THE MOTOR IN FICTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 806, 29 October 1929, Page 6

THE MOTOR IN FICTION

GREATER ACCURACY NEEDED Whatever may be said of general education, motoring education is progressing by leaps and bounds (writes an English motorist). Even such people as novelists, short story writers and journalists are beginning to learn something about cars, and, although one still comes across diverting howlers, the day the hero “threw the clutch into high,” or, after burying his head beneath the bonnet, exclaimed that “the differential had contracted an incurable short circuit,” is almost past. The car of Action is also slowly progressing beyond the single-cylinder stage, and no longer “chug-chugs,” which must be a great relief to the characters who are condemned to drive it. There are, however, still certain conventions which are an unconscionable long lime a-dying. Cars are invariably long and usually grey, and 60 miles an hour, no more, no less, is the speed at which they travel. This particularly applies to the police chases of motor bandits through the London streets. Talking of Action, the exploitation of motor racing is long overdue, and it is quite time that a Nat Gould of the track arose to thrill the reading public with yarns about the young squire who drove to victory in the Isle of Man, on the family hack, in order to save the old home from the sinister clutches of the villain, and, incidentally, to win the beautiful and virtuous heroine. There is any amount of scope here, but the ambitious novelist will need to tread warily, for there are undoubtedly pitfalls. Before starting, he will do well to cast his eye over an elementary text book.