THOSE GERMAN ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 302, 21 December 1937, Page 22

THOSE GERMAN ROADS.

INCENTIVE TO HIGH SPEED.

The folly of regarding the unrestricted highways in Germany as racing tracks is emphasised by an English motorist who recently traversed the Autobahn between Darmstadt and Frankfurt. The average German motorist, he says, keeps to a steady 45 or SO m.p.h. on these wonderful roads, but the English visitor puts his foot flat down on the accelerator till some- , thing breaks.

He relates how one boasted that he had covered 22 miles in 15 minutes, an average of 88 m.p'.li., but experienced a blown exhaust gasket. At the garage in Frankfurt where he had repairs effected, he found another English visitor whose cylinder head had split. Water had got into the cylinders, an explosion had occurred, and the engine, radiator and bonnet sides had been shattered. In the same garage there were six other modern cars in a similarly deplorable condition. However good the modern car may be, it is not built for racing and will not travel at maximum I speed for long periods without detriI mental effect upon the engine.