From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Page of reader correspondence from 'The Autocar' magazine covering various motoring topics.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0223 | |
| Date | 3rd January 1941 | |
| 20 The Autocar JANUARY 3rd, 1941 Correspondence We want a small 8 h.p. car for two only (and luggage) that will carry us from Land's End to John o' Groats without a fault, though both places are not worth a spoonful of petrol to view. I have put the whole case before a car manufacturer who knows more about small cars than nearly all the world besides. His board considered it. But on that board, as always on such bodies, sat one profit-and-loss genius and one super sales manager, and they torpedoed my little filly. My little thoroughbred made for two, a real little saloon de luxe, was thrown out. That same year almost the ideal was exhibited at the Paris Show. The stolid British Midlanders took no notice. Then out came the Fiat, asking, “Won't I do?” I looked the other way. Will my love never come? You can have your i.f.w. springing and wear out four tyres to my two. I want efficiency-cum-economy, and 50 m.p.h. for 45 m.p.g. The scientific lay-out of the chassis is a deep and profound study. One small car I know shook its rear like a fly-bitten mare and never would hold the road when in a hurry. One other, meeting me from around a near-side bend, gave the most poetic sense of joyful speed and motion. It radiated the word "Happy," yet it was an out-of-fashion “Baby” Austin. These are the features we want: Coil springs, wire wheels, hydraulic brakes, four speeds, synchromesh gear box, one central head lamp and one fog lamp, low set, rear and stop and reversing lights, sun roof, battery not under the bonnet to be evaporated by engine heat—an absurd place to put a battery. Engine a four-cylinder, side valve, with self-adjusting tappets and valve insets, cylinder liners, and aluminium head. Speed a guaranteed 50, cruising quietly at about 42, for it is a grave mistake to fly about on a small chassis and expect any comfort; and tyres at all too big make the running dead and heavy. That is why over-springing must be avoided, for remember we are young and don't dream of a bath-chair, if that is your contributor's aim. We want as thoroughbred a pony as the great horses, but at a moderate price and cost to run, and one made to endure. Yes. This last matter must be the last word. QUERCUS. Welwyn Garden City. VETERAN CAR INTEREST Pre-1905 Machines in Roadworthy Condition, Now Mostly Safe, Which Will Have Their Day Again [49916.]—It was indeed refreshing to read “One of the Old Brigade's” letter [49890] in your issue of December 13th, for a great fund of education and interest is to be derived from studying the fruits of the efforts of our pioneers. There is no greater romance than that of the development of the automobile from its horseless carriage days, which has made possible not only the amazing efficiency of the world's modern road transport, but also the epoch-making progress of aerial transport. Alas, just at the moment, man's ingenuity is being used for his own destruction; but when sanity returns the efficiency of the technical development, as applied to the Spitfire, will be diverted and applied for the benefit of humanity. To many modern motorists their car is a mere method of convenient transport, but to many others the study of the growth of to-day's productions recalls all the memories of the pioneer work that has resulted in the man in the street obtaining such reliable, foolproof, and economical transport. It is for the purpose of keeping alive the romance of the automobile, and these treasured pioneer memories, that the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain was founded some years ago. The purpose of this club is not merely as a museum memory, but actually to preserve, in full roadworthy condition, only types of self-propelled vehicles manufactured prior to December, 1904. We have in our club no fewer than 120 cars, all in roadworthy condition, and all of which up to the time of the outbreak of war were actually functioning in their own environment, i.e., on the roads, in the six annual events which the club holds. These events range from reliability trials to hill-climbs and charity gymkhanas, and also, of course, the annual “Brighton.” It has been literally amazing how many of our cars, such as my own 1898 Benz, have accomplished many thousands of miles (not entirely trouble-free I must admit!) without any replacement of a major nature. Let me reassure your correspondent that immediately Nazism has been satisfactorily disposed of, the famous Brighton Run, which is organised in collaboration with the R.A.C., will be held again, and will continue to be held. Nearly all our beloved veteran cars have been stored in safe places, and have escaped enemy destruction, and our cars and members will return with full vigour to their happy legitimate occasions directly hostilities cease. G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} J.{Mr Johnson W.M.} ALLDAY, Chairman, Veteran Car Club of Great Britain. Weybridge, Surrey. [Image: A car on a rough, unpaved track in a hilly, rural landscape.] Road conditions in Macedonia, referred to by a correspondent in letter No. [49918], in light of the Albanian campaign. WANTED—A VETERAN CAR Request for a 1900-1906 6 h.p. De Dion [49917.]—I wonder if any reader of The Autocar can assist me to obtain a 6 h.p. De Dion Bouton two-seated car produced, I believe, between the years 1900 and 1906. I should prefer the two-speed model—condition immaterial. I should like to add that I have been a constant reader of your fascinating journal since I was a boy at school more than 40 years ago. J.{Mr Johnson W.M.} G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} COOK. Grimsby. GREEK MOUNTAIN “ROADS” No Surface After Torrential Rain [49918.]—I enclose a photograph I took in Macedonia, when I was working in Salonika and took a motor trip into Albania. It shows the type of road the Italians may find—it was a wash-out in a torrent stream, which left no road. This is the only road in these Greek mountains. (Miss) A.{Mr Adams} M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} Fox. Wellington, Somerset. [Our correspondent wrote in the early stages of the fighting between Italy and Greece. The Italians did not get as far! —ED.{J. L. Edwards}] “TALKING OF SPORTS CARS” Modern- and Old-type Sports Racing Bentleys Compared [49919.]—I was interested in the article under this heading on “vintage” 3-litre Bentleys in your issue of December 6th, and also to see that two of your correspondents were championing the modern version of this famous marque at the same time. In the motoring Press there have been a great many references recently to Mr. Forrest Lycett's 8-litre car, and one cannot but draw comparisons between the past and the present. I would like to suggest that even Mr. Lycett's 8-litre car could not compete with a modern 3½- or 4¼-litre over, say, the Tourist Trophy course. Unfortunately, Mr. Lycett has never entered his car in either of the two classic road races for sports vehicles, i.e., the T.T. or Le Mans. The performance of its smaller contemporaries, however, with superchargers, which ran in 1928, 1929 and 1930 on the Ards circuit, seem to indicate that these big cars are, relatively speaking, slow over a road circuit, since Hall's 3½-litre Bentley in 1935 averaged 80.3 m.p.h. for the race, against 69 m.p.h., the best speed, as far as I can ascertain, ever put up over this course by a supercharged 4½-litre Bentley. Presumably, had the 8-litre been as fast over the course as A 24 | ||