THE PACE THAT THRILLS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 5 February 1927, Page 15

THE PACE THAT THRILLS.

FULL OUT ROUND BROOKLANDS. PASSENGER- AND DRIVER, We read of such speeds as 100 miles per hour every day in this era of motorcars and airplanes. Yet how many of us realise what this actually means? (asks a writer in an exchange). Mv first experience of racing Tounci Brooklands s»t more than a mile and a half a minute was made as a passenger, sitting in the tinv cockpit of a racing motor-car beside a hardened and experienced Frenchman. . , A roar, two or -three spitting explosions and we were off, shooting up the incline which leads from tkc PcUldeck to the track proper. Then the man at the wheel “steps on the gas A “ back of my seat presses against me as tho>°«chi»o ? accelerates tcmficaUy, the wind against my face grows gale into a hurricane, -the whirr of the engine rises -to a steady sercauu , I watch the speedometer intently through my goggles—-60, 70, SO, 90-the needle rushes oss the dial then waver, beX “er P e‘ep! “uplfjhfloS inahf The white ribbon of the track rushes towards us faster and faster, we are in the steep banking before I notice it Che man by my side sits easily, grasping the wheel nonchantly, just as though he were pottering along an open country road at 25 miles an hour. The wind is so intense when I iaise my goggles for a moment that I camnot keep my eyes open. They are closed against my will, . T After many such passenger trips 1 start off one morning to pilot a. racing car round the track by myself! This is quite a different business e a a chine is capable of passing the 100-mile-an-hour mark, and I am determined to let her “all out" before 1 eat my lal l°c’iimb into the cockpit and settle down at the wheel. Two or three mechanics give me a shove off, I let m the clutch, and the engine bursts into li±e With it* wonted enthusiasm lam ott. Round the track I go, cautiously and carefully, feeiing the paces of tins. After one or two laps m the neighbour hood of 70 miles an hour another motorcar joins me. At the wheel sits one o± Britain’s most famous track racers. He passes me slowly, creeping up -behind, and -past me at a mile an hour or so faster than lam going. As he goes by he screams “Come on!” and waves his hand, then darts off in front all ° U For lap after lap I chase his tail, gaining 30 yards, losing 50. Then out of kindness, I suspect, he lets me creep up behind him, and ultimately pass -him. I am content at last, next lap 1 ease up, turn into the straight and arrive back into the paddock. Two minutes later the other car spits and roars into the paddock. My adversary climbs out and approaches me. “ Well done, young man! ” lie says, slapping me on- the shoulder. You passed me at more than 100!” I had been too terrified to glance at the speedometer.

DRIVING ABILITY.

EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL. SITUATIONS THAT TEST. ■While all applications for a driving license should bo-preceded by a test of driving ability, how many realise that before a driver is equal to all emergencies he must have had many thousands of miles and -some years of experience? There are so many things that may happen with a car, creating situations that an experienced driver will handle correctly by instinct, which it would ibe difficult for those who have not the advantage of driving cars for a number of years and under every condition to understand. Take, for instance, a frontwheel skid. The road is wet, the surface being polished tar. The car is being driven at a fair pace when, for apparently no reason, at a slight lefthand bend it proceeds diagonally to tho other side. The driver being unable to direct its course, it crashes into the bank, or perhaps into a vehicle coming in tbe opposite direction. In ail probability the driver will be completely at a loss to account for the mishap; the only thcorv that he may be able to advance is'that the steering must have failed, particularly as he locked the wheels far over to .the left when he found the car steering to the right, without altering its course. The explanation is that it was a front-wheel skid, which is always liable to occur when the treads of the tyres are worn' smooth and the surface of the road is like wet glass. Here is an emergency for which the experienced driver is always prepared. He knows the risks at every left-hand bend, drives slowly if he thinks there is the slightest possibility of his tyres not holding, and if he docs get a skid checks it by applying the brakes (even the application of the roar-wheel brakes only will usually pull a car out of a front-wheel skid), and by wagging the steering left and right rapidly, a little more to the loft than the right each time.

Supposing the front tyre bursts. Does the new motorist realise that a tremendous pull will be exerted on the steeling on the side on which the tyre collapses, and that if he were travelling at all fast it would take him all he knew to keep the car in a straight line? Try driving a car with one front tyre flat and see how difficult it is to keep the steering wheel straight. Ihe expeiicnccd driver, again, holds the steering wheel with a grip which can be instantly tightened, so that, the wheel is not knocked out of his hand by hitting a ,stone or a pot-hole or by a sudden deflated tyre. The wheel is held palm uppermost close to a spoke. It is not a tiring position, like that adopted by so man v new motorists, yet it gives verv decided control with one hand, leaving the other free to manipulate pear and brake levers or to give signals. Holding the rim of the steering wheel bv two hands awkwardly does not give the same degree of control. One should cultivate the habit of noting not only the actualities, but. the probabilities, along every foot, of the road upon which one is driving. When cultivated, this habit becomes acquired as an instinct and is done subconsciously; but it takes many thousands of miles’ experience.