Tight as the closing gap between the wheel and horse
when he hauls his master’s car top speed across the flats,
the very tip of his tail brushing the running-rim
and the wheel spins closer, hardly a gap between
as he sweeps the open plain – that much, no more,
Menelaus trailed Antilochus, dauntless driver.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 23, lines 575-580. Menelaus comes in very close to Antilochus in the chariot race. Homer’s epic simile describes it as tight as the closing gap between chariot wheel and horse when it strains to pull the master fast across the plain.