The Sadler-Meyer Special might well be known as The King of the Hill.

With John van Meyer behind the wheel it set fast time of the day for three consecutive years – each of them breaking the Unlimited Class record – at one of America's oldest and most famous hillclimbs, Giant's Despair in Laurel Run Borough, Pennsylvania.

Giant's Despair got its start when the Matheson Motor Car Company relocated to Wilkes-Barre. Matheson's chief engineer Charles Greuter, who later would engineer the famed "Safety" Stutz, tested Matheson's 24 and 40hp fours on the quarter mile long 22½% grade of Laurel Run's Northampton Street. It was a punishing test of pulling power that far exceeded Pikes Peak's maximum grade of 10½% and even the 22% of Mt. Washington's final 50 yards.

Other manufacturers realized the value, in both testing and publicity, of Giant's Despair. Their activities brought competition to the hill in 1906 and since then it has tested the skill of drive