MODERN AND ANCIENT

Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

MODERN AND ANCIENT

CARS MADE LIKE IRONCLADS. AN ARCHITECTURAL ANALOGY. (London Motoring Correspondent.) From time to time I hear people compare the modern, car with the car of. other days, somewhat to the detriment of the former. The main criticism against the modern car as compared with the ancient —or to put it more gently, with the less modern —is that cars in the “good old days” were made of more enduring material. Now I have a great respect for old cars that continue safely in commission, but this feeling does not blind me to the fact that what matters is not that the material, itself should endure, but that the car should give a performance commensurate with modern demands. The truth is that cars in the old days were made like ironclads because metallurgical science had not yet come to the aid of automobile designers. The cars in the early days were constructed to last a lifetime—-hut it was a lifetime spent mainly in the repair shop. Of actual service on the road they saw comparatively little, and when they did take the road it was to engage in speeds which nowadays are associated with steam rollers and other heavy stuff. Some of the engines were remarkably good considering the stage of internal combustion engine development, but the power unit was hopelessly shackled by the great weight of the chassis. Weight dominated entirely over power. But the great mass-production boom altered all that and revealed that the engine could be freed to give fuller expression of its powers, not by making cars less strong, but by giving solidity in- the right place. Whenever 1 think of the old and new methods of car construction I recall the parallel furnished by ancient and modern architecture. CARS AND CATHEDRALS. When the builders of the olc. cathedrals designed their, edifices they could think of no better way of supporting the weight of their roofs and domes and their lateral thrusts than by making the walls and pillars exceptionally thick. It involved tremendous labour, and an enormous expenditure on material, and the results were not always satisfactory. Then came the bright idea underlying the Gothic cathedrals, which was to give the walls support only at the points at which the stresses were most in evidence. Instead of thick, heavy walls inside and out they made them thinner outside and instituted arches inside, and they added to the strength of the outside walls by flying buttresses. The logical successor of the Gothic cathedral is the modern skyscraper composed of a framework of steel girders, and that brings us back to the construction of the modern automobile, which is an affair of light steel frames, aluminium alloys and —in a growing number of instances —pressed steel bodywork. I am fortunately absolved by limitations of age from requiring to pass an opinion, as to whether the modern steel skyscraper will last as long as the ancient cathedrals, but I can affirm with some confidence that the modem car, constructed lightly of steel and 1 given strength at the points where strength is essential, can be guaranteed to last as long as the heavyweight car of the “good old days.” What admirers of the “good old days” must bear in mind, in regard to car construction, is that, although the materials of the modern car are lighter, they are demonstrably more reliable. Where steel is used it is of -the best quality, for inferior steel would not stand, for more than a few weeks the stresses to which the modern car is put on the road. A curious argument sometimes heard is that- in a collision the modern car crumples up But a severe impact is equal to an earthquake as far as the car is concerned, and it has yet to be proved that cars in the good old days were less effected by collisions than their modern fellows.

■INEX'PEN’SIVE • REPLACEMENTS. Light construction is, in fact, an advantage in-a collision, for the damaged parts are more easily and more cheaply replaced. I am ready to admit, however, that the lower-priced cars are more flimsily constructed, as far as bodywefrk is’ concerned, than the cars of a decade ago, but that is unavoidable. If coaoh'built bodies of the solidity and meticulous workmanship of other days were insisted upon nowadays, the cars could not be sold at their present price. As the new season’s models pass through my hands for road tests, I am more and more surprised at the remarkable value that the modern car represents even round about £2OO. The other day I had a run of close upon 300 miles in one of the new Rover models —the 10.25 h.p. de luxe saloon which sells in Britain at £225. When I was in Coventry recently I heard Mr. Howe Graham, the finance director of the Rover Company, explain how his company had, in common with others, been affected by the economic blizzard.

But he ended on a definite note of optimism, and this optimism, I happen to know, is based on a firm belief in the selling potentialities of the new Rover Pilot and. the Ten.

After submitting the Ten to arduous tests, I am inclined to believe that this optimism is well-founded, for I have never driven a more agreeable car at the price. The 4-cylinder engine is exceptionally flexible and. even allowing for slight inaccuracy on the part of the speedometer, is certainly capable of a good 55 miles per hour, at which speed it holds the road like a car twice as heavy. DE LUXE EQUIPMENT. It is a roomy four-seater, and will take a full load without impression on the suspension, which I found remarkably good. It is 3, sheer delight to handle the car at about 45 miles per hour, which it can keep up all day. In view of the length of my run, I

could not permit the speedonfeter needle to drop much below that figure at any time, while I had several incursions into the 60’s during the run.

At the end the car seemed fresh as the traditional daisy. The acceleration and brakes call for specially favourable mention. The de luxe saloon, which I tested, has many refinements, including a sliding roof, safety glass all round, a spring steering wheel, and a fourspeed (silent third) gear-box. The Rover Ten standard model, which sells at £lB9, is, by the way, fitted with a. body of the one-piece pressed steel type.

Will the motorist of the future follow coloured his destination

much in the same way as the underground railway passenger In London follows coloured lights to his tram? . Such a possibility is evoked by a speech made at Glasgow by Mr. W. E. Cone, the technical adviser to the British Road Tar Association, who said that when the difficulty of conserving colour under the ravages of atmospheric and traffic condition's has been overcome more will be heard of colouied roads. Already some road authorities are attempting to break away from the black surface tradition. A variety of colour effects can be obtained by the use of different shades of _ drippings, and it may be possible in time to produce coloured tar.