BRITISH MOTOR-CARS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21325, 28 October 1932, Page 15

BRITISH MOTOR-CARS

THE MARKET OVERSEAS SPECIAL MODELS DESIGNED The prosperous condition of the British motor industry and the success British cars are meeting in overseas markets were the subject of comment by Mr. D. Stewart Fraser, export manager for the English motor manufacturing firm of Riley (Coventry), Limited, who arrived by the Rangitiki from London yesterday. "When we left England there was a general feeling that the nation had turned the corner and was back on the road to better times,"- said Mr. Eraser. "The motor industry is flourishing. We have definitely won an innings in fields formerly devoted entirely to other cars. A case in point is South Africa. This is due partly to the vast improvements effected recently in British cars, and partly to the production of a British car purposely designed to suit the colonial market. British manufacturers, he said, had gone to a great deal of trouble to study overseas conditions on the spot. He had personally tried out cars in all parts of the world, with tlie result that his firm, like other British manufacturing firms, had evolved a special car for overseas conditions, having a greater wheel clearance than the models sold in England, a stronger chassis and coachwork, and a special engine-cooling system. Cars for tropical countries, moreover, were built with specially-treated woodwork to resist white ant and dry rot. Mr. Fraser, who is accompanied by Mrs. Fraser, brought out two Riley cars from England, the Army Tourer model, in which he is driving round tha world, and the latest Monaco model, 9 li.p., whichi is the first car of its kind delivered from the factory. , . While in South Africa Mr. Eraser broke the speed record between Durban and Johannesburg, 400 miles, ar, dk e tween Capetown and Johannesburg, 1000 miles. "The secret of racing over rough roads, he said, "is not speed, but the power oi the car to hold the road. Travelling m a 9 h.p. car we covered the 400-mile coarse at an average speed of 55 miles an hour and the 1000-mile course, over atrocious roads, at an average of 45 miles an hour.