REWARD OF RACING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 85, 11 April 1933, Page 18

REWARD OF RACING.

BRITISH SUPREMACY.

SOME GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS.

CONTINENTAL CONTESTS,

It did not need the announcement the other day of the success of British cars in the classic Mont des Mules hill climb at the end of the Monte Carlo rally to remind us how very far we have progressed S-long the difficult road of motor improvement since the war. It is not very long since we had often to content ourselves in most public contests, whether of racing or reliability, with at best second place (writes John Prioleau in the l.ondon "Observer"). We have scored some memorable successes in road racing during the past 25 years, 'but until fairly recently we had no such continuous triumphs as had some of our foreign rivals. (I except, of course, the astonishing feat of the Bentleys—now:,; most unfortunately, out of —in winning the Mans twenty-four hours' race outright.) So far as outsiders, could judge, it was due partly to . unsuitable machines, partly to indifferent, team, work and organisation—essentials to which Continental firms" and drivers had long given proper attention. To-day we have changed all that. Apart from holding the record for the highest speed ever attained on land, British motor cars have forced their way to the front in every branch of sport. Swept the Board. The biggest thing we have ever done is, I think, the sweeping of the board in the Alpine Trials of 1932, an event which for some years has been regarded as safe for any of three famous German, Austrian or Italian marques. Admittedly that is a contest which tries the endurance of the driver considerably beyond that'of the machine, even though there is no reliability trial to compare with it ~in The Monte Carlo rally is almost wholly a test of human stamina, with a quantity of practical jokes thrown in in the shape of snowdrifts, icebound roads, and other matters well calculated to put any or all of the competitors out of the running at any moment. It is an extremely sporting event, but if you concede that all decent cars have as good springs and frames as can be made, it is an indifferent criterion of a car's intrinsic worth compared with the Alpine. With luck a very poor.car might get through to Monte Carlo without loss of marks; no amount of luck could get 'but the absolute best to journey's end In the Alpine, just as the best car ever

built.-might skid to destruction five minutes after it 'had.Started for Monte Carlo, At the end of that run/thingsare different. There is real competition on the: Mont dee Mules, -where only the best cars have the slightest chance of ecoring! And .here again we' have scored. -I Acid Test of Racing. There are - a good' many people, enthusiastic enough that the British industry should hold the lead in the' world's productions, who still question the value of racing and real competition work, and take email interest in tliie side of the development of the motor car. I wish it were possible for these to have the truth, demonstrated to them beyond the possibility of error, the truth that, with hardly an exception, the best' cars you can buy to-day are those designed on the invaluable and extremely costly experience gained in racing _ and 6ucli reliability trials as the Alpines—chiefly the former. X know of one make, certainly one of the best in the ■ world, ; which has never raced—at least, not officially— but it .has been entered for the Alpine time and time again and won high awards in it. A director of that firm has told me of the lessons learnt, when all was believed to be beyond improvement, after only half a dozen passes had been climbed, only a,; few kilometres of cart road .'traversed, and thankdd .his stars that euch a trial was available. Racing and high-speed mountaineering (which is simply an exceedingly arduous form of touring-car racing) are the only infallible tests of design, material and construction. Private, testing over thousands of miles of all sorts of roads is useful, but it is only in racing that the car is inevitably forced to do its utmost, where it gets no mercy, where every part and everything that holds those parts together in one working whole is subjected to the highest strains. If any given part of a car stands up to= real racing, whether over the Alpe iu • touring-car fain, or over

road or track in stripped chassis form at 100 miles an hour, it will not give way to any test imposed upon it in other and less spectacular walks of life. Racing teaches men how to 'build cars that don't let you down.