THOUGHTS ON TOUR

NZ Truth, Issue 1105, 3 February 1927, Page 14

THOUGHTS ON TOUR

Big Cars or Baby Cars? In this, the second of the series, "N.Z. Truth's" motoring expert discusses the best type of car for bad road conditions.

\T 7HBNEVER a small car, such as VV the Baby Austin or the little 7h.p. Jowett, makes its appearance m New Zealand, the invariable comment is "Yes, no doubt a wonderful little engineering job, but how would she get on if you put her on the pumice roads round Taupo and Rotorua?" The roads m that neighborhood have , been particularly bad this, summer, and we tackled them m a moderate powered car. After being stuck • ourselves (we blush to say we were without chains) we were helping another traveller to extricate his big American tourer from the mud, when along came a chap on a motor-cycle— two and three-quarter horse power. ■ " ! Having dismounted and helped us to gather ti-tree to give the car wheels a grip, he commented: "This is where,, I have the pull over you; if the road is too bad I can carry my bus over it;" which gave us furiously to think. •> If one man can carry a Douglas, surely two could make a fair job of pushing an Austin 7. Not that the Austin is the sole car m its class. 'There are others m England and a great many others m France which have the same characteristics. Of course, we shall be told that these little cars do not track and will

not follow m the ruts made by bigger cars running over the same roads. Our observation would incline us to the opinion that this is an actual advantage m mud, although it may be a drawback m loose metal. The rut made by a procession of cars along a soft road has a habit of becoming a series of mud holes, and the ability to straddle one rut, instead of sinking down into two seems an advantage'to be desired. | Ground clearance, again, is demanded of cars intended to be used over such roads, but clearance must be balanced against weight. If the car is so heavy that it sinks feet into the. mud, fitting it with buggy wheels will not give it enough clearance. When we have time to spare, we will endeavor to beg,- borrow or .. steal a baby car of some kind and try it out over some "dud" roads for the information of "Truth" readers. There are, of course, niany other points, m the way of power on hills, carrying capacity, comfort at high speeds and so on, m which the small car may show up badly against the bigger car; but it seems to us that m the very matters m which criticism is chiefly levelled, it might prove to show points over its bigger rivals. We shall see.