FOOL PROOF GEAR-CHANGING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19344, 19 November 1932, Page 12

FOOL PROOF GEAR-CHANGING

UNIVERSAL NEXT YEAR. When the famous French engineer had examined the original sliding gear introduced by Panhard nearly 40 years ago he shrugged his shoulders and remarked, “It is barbarous, but it works.” It has worked barbarously ever since, and nothing but an astounding inertia has permitted it to survive so long, says “G. 8.” in the Manchester Guardian. In a sense, its knell is to be sounded all over* the world in 1533, through the fundamental structure of the gearbox will still figure on many chassis, and the line of attack will consist of ingenious controls which undermine the ralical defects. The Panhard type of sliding gear has three main faults. The first is unnecessary wear. S nce it is j impossible for an expert to effect a ! perfect change at every attempt, whilst the duffer and the novice can wreck a gearbox by a single cruel change, the money wasted by bad gear changing since 1896 must total many thousands of pounds. Even in these days it is rare for a car to undergo a major overhaul without the renewal of a couple of gear pinions. The second intrinsic demerit of the sliding gear is noise, which must be given a dual interpretation. Illegitimate and unnecessary noise is generated by

bad gear-changing. Much of England is flat or at the most undulating. When drivers normally domiciled in such an area go farther afield into the hillier West or North, they are compelled to use their lower gears frequently, and they clash many of th changes. The resulting noises offeru the ears of listeners, especially at nig at and impair the pleasure of a tour by humiliating the driver in the eyes of his passengers and wound ng his selfrespect. Each muffed or scraped change

bodies an automatic or fool-proof gearchange. The various makers are already announcing their 1933 programmes, and with one accord they are all introducing simplified gear controls, coupled in most cases with a fluid fly-wheel, a free-wheel, an automatic clutch, or some other gadget designed to protect the car against illegitimate stresses, ! the driver against humiliation, the public against noise, and the occupants i against jerks. It is no exaggeration ( to say that in 1933 the standard clutch . and gearbox with which we have all j been familiar for nearly 40 years, will I be obselete except on the very smallest J and cheapest cars. Subject only to | the two factors of road sense and j mechanical judgment, elderly people j and novices will at least be able to drive even the largest cars with the | same silence, smoothness, and gentle- i ness as only the expert could demon- J . strate a few years ago. Many motor- j ists will regret these innovations. I Nevertheless, those of us who regard driving as an art and do not buy motor-cars merely to furnish transport must reconcile ourselves to the new conditions. Comparatively few of the 1933 cars will make any serious demands on our skill and intelligence so far as mere handling of their gears is concerned.

The Free-Wheel. It is too early to decide which of the ! many methods of insuring deft gear- i changing will ultimately be preferred by the driving public. The free wheel is likely to be the simplest and the cheapest cf them all, and it has the j added advantage of serving extraneous 1 purposes additional to silent and ef■',cient gear-chang ng. Since it pernits the car to be “coasted” on all down-grades with the minimum of trouble, it provides a genuine petrol economy, estimated at 10 to 15 per cent, of the normal consumption. It is true that some drivers dislike coasting, since the car coasts with a silence which