A Motor Trip With Leslie Cooptown

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22941, 10 February 1940, Page 17

A Motor Trip With Leslie Cooptown

(BPKCULLt WRITTEN FOB THE PRESS.) IBy PERCIVAL COOPTOWN]

IN these days of numerous motoring convictions and safety campaigns it is pleasinglo And a motorist- with the record of Leslie Cooptown. He has been motoring for all of 30 years, and has no c6nviction against him. He believes that' when a human being has to look after a machine, the machine may possibly behave all right if all human errors are eliminated. Consequently Leslie, for the last 30years, has been endeavouring to achieve perfect co-operation between a perfect human and a perfeet machine. Leslie told me himself that in his motoring career he has had no mishaps, ejccept for denting 12 sets of mudguards? having, 58 punctures, leaving his driving licence at home on three rather awkward occasions, and forgetting to put the hood up once when it was raining. ‘ I do not know when or how it was exactly that Leslie started motoring Of course he no longer possesses his original car. Some 15 years ago, when he left it parked in the middle of a hill, it ran down to the bottom while he was having a picnic lunch. Leslie was prepared for such an emergency, however, and as he had brought a bicycle with him in the back seat and had already removed it from the car, he did not have to walk home.

Ten years ago he bought his present car. He calls It Bluebird, which S ano ther record-breaking car. The car has always been painted It has been a wonderful ear. It has been necessary from time to time to replace most of the engine parts, the wheels, mudguards, and hood are not those of the original model. To provide greater comfoj!t n ® w ® eats have oeen substituted for the old ones, end it has also been necessary to install a new steering wheel. In other respects the car is much the same as when h*e_ bought it. _ . I have been for only one ride in Bluebird hut I shall never forget it. Leslie decided one Sunday to take a short run to some place in the hills that none of us had ever heard of. He invited me, his sister Gertrude, and her husband Victor Durban, Miss Singleton from over the road, her flance Herbert, and Brunner, Blaketown, and Cobden Hill, three little children from the West Coast. Although Leslie had hoped to start at 9 o’clock in the morning, he deemed it more expedient, at the last minute, to devote several hours to a minute overhaul of Bluebird, While we were waiting for him to complete the overhaul he allowed us to fill in the time, the women

following his suggestion of preparing a lavish lunch, and the men, at his request, digging his garden. The children were allowed to pick apples which he later intended to convert into cider. At last Leslie announced that the car was as mechanically perfect as human ingenuity could make it. Mr and Mrs Durban sat in the front with Leslie, and the three in the back took a child each, ' The lunch was also put in the back, leaving very little room, and Leslie’s emergency bicycle was strapped on the luggage carrier. The thorough examination of the engine by Leslie soon proved its worth, for we were able to make 25 miles an hour without any difficulty, and before long were well out in the country. After two hours pf travelling we found ourselves on rougher roads, but Bluebird behaved perfectly, and with a good load of passengers ran extremely Steadily. By this time we were much nearer the hills, so Leslie said we could have some lunch. This was a most enjoyable meal, and Leslie, able to relax from the concentration of driving, ate even more heartily than anyone else. , It was interesting to note that all through the trip so far Leslie had never for a moment forgotten to employ the rules of the road, keeping so far to the left that the left-hand wheels were actually running on the gras? all the way. He also assiduously put out his hand when turning corners, and at the more dangerous corners actually stopped the car and Walked ahead to see if the coast was clear before proceeding. - It was rather late in the afternoon when lunch was finished, but Leslie assured us there was still time to get to the hills. We had gone only 10 miles more, however, when Bluebird stopped. As it would not go again,

Leslie got out to investigate the cause, and seemed to have some difficulty in tracing it. After half an hour, however, he told us that we had run out of petrol. Leslie studied the road map to see where we were, but unfortunately it was a faulty mao, and he had to confess that he didn’t quite know. We would have to put a brave face on it, he said, and so he got on his emergency bicycle and rode off into the gathering darkness, in the face of the heavy rain which had started barely half an hour before. He said he was going to the nearest farmhouse, and jio one knew where that was either. It was nearly 2 o’clock in the morning before Leslie returned, balancing a tin of petrol on the handlebars. He had been fortunate enough, he said, to find a public house, and had taken the opportunity to have a short rest and some refreshment there, as at his age he could not be expected to ride a bicycle for long distances without something of that nature. We arrived back in Christchurch in good for breakfast. Leslie said it was funny that little things over which we had no control could make us as late as that, but it was just as well nothing had gone wrong with the engine, or we would have been stranded in the country all night.