WORN OUT BY DRIVERS

Evening Star, Issue 22365, 15 June 1936, Page 15

WORN OUT BY DRIVERS

FATE OF MANY GOOD CARS Engine wear has been the subject of a good deal of research recently, and it is clear that, although he cannot do much, the driver can do something to reduce it (writes Oliver Stewart, in the ‘ Morning Post,’ London), He can do a great deal more with the chassis, and it would not be mueb of an exaggeration to say that, between two extremes of driving, then} might be a difference of 100 per cent, in wear. Again it seems probable, as a corollary, that it is a mistake, from the engine wear point of view, to set the .engine to tick over too slowly. Some people glory in so slow a tick-over that one can almost count the cylinders firing, and they go to great lengths to achieve it. But lubrication may suffer by this process—although I know of no positive proof that it does. Anyhow, the belief . among technologists now is that the engine should not be set to idle at much below 500 F r.p.m. TREATMENT OF THE CLUTCH. The methods of reducing wear in the transmission are fairly obvious. Violent acceleration must not be indulged in, and the gears must be used sympathetically—and that applies whether they are synchro-mesh, self-changing, or the ordinary type. Especial attention must be paid to clutcn work, and the aim must be to insinuate the clutch when starting without, previously, greatly accelerating the engine. One of the old-fashioned theories used to be that, if the left foot rested on the clutch pedal during free running, it would . gradually have the effect .of weakening the clutch springs. Those who know what springs can do never believed in the theory. The real reason why it is bad driving to rest the foot on the dutch pedal is that the foot may ease the spring pressure and cause the clutch to slip slightly when under load. Continual clutch slipping soon calls for a new clutch plate. Much .can be done in reducing brake wear. It is possible to drive for thousands of miles without ever applying the brakes to the full extent ; without ever applying them harshly at all. By throwing the judgment forward, as it were, so that situations are weighed up well in advance, the amount of braking supplied by the engine will be found to be ample for all but the last few yards, and then only the lightest touch on the brake pedal will be needed. I think that the decline in the amount the free wheel is used is largely the result of the way most experienced drivers prefer to use the engine as a brake and hardly to touch the ordinary brakes. If the engine is used as a brake, the modern car with a flexible engine becomes in effect a car with single pedal control. One accelerates by pressing the accelerator pedal and one slows down by taking off the pressure. Under this system of driving the brake linings last for a long time, and if the brake linings last it may be taken for granted that the tyres will last.

Really the system of driving so as to reduce wear of all parts to a minimum may_ be summed up by saying that it consists in causing the car to move with the greatest possible smoothness at ail times. It is never accelerated violently nor braked violently; nor is it ever swung violently round corners. It may not be exactly an inspiring form of driving; but it is restful, and it certainly result* iu economy of a high order.