CAR AGAINST BOAT

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 12 August 1932, Page 7

CAR AGAINST BOAT

MOTORIST'S RACE TO INDIA, j AN ADVENTUROUS UNO UK- I TAKING. A Hillman Minx light car, driven by Captain J, Yates Bcnyon, motorist and Sportsman, left London on July 'Jib in. an endeavour to cover the distance of SOOO miles to Calcutta entirely by road, with the Bole exception of crosschannel shipment. This has never before been accomplished by one person j •unaccompanied, let alone in a car of less than 1.0 h.p., It was proposed io undertake the journey in loss time than that, taken by the mail-boat, consequently the resources of both the car and the driver would bo taxed to the utmost. Crossing Europe the traveller reaches Asia Minor, where foreign motorists are most unwelcome. The roads are in a bad state, and there aro no facilities for a comfortable run. Here, and until Damascus is reached, the going is heavy. Over the Desort. Betwoeu Damascus and Bagdad 500 miles of desert must bo crossed, and there is no petrol available en route. IJeal dangers abound on traversing this trackless waste of rocks and sand. | Koad3 there are none; huge boulders i bar the "way; yawning fissures in the j earth threaten to engulf driver and car. Rain converts the ground into a. huge glutinous morass, and woe betido the unfortunate motorist if the car becomes bogged. One may t ravel through a silence broken only by the engine. Yet every sense must; bo alert and the 'hand ready to snatch the' rifle, lying at one's side, to repel tho marauders, whose presence is so often indicated by the hum of a bullet past one's ears. Assuming the safe arrival at Bagdad, tho next stage brings one to Teheran, the capital of Persia. Here the adventurer finds his hands full and his ingenuity severely taxed.

THE PERFECT PASSENGER. .MENACE OF " BACK-SEAT DRIVER." After all. there are a gre.il many more passengers than drivers. Furthermore, writes Phyllis Deacon in tho "Motor,'' there are people who spend a lot of time telling the .vorld that novices should not be aliened to drive without learning how! fc>o why not a few hints, or even a course of instruction, on the Art of Being a Perfect Passenger. There are some things which aro hover done by tho really perfect passenger, and .the chief of these is cliachiug tho driver. In no circumstances fahould the driver be clutched uhilo driving (when the car is stationary it may bo another matter). Tho slightest touch on tho driver's nrm n&.a critical moment may precipitate an accident. After all, the driver knows what ho is doing; if he does not. it is wiser to postpone driving with him until ho has learnt his lesson. Tho fault of telling tho driver what to do is very common, far too common ! It is usually called "back-seat driving. ' Who has not at somo tiiuo or another heard such remarks proceedings from a passenger as: ".John, look, there is someone trying to cross the road.—Oh 1 do mind that cat, you nearly hit it.—Oh! do drive more slowlv, T know we'll hit something." All tending, of course, to make John hit .something, preferably the back-sent driver.

Value of Good Maimers! W'Jieii a car is being driven through traffic it needs all tho attention which the driver can give it.; he has none to spare to look at that marvellous view over there or this hut over iiere. Further, when the traffic has been left behind and tlio ear is battling along at a nice, steady 60 in.p.h., il is not tha correct time to suggest a stop to pick flowers, even if they are tho first primroses of tho year. Unless tho driver requests that a left-hand .turn bo signalled, the passenger should not attempt to give direction signals. When tho driver of the car behind sees two hands giving .signals from opposite sides of tho ear he ia apt to wonder what is reallv going to happen. Objects of interest should not bo indicated by pointing, beeause the driver behind might take the point as a direction signal, and subsequent confusion may occur. Good passenger manners should bo in evidence even before tho journey commence?- Tf the driver asks: "Whero shall we go?" he will probably feel annoyed if he receives. "Oh, T don't it now —where yon like" as an answer. He would not ask if lie did not want to know. On some cars it is difficult to gel into the car from the 'driver's side; if the nassengcr knows this and suggests that the driver should get in first, it will be much appreciated. In fact, the greatest asset which the perfect passengor can have is tact. Tact in large quantities. In fact, absolutely boundless tact! ENAMELLING. PROCESS DESCRIBED.

The average motorist lias a fair knowdge as fe how cellulose paint is sprayed on to the bodywork of a ca'r, "but he has littlo or no conception of the processes by -which 'the chasis frame is enamelled. In the British Pressed Steel Company's works, where hundreds of chassis frames are enamelled daily, the enamelling plant is over 250 feet long. It has two vast chains each 400 feet long, and employs a bath with a capacity for COOO gallons of enamel. At first sight its oil-burning furnace resembles the engine-room of a battleship! The plant is nearly human m its operations, for it cleans, enamels, heats and dries the various parts almost without attention. Chassis frames and other parts are hung on the electrically driven conveyor, which passes slouly through the various sections of the oven/ The first of these is concerned with cleaning, or "degreasiug" as it is called, and takes the form of a Hugo trichlor-etbylene vapour bath. On emerging from this the various components are examined, and brushed over, before entering the enamelling chamber and descending gently into the tank. The conveyor then lifts them out, and transfers them to the oven, where the enamel is baked hard. The whole operation occupies just over three hours, and fifty chassis frames are completed each hour —with a durability of finish which would be impossible by old-fashioned hand-pamt-ing methods.