Life, 1911-06-29 · page 2 of 45
Life — June 29, 1911 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Mercer Automobile advertisement**, not political satire. It showcases two Mercer raceabouts (300 cubic inch engines) driven by Hughes and Sherwood, who achieved success in the 500-Mile Indianapolis Race. The advertisement's argument is **efficiency-based engineering**: despite having smaller engines than competitor vehicles with "nearly double the Mercer's piston displacement," these cars averaged over 67 miles per hour and broke speedway records from 75 to 500 miles. The implicit message targets early-1900s automotive buyers: excess power and weight waste fuel without improving speed. The Mercer is marketed as "the easiest handled car built." The dramatic illustration emphasizes speed and control on the race track. This represents early automotive marketing using competitive racing as proof of engineering superiority.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
RACEABOUTS of 300 cubic inch piston displacement, driven by Hughes and Sherwood, Won New Honors in the 500-Mile Indianapolis Race, Finishing Well Up With the ‘Leaders and Breaking Every Speedway Record from 75 Miles up to 500 Miles for cars of 300 cubic inches and under, regardless of class. The leaders were all cars of nearly double the Mercer’s piston displace- ment, demonstrating that excess Power and excess weight simply waste fuel and “eat up” tires, without adding speed. Both Mercers averaged over 67 miles an hour. Hughes drove his car the entire distance without relief, proving that the Mercer is THE EASIEST HANDLED CAR BUILT DISTRIBUTORS :— MERCER AUTOMOBILE COMPANY, Trenton, N. J. E 214 Spt ting, Motor Ca. ‘1803 Broad A Demonstration of a Mile in 51 Seconds Guaranteed comicbooks.com