THE IDEAL CAR

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 45, 21 August 1924, Page 15

THE IDEAL CAR

Thie" is the ; period of the year, says !' B.O." in the "Manchester Guardian," when the motorist begins to realise that in many little tilings his machine falls short of being the perfect car he thought it was when first ho took over possession of it. He had .no business to entertain' that idea, especially these days, when we know so much about motors and motoring and recognise that there crii be no suoh thing as a perfect car. The continued progress in design, in research, and invention would alone put that out of reach; indeed, at this very moment Tre have such things on the horizon, very low down to be sure but there all the same, as alcohol fuel ; which may bring about a change in engine design, heavy oil engines, and possibilities of the use of producer gas for car engine. And already the supercharger U coming into use, though whether it will become accepted practice outside the field of racing cave is to be doubted, 'these things make Itie perfect car a thing impossible of attainment, but that need not worry us. We have good cars, first-class things, for it may fairly be said that every modern car is in its clas3 ' a first-rats thing. It can. certainly be aaid of all the cars that I have tried out over a, period of many months.They varied in eiigihe power, and.theqre- . fore in performance capacity," but within the. range of their respective-powers itia no more than truth .to say that, whilst aomo did better than others, all did sell. SOMETHING tAOKINa. It is also the truth to say that mom or less, every one was lacking in some little detail that brought it short of the attainable degree of " perfection. But then to reach that degree every -motorist would have to have a car built to his own specification, and the cost of that would alone eliminate many of us horn the ranks of ownership. . We get enough.to content us in so far as general performance is concerned. What we miss, and misß according to our individual ideas of what is needed, are the.little things. • Most of us after some months of motoring have our own ideas of what the ideal, not the perfect/ car should be. If I were to state mine they wou d be vague, but I believe they would win agreement from the big majority of motorists. In brief, I would have a car as care-free for its owner as was his machine in his cycling days The oycle certainly needed some attention out, broadly,,it was always ready when wanted, and the owner always expected it to be ready; he just mounted'itand rode off. We can't get to that degree-with the motor-car, but'we are nearer it than ever before, and are still advancing towards it; but in the nature ol things a oar does and will require more attention than a cycle.'v We expect that, if only because.the meohanism 3 more complicated and .on a larger scale, and. we. are ready to give it that ittentiony for the newest comer to the tanks of motorists soon learns that- the niore he ' looks after his car the less trouble is he going to have on the i-bad. but it is possible to simplify the process of attention, and if is now, when ;.<-e are preparing for the summer holi■»y tour or are already out on.the road^ • iiat we realise the need for improvement in many little'matters';'.'most.if not -iP. having relation to the factor of aocesaibility. TOURING HINTS. - ' ■'■• .'.'■' One of the items of constant attention is the greasing of the chassis points! At home it is a matter; of no great moment, for, with advance in design and with the introduction of grease-guns, and, better, still, the adoption of■ oil cups, the process lias become more, simplied: But when on tour it can he a vexatious matter. At home in the garage you have most things to hand-; on. tour you take what you can carry, and as little of ■■ that as possible, if only 'because most, cars, moro especially the small type 3, ! atill lack adequate provision for carry-; ?ng luggage and necessary* ac-j cessor'ies. The experienced motor tourist always outs down, his luggage to a ■minimum, but he likes to - carry •- the; things that are needed to keep. the1 ma-? chine in tune tin. the tour, and lie has> no great liking for the task when he has: to dig out.his passengers and take outl the seats and the floorboards to get down '< to some of the greaser nipples. ■' ■■ " < I was looking at a car the other day,1 a fine model and a new one, which is earning a good repute for. its road performance. To get down to the greasers' on the back axle the rear seat had to be' taken out, screws that held the seat support in .place, and, incidentally/ also1 hold down the floorboards, had to be got out, so also had other Bcrews from thei floor boards. These things dona, arid not before., the grease-gun could be got' to the grease-pbirits. The alternative; was to crawl 'under the car. This is too elaborate a process, and it can be and ought to be simplified: . The seat support should be independently, fastened and the.'screws in tho floorbo&rds ■ replaced "by ordinary turn-buttons, when what takes some ten or fifteen minutes to do with the machine as-turned out by the makers would be -cut down to five minutes.- All: this business is no great trouble when the car is iii the garage and tho owner is giving it its periodical overhaul, hut when he has it to do on tour it becomes an altogether different business. .Probably he .is of the type who doesn't like doing it in a- public garage is too shy- to do it.in an hotel prage, and so waits until he, with his family is well out on the open road wJieu he dons an old waterproof and gets to- work. But there are messy hands at I tlie end of it, and no water■ about of j.course. It is enough almosf; to spoil ones holidays. .