Item Info

Media Type: Photographic Prints
Source: Automobile Reference Collection
Notes:

King Motor Car Company, Detroit, Mich.

The development of the automobile “demonstration” to prospective customers has undergone a remarkable change during the past few years, as motors have become more flexible.

It used to be the fashion to rush a car up a hill as fast as possible so that it would not “die” before the top was reached. Now it is quite the thing to show how slowly the car makes the ascent in high gear. The increased number of cylinders enables the modern automobile to perform feats at low speed in high gear that make the efforts of earlier days look feeble.

Now comes a new and unique demonstration developed by the King Car Corp. with its King 8. The prospect is taken to the foot of a steep automobile test hill on 61^st Street between 10^th and 11^th Avenues. The motor is brought to a complete stop with the gears left in high, then the switch is turned on and demonstrator leaves the car and starts the motor by pulling the rear wheel over slightly.

The car immediately moves away in high gear and the demonstrator, standing on the running board, guides it half way up the hill at 2 miles per hour. At the half way point, he returns to his seat behind the wheel and accelerates until he is making 25 miles an hour at the top.