] UNE 27TH, 1908

THE AUTOCAR B Journal publisbe~ f n tbe interests of tbe mecbantcalll? propelle~ roa~ carriage.

EDITED BY H. WALTER STAN El{,

No. 662. VoL. XX.] SATURDAY, JUNE 27TH, 1908.

[PRICE 3D.

The Autocar.

:Published Weekly.)

Register~d as c:. newspaper for transmission in the United Kingdom.

Entered as second-class matter in the New York (N.Y.) Post Office.

Editorial Office :

COVENTRY.

Publishing Offices :

20, TUDOR STREET, LONDON, E.C., England.

CONTENTS.

Ji: NOTES

UsEFUL Hr~TS ·"so TIPS THE 2,000 )'fILES TRIALS {ILLUSTRATED) THE ROYAL A.C. OUST .TRIALS A NEW DE DtETRICH ENTERPRISE • • THE Lo~rno~ TO EDINBURGH RuN . -. ON THE TRIALS • , THE GRAND PRIX THE RELIABILITY T~IALS I \VANT • • OVER 127 ~IILES AN HouR-THE 26 H.P. CLASS R.EcoRo

PAGE 941-942 · · 943 944-956 · · 957 , , 957 · · 957 , • 958 959-960 , , 96r , , 96r

R.A.C. MEETING AT) HEREFORD-THE GRAND PRIZE OP AMERICA-

AERONAUTICS

CoRRESPONDENCE THE EW HARTRIDGE TYRE (ILLUSTR.~TED) IN THE HOUSE OF CoMMO~S • • MOTOR TRIALS IN CENTRAL INDIA • •

CONTINENTAL NOTES • • TuE PROPER USE OF THE HIGHWAYS

ON THE ROAD • • FLASHES • • CLUB DotNGS • • A RoADLESS \VoRLD • •

962 963-966 , , 967 . . 967 .. 968 969-970 . . 971

• • 972 973·974 975-977 ·, 978

Sub,cription Rates :

British Isles 16s. Abroad (thin paper edition), 22s. 8d. per annum

(

Notes. Motorphobia in the City. The Lord Mayor, who opened the industrial motor vehicle shmr last :\farch, presided over a meeting at the Mansion House on Monday, which was called by business men and others in the City to protest against .the "danger, annoyance, aml incom·enience to which .all who use the street. of the City are now subjected from motor traffic." \Ve mention this, not with the idea of suggesting in onsistency, but rather to make the Lord Mayor's attitude of detachment clear. It is not for us to take up the cudgels on behalf of motor ,omnibuses, as our off. pring, lf otor Traction, is perfectly competent to fight its own corner in this respect. What we wish to do is to protest against the manner in which this meeting of City magnates and others contrived to mix up motor omnibuses, traction engines, and motor cars, and particularly the absurd manner in which protests were made about motor traffic smells.

In a city like London in which the air is contaminated 1rith animal filth, it ahra1·s strikes us as so ridiculoui-. !or anti-motorists to coniplain of the comparatively lic:neficial odours left in the ,rake of motor ,·ehicles. Hmre,·er. 11·e scarcely think that this meeting, which can stand the smell of the horse and the fried tish shop but is upset by a ,rhiff of petrol, need be taken too seriou:h·, as on the 11·hole it 11·ould annear to ha1·e been o( a some1rhat b1·sterical nature. E~·erYthino- ,ms exaggerated, the smell, the noise, the dan.ger; "el'ery possible objection 1rhich could be introduced against the motor omnibu and the motor generally was brought up; but one or t1ro speakers, perhaps unintentionally, showed that some at least of those resnonsible for the calling of the meeting kne11· quite 1rell that things 1Yere not so bad as they 1Yere made out to be. They recognised the fact that all motor omnibuses ,rere not noisy, all did not race, and a.Zl were nort: grossly m·er lubricat d, though they carefully ab. tained from saying so.

Why they did not go further and raise a protest against the deafening clatter of steel-tyred lorrie , ironshod horses, and other distressing street noises and smell ire do not knml". We should have had more belief in their sensiti,·eness to noises and smells if they had included the horse Yehicles and the objections to the animal. ,rhich dra1\· them in their indictment. As it is ire regard their effort a. a sign that there are a number of people in the City of London as in most other parts of the world ,rho object to progress in any formpeople who pick out the objections to all ne1r thing hut ,rho put up with worse d ra ,,·backs in other thing. prm·ided they are old. Their grandfathers protested at least as 1·igorou. ly against the railway, and no doubt their descendants 11·il1 make themseh·es foolish in respect to some at prte ent undreamed of innoYation in 2008.

The Need for ·a ow First Spe0£. From time to time 11·hen discussing ~

0

ar ratios and kindred (]uestions ,re have adrnca.ted four speeds in preference to three, and ha,·e d1relt upon the desirabilit,· of the first sneed being so low that it would practically ne1·er be· required except for starting u1 hi] I or for getting a ear out of very bad ground on to which it may have been dri,·en by turning in a narrmr lane. The necessitY for a low first speed wac; never more dramatically brought home to the motor world than in Scotland la t 1Yeek when several good cars 1rere driven to ha,·e recourse to outside as istance before they could surmount the exceptionally steep gradient of Kenmore Brae. This hill was admittedly of exceptional se,·enty, and in the opinion of many it should not have been included in the route without notice to the competitors. That is to say, they should have been advised in advance that they would be expected to put in gears which would enable them to climb a hill of one in four.

This is all verv well, and a sound argument as far as it goes, but it cuts both ways. Some good cars were found to have too high a first speed to surmount the