WINTER SKIDS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 2 July 1927, Page 15

WINTER SKIDS

RULES FOR. AVOIDING

At this time of the year when the roads may be expected to I>e very frequently wet, it is well to remember that a .skid may occur in spite- of all precautions, but if the speed lias been kent down it is not likely to prove dangerous. One may be driving comfortably enough, say, at 25 m.p.h. on a road which though wet is not slippery and run unexpectedly on to a piece of new surface; and the car may become suddenly unmanageable and slide about in any direction. Violent application of the rear brakes will only make matters worse, ancl the best thing is to

slow up gradually. Front wheel brakes, if fitted, will sometimes steady a ear. but the best advice is to keep the speed down. A skid may occur in .spite of all precautions, but if the speed has been kept down it is not likely to prove dangerous. When a skid does occur, it is well to release the clutch, for when the engine is disconnected irom the road wiieel it cannot accentuate the skid by driving the wheels round and causing them to slip in the direction of rotation. Suppose therefore, that the rear wh-ceLs skid to the left, the car will then be pointing to the right-hand side, and if the wheels quickly regain their rolling motion, which is likely when the clutch is released, the ear will head for the right-hand side ol the road, unless the front wheels are immediately turned to the left.

This is known tfs steering into the skid, and it will do much to maintain the proper line of travel. In road races a driver will often skid his rear wheels intentionally for the sake of getting round a corner quickly. It is bad for his tyres and sometimes wrenches one off the wheel; it is also bad for the chassis, and in touring it is bad practice generally. Finally, it is easier to avoid a skid by careul driving than to correct one without hitting anything.

PROGRESS IN CAR DESIGN. Progress in the design of cars may appear to fatter, but actually it never stops. Year uy year, in scores of Ur;.wing unices, hundreds or (sever brains are steadily evolving new me mods of production side by side with new details of design.

No real improvement ever bursts on tiie world full-blown. A thousand tiny steps of testing, experiment and roau experience go to the making of tne perfect car that some day tne publicwill drive and wonder why it took so long to evolve. Evolution applies to cars v ery much as it works in the world of nature. Progress is more by a process of elimination and replacement in detail than by fundamental alteration in design. Cars still betray their origin from the old coaching * days even on the most elaborate examples of modern design. This, obviously, must be true of the coachwork and not of the mechanism that proDels it. There would seem to be still too wide a gap between the work of the engineers who design the chassis and the coaclibuilders who make-or mar-tlie final result. Lars are still built as though they vveie to have two separate entities and were not interlinked at every stage of their joint evolution.