Auto Gossip

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 18

Auto Gossip

by

A.J.P.

Both Feet On Many motorists who have cars with automatic transmission must wear out their brakes very rapidly. Often recently I have noticed a car ahead of me travelling with its brake-lights on almost all the time. On coming closer, in every case I have found the car had automatic transmission. Obviously the drivers are people who favour left-foot braking with an automatictransmission car, and they have acquired the bad habit of driving with their right foot on the accelerator, and their left foot resting on the

brake pedal. It's a point to watch if you drive an automatic. Holed Tank When I was learning to drive my father impressed on me: "Never run over any object lying on the road if you can possibly avoid it, no matter how harmless the object appears.” It is a rule that all motorist: would be wise to remember. A few days ago I heard of a motorist who had to spend a goodly sum on a new petrol tank after he ran over an old muffler lying on the road, and it flew up underneath his car. He was following too close behind other traffic to see the hazard in time—which holds another lesson. It also makes one wonder about the advisability of designing a car which carries 12 gallons of highly-flammable fuel in an unprotected tank of comparatively light metal hung under the boot. The motorist was probably very lucky that the muffler did not strike a shower of sparks from the road surface as it punctured the tank. Other Disasters

There was the case of the motorist who deliberately ran over a sack lying on a country road. It had a couple of old plough-shares in it, and you can Imagine what they did to his tyres. An-

other decided almost at the last moment to avoid a cardboard box—in his mirror he saw a young child scuttle out of it; some children had found a new and exciting game. I myself failed to see a rock on the Summit Road until too late one evening, and got a holed sump as a result. And I am told that in Australia the wise outback motorist never runs over a snake. They apparently have a nasty habit of flying up and coiling themselves round some part of the car’s underside, to emerge, in a very . bad temper, after the car has stopped. Surface Tension Most of us do not take nearly enough notice of the road surface we are driving on. But any motor-cyclist will quickly tell you of the sudden and drastic loss of adhesion that can occur when running over rainslicked road paint, mud on the tarseal, wet leaves, manhole covers, shingle strewn intersections, or a sealed road just after the start of the first rainfall for a week.

When motor-cyclists take to four wheels they tend to be better drivers because of their greater consciousness of road surfaces. They are usually less, likely than the rest of us to misjudge their stopping distances on a wet road. It is a good thing to worry about road surfaces. Quote Of The Week “There is only room for regulations which are vital. Otherwise motoring law becomes too sprawling and complex for the motorist to know (let alone respect) and far to complex for the police to enforce. The whole legislation is depreciated to the point where the really important laws go down the drain with the ones which are merely desirable.”— From an editorial in the “Motor.”