorist wants a great, big, heavy car, with its discomforts on rough roads and very uncomfortable expense bill comicbooks.com