Paris Motor Show

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18255, 25 November 1933, Page 9

Paris Motor Show

DEITISH cars at the Paris Motor D Show last month carried off all the honors for beauty, with America a close second.

This is saying a great deal, because every car-manufacturing nation lias at last realised that cars must have a sox appeal. France, Italy, Belgium, America, Germany, and the other nations exhibiting at the Paris show have sot out, like Britain, to capture the feminine motoring world. Never before had one seen such a dazzling collection of beautiful motorears. British cars won jn beauty of line, in harmonious color schemes, in interior fittings, and, above all,, in finish. There was nothing untidy about the British car at the Paris show. Even the windscreen > wipers folded neatly away when not in use. Some of the French cars were dazzling to look upon, but on close examination a lack of finish was noticeable. The German cars had a solid appearance, with the exception, perhaps, of the Mercedes, which was high up in the beauty class. The Italian cars wove sleek and rakish,, while tlifl,,American cars, had very appealing lines hut in some eases were rather, ornate in the matter ol chromium, plate. It is not only in beauty that Britain scored. British, and American cars at the show were much further advanced in design than their Continental rivals. A few Continental makers had adopted no form of easy gearchange device. But there was not a single British car without a fool-proof gear box, The sunshine roof had practically disappeared. In its pla,co was the two-purpose body, consisting of a hood which folded right back and turned a closed ear into a completely open vehicle in a few seconds.

Last year’s coquetting with independent suspension .of . tho wheels resulted in the . system being widely embraced. There were nearly a dozen different forms of independent springing. Ono of them was seen on the Mercedes-Benz, a, huge vertical coil spring supporting, each front wheel and a pair of them to each rear wheel. On the Mathis there are, properly speaking, no front springs at all. A long torsion rod mountod parallel to the axle, with one end gripped in a sort of rubber fist, absorbs the road shocks. There was one example of front-wheel drive.

The one ronl novelty of the show was a four door saloon body on * a big Delage. It had an unbroken spread of window from the front screen to level with the roar; seat. The two doors on either side were centrally hinged, each with its winding window, out there was no central pillar above the waist-line.