BRITISH MOTOR CARS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 69

BRITISH MOTOR CARS.

CATERING FOR DOMINION MARKETS. (From Opr Own Correspondent:} LONDON, July 24. British motor car manufacturers have for long been criticised because they failed to cater for th-. Dominions. That they are anxious to remedy the deficiency is evident from the tours that have already been made by a number of influential representatives of the trade. In pursuance of the same object, Mr Leslie Walton, managing director of Messrs Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., is to visit Australia and New Zealand. He will arrive in Sydney early in September, and after a moato in Australia he will go to New Zealand, arriving at Wellington on October 16.

-Mr Walton’s mission, however, is rather different from that of some of his predecessors. He goes out with the assui nee that his firm has produced the British juality car, which is equally suitable in every way for use at Home, and also for the very different market overseas. To demonstrate this fact the euterprising firm invited the Rt. Hon. L. S. Amery (Secretary of State for the Dominions) and about a hundred press and photographic representatives to their works at Luton, and out on a rough hillside we saw something of the possibilit es of a 20-60 model which is the result oi. two years' research. It was rather an amazing performance. The hillside chosen for the demonstration was a very rough piece of country rising very steeply and punctuated with Lanks and cuttings, ar overgrown with long grass and scrun The six cylinder car, on its lowest gear, came up the hill with some amount of <>n"ed, ’urching on it springs »nd bumping like a small ship in a storm. It took the banks apparently without difficulty, and in less than a minute it was at the top of the slope. Then the driver described many circles and figures of eight in going down the rough slope again. Once more it was brought up the ’-ill, and the driver dismounted. ITe car rested at the edge of a 45deg slope. At the bottom f .he slope was a piece of level ground. The handbrake of the car was put on, and a dozen men_raised one side of the car and sent rolling dawn the slope it turned two complete somersaults, and came to rest on its four wheel.. There was a breaking of glass tut afterwards tha* was found to be owing to a cy of tools falling against the windscreen. On examination afterwards it was found that the running boards were bent, the splashboards vere bent, the bonnet was a little dented, and thei e were a few superficial injuries. T' * other glass was quite intact, the doors opened readily, the saloon was in perfect condition, and Mr Amery and the managing director were driven down t’ e hill to the factory in the car that had oeen subjected to such violent usage. Speaking at the subsequent luncheon, Mr Amery said that from his experience in the Dominion, for every mile of good road opened there were lOu miles of bad roads being opened. In the Empire they had something like 15,000.00 Q square miles of country, and the bulk of that country vas going to be improved with motor traffic. There would be a tremendous field for i’ development of motor traffic as there had been for railway building 20 or 30 years ago. If they met the needs of the British Empire they might be assured they would also meet the greater demand of the world generally.