) UNE 13TH, 190 .

THE AUTOCAR !l Jom•ngI 'pnbli5hcb tn tbe itHeresta of tbe mecbantcall\? propelleb roa~ carriage.

EDITED BY H. WALTER STANE"l.

No. 660. Vm .. XX.J SATURDAY, JUNE 13TH, 1908.

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The Autocar.

Published Weekly.)

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CONTENTS. :'-JOTES

DAIMLER AND DEASY RUNS ..

lJsEFUL H tNTS A:SO TtPS

T HE 20- JO H .P. LORRAINE D IETRICH {JLLUSTHATED)

f H E 2000 1\itLES TRIALS CARS (ILLUS1RATIO~S)

THE ScoTTtSH RELlAnluTY TRIAL . .

THE SCOTTISH TRIAL ENTRIES ..

-CONTINENTAL NOTES

INTERNATIONAL TOURING CAR TRIALS, 1()0

SMALL CAR TALK . .

THE N EW 26 H.P. HUTTO~ CAR

CORRESPONDENCE . .

RACING IM NEW SOUTtt \VALES

RACING AT 8ROOKLA:-JDS ( f LLUSTRATEO)

{RISH T RIALS. PRINCE H ENRY T ouR

FLASHES . .

CLUB DOINGS

PAGE

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882

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891 892-897

898 899-900

901-902

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British Isles 16s. Ahroad (thin paper e<lition), 22'- . 8d. pe~ annum

/ Notes. The Interchange of Experiences. Among the many great benefits conferred upoi/ the p~ivate _motorist by trials such as the Royal A.C.~,ooo rmles trials must undoubtedly be that of the interchange of knowledge among the competitors. Tt is not perhaps generally known that in these trials the observers must he nominated by the competitors. That is to say, each competitor must nominate an observer for his car, but his observer is never all01red to observe his 01rn car. Now, all the far-seeing makers nomipate their < :hief designer or someone closely associated with him. The result of this, to take one instance of many, is as follows. The maker of a car nominates his chief desigrrer as observer. Every day throughout the trial the designer acts as official observer on a different car and never once upon his 01m. At the finish of the trials he will have lea rned' a great deal. He will have found out that in some respects the car 1rhich he thought inferior to his own has merits which he little suspected. As a result of his observations of the vehicles on which he has been driven, he will set about improving his own car in the respects he has found it behind its rivals.

Ko car is perfect, but some are much better than others, an<l the things which designers learn at trials are most rnluable. One finds that the engine on hi, rival's car, although no Jess powerful than his own, is very much s11·eeter and pulls better at low speeds; another discovers that the change speed gear of his own car which he had succeeded in quietening is, after all. still much too noisy. Yet another realises that hitherto he has not given enough attention to springing. Indeed the trials teach the observant designer that quite a number of things he thought were very difficult, if not impossible to accomplish, have been successfull~accomplishe<l by one or other of his rivals; sometimes by people be was rather apt to i:tigard as far behind his own firm .

The majority of makers and designers < lo not kno11· a great deal about any cars except their own, and it is of the greatest po sible benefit to the development and perfection of the motor car that they should have wider experience, and, as we have said, this sort of thing is of immense benefit to the private owner, as it means an al I-round raising of the standard of excellence. Therefore, when the motorist buys a car, he is more likely to obtain a good one than he would be if the designers of motor vehicles had had no such opportunities of becoming acquainted .~er competitive running conditions 11·ith the produc~ :: other firms.

Suppressing Dangerous Driving. In our correspondence columns to-day a letter is published from ·' Chirurgeon," in which a suggestion i, made that is heartily to be commended. Recently wt oriefly outli11e<l a scheme by which moto1·ists through their Ol\"11 clubs and associations might reform themselves from within. In other words, we pointed out the uselessness of police traps, couts, or agents so far a, the prevention of dangerous and inconsiderate motoring was concerned. It is generally admitted that this objectionable driving is only practised by comparativeh few, and the only way to suppress this criminal form of caddishness is to patrol the roads in cars.

We were quite con cious of the fact that the objections to this plan were obvious, and when we outlined it we 5tated that we felt it was ooen to improvement, and we think our correspondent has suggested just what is required to .m_a~e the s_cheme thor~ughly practical. The only reqms1te for its success 1s the 90-operation_ of ~he P?lice; police ~o-operation will be a m~ k of their smcenty. There 1s no doubt whatever that if something is not done by motorists themselves to eliminate the black sheen within their ranks, all will suffer as restrictions w1ll be made which . will greatlv in~onvenience the considerate driver, although their intent will be to check the inconsiderate.