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Silent as a Ghost. The G.M. sleds resemble the Podars about as much as a Corvette does a Corvair. The innovations include shock absorbers and sports-car-type "direct" steering (v. the Podar's rope-controlled runners). In trial runs at Lake Placid, N.Y., last month, a two-man G.M. sled beat the best time of a heavier, four-man Podar —and the four-man G.M. was faster yet. At St. Moritz last week, astonished European bobbers nicknamed the two man sled "the Ghost" because its rubber-seated runners merely whispered over the ice—while the Podars clattered and clanked.
The G.M. sled was too fast for its own good: on a practice run, Steersman Larry McKillip hit a rut and lost control coming out of Shamrock Bend, and smashed full force into the retaining wall. The sled's frame was hopelessly bent, and McKillip bruised an arm. The solution seemed obvious: slow down. But that didn't work, either: Steersman James Hickey took the four-man G.M. sled into Devil's Dyke so slowly that it could not hold the wall. The sled dropped like a stone from the face of the curve, and the runners were damaged in the fall. As a final indignity, the U.S. wound up using an old Podar sled for the two-man race. Steersman McKillip leaped in feet first—and put one leg right through the steering wheel. At that point he decided that anything was the better part of valor, and quit.
Technique had bested the technicians. But watch out from now on. "For get the crashes," said Switzerland's two-time World Champion Franz Kapus. "When those Americans get themselves straightened out, they will definitely be the fastest in the world."