BRITISH AND AMERICAN CARS.

Southland Times, Issue 20832, 22 July 1929, Page 3

BRITISH AND AMERICAN CARS.

To the Editor. Sir, —It is very pleasing to have a reply from “Unbiased,” but surely he should have chosen another nom de plume as his arguments are so one-sided. Will “Unbiased” please quote me the number of the Motor that he refers to so that your readers may read for themselves all about the wonderful American high-speed engines. It will be most interesting. Also, “Unbiased” had to admit that most of the improvements that he praised in American cars were really English patents. Thanks for this admission. Then, he proceeds to fall into the pit that he himself dug. Years ago the English car manufacturers, when they increased the size of their engines, sought to find a cure for the increased vibration. This led to the fitting of devices in an attempt to cure this vibration and torsional whip. At their best, all these devices were but a makeshift so the English car manufacturers set to work to cure the defect by using better quality material, better design and correct alignment, and lo! the vibration is no longer there to be cured by dampers etc. “Unbiased” admits that there is torsional vibration and crankshaft whip in the “woolly” American engines, and the reason that it is there, is because American manufacturers know that these defects can be eliminated only by using better quality material and more careful design in construction thus adding greatly to the cost of the engine. They find that is cheaper to try to cure the defect by means of vibration dampers and such like awful “contraptions.” As I stated before the American car manufacturer builds down to a price in order to meet the extremely acute competition in his own country. No, “Unbiased” you will certainly not find many six-cylinder English cars with seven-bearing crankshafts fitted with these cheap devices, but you will find many four and five bearing crankshafts properly balanced and constructed and showing none of the defects met with in an American engine. The above answer will do for “British Engineer” too. This corresnoniient calls

himself a British engineer but means to say nothing good of English cars, but really he has paid the English car manufacturer the highest praise of all when he states that the high speed motor demands super workmanship and materials, hence the high cost of the British car of high performance. He bears out my argument that you cannot sacrifice quality for price and produce an efficient machine. A well-balanced four-cylinder engine constructed with good materials is superior to a cheap six-cylinder engine, and performance has proved this the world over. Nowadays the trend of motor car manufacturers is to build smaller but more efficient engines and to lighten the bodies, so that useless lumber is not being carted around. The high-speed efficient English motor lends itself to this valuable improvement with the result that the cost of motoring is cheapened. Has America yet produced a “baby” car to equal the excellent models produced by several English car manufacturers? No, for the simple reason that super workmanship and best quality materials are required as stated by “British Workman.”

What is the use of saving money on a purchase if the money is more than paid out again on the running costs of the big American engine constructed on cheap lines? The purchase of American cars is an economic waste to the country. Let America even reduec her tariff of 66 per cent, against British cars to 33 per cent, and you would find American manufacturers making a worse outcry against the influx of British cars into America. I noticed the other day that a certain State in America was considering the question of limiting the maximum speed rate to 35 miles per hour with a slower maximum speed for towns, and that manufacturers must turn their attention to building smaller cars to meet the needs of modem traffic. So we do not need greater horsepower as “British Engineer” suggests. The English car manufacturer does not parade his patriotism on his sleeve but relies on the quality and sterling worth of his cars to regain a market lost to his American competitors during the war period, and this is rapidly coming to pass, as sure as “eggs is eggs.”—l am, etc., BLIGHTY.