Auto Gossip

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33424, 4 January 1974, Page 7

Auto Gossip

by

A. J. P.

The fuel situation has given a lot of motorists — and some others — cause to think deeply about so many things we have taken for granted for so long. Cars, for instance: when it seems that our ability to use our cars could be drastically curtailed, we suddenly realise what an important part they play in our day-to-day lives.

Just think how you would get on in your everyday doings without any motor transport, and think, too, how businesses, large and small, would fare. We take our mobility so much for granted, whether we wish to use it for shopping, getting to work, getting from a farm to the nearest town, or getting from the city into the countryside.

It makes one realise, also, how difficult it is to replace petrol — a liquid that is comparatively easy to use, ship, and carry in our vehicles, and which is so full of energy that a breakfast - cup of the stuff will push a ton or so of metal, plus passengers, for more than two miles.

And that is when our engine technology is only sufficiently advanced to make use of little more than half the energy the fuel contains. Remarkable liquid, indeed. Obviously too good to waste.