MOTORING
Winter. -the Enemy By all accounts,, even by the prophecies_ of learned monks, proper winter will be upon us when these notes are. printed. For the next four months at least we shall be living—motor- ingly speaking—under an unending menace of eipensive disaster ; those of us, at all events, who have DO centrally- heated garages. We face the certain prospect of frost at night and by day of perpetually cooling engines, with all the -catastrophic results painted for. us in such gloomy 'Colours by_ the profession. To read some of its warnings is to wonder how it can be worth anybody's while to keep a car in winter_ at all.
An Impressive Demonstration They have been insidiously telling us for a long time now. that an engine wears out, so to speak, during the first to minutes after it has been started, owing to the destructive effect of the corrosion set up by the combination of petrol-gas arid condensation and cold metals, and they carry out tests; to prove their argument. One in America I remember as more impressive than most showed the difference between the condition of two similar engines, one used as -are most people's in a town, constantly stopping and starting ; the other run enormous distances between stops. Both were taken down at the end of a predetermined mileage, and the town car's engine showed about five times more wear than the other. Or was it ten ?
Ancient and Modern That certainly proved that heat is better than cold for those internal combustion engines and that the fewer the starts the more economical; but not that all engines are equally vulnerable.. That the corrosion axiom, true enough in some cases, is altogether too wide a generalisation can be proved by hundreds of owners of old cars all over the country, who have only now, in their second 50,000 miles or so, beard about corrosion at all. How do the wise explain an old engine, with say 70,000 miles behind it, still too gas-tight for reboring : a modern engine, nurtured in this scientific atmosphere, nursed as never was the old one, needing a rebore at z5,00o or so : the _ advertisement of one maker claiming that a rebore is not necessary under 25,000 ? I ask in all sincerity and in no mocking spirit. After all, the ancient cost a good deal more than the modern, though it did work more slowly. Is it really the fault of the aluminium piston, as some hold ?
The Real _Safeguard Whatever the' rights of it, there is no doubt at all that oil is the first thing a cold engine needs and that the new thin kinds reduce the normal winter risks in a way we would not have believed possible only a few years ago. By all means keep your engine as Warm as possible at all times but par- ticularly at night if you have-no heating, whether installed or applied (as by lamps), start up with hot water in the radiator, and keep the bonnet covered with rugs during a long stop. These elementary- precintioni are always worth while, but an oil that remains fluid enough in cold weather to flow freely the instant the engine starts is the real safeguard—or at all events the nearest thing we have got to it. It almost excuses the profession's advice to run a cola engine hard—a thing I have not done with to cars in a long-forgotten number of thousands of miles. I have not yet had a rebore.
• - The new Morris Ten is the sixth car of its peculiar design in motoring history, a car in which the body takes the place and does the work of the frame. To the best of my recol- lection the first was the 12-h.p. Lagonda; pre-War ; the second the Lambda-Lancia ; the third the Citroen; the fourth the Opel; the fifth the Vamthall Ten of last year's series. The first two of these were so supremely SUccessful Frameless Design in achieving the object of the design, weight-reduction, that it is really extraordinary how slow other makers have been in adopting h. I don't know what failures any of the pioneers -suffered, but all of them scored "a success in the end and—which is of considerable interest—all of them made inexpensive cars,' with the exception-of the Lancia.
The 10 Morris - The design has put the new Morris well ahead of all its predecessors and high in the new class of -extra-efficient moderate-powered cars. With an all-in weight of under 19 cwt., the overhead valved, 1,140 c.c. 4-cylinder engine gives the car a reasonably comfortable maximum speed of well over 6o miles an hour and an easy cruising speed of fifty. It climbs steep hills very fast and its low-geared third speed (7.9 to t) gives it an extremely useful acceleration. On this 'gear I found it would reach 45 without stress. It is a very lively car. The bodywork is roomy and, without luxury, comfortable. You get a wide outlook from it both as driver and passenger, there is remarkably good luggage accommodation, and the fittings and accessories are all that they should be. It is a well-planned car. The engine and gears run quietly, the brakes are powerful and the steering light and direct. The saloon costs k185, with a sliding roof.
Purbeck Hills You know when you have reached the precise top of the range because at that moment the front wheels of your car, while on the same level with the back wheels, are separated from them by a slight but distinct- hump. So narrow is the ridge that you bestride it in anything longer than a motor bicycle. It is not a road much frequented except by sheep and there are gates to open and shut as you climb up from the sea and go down into the green levels towards Wareham, but it is one of the most theatrical hill-tops you will find anywhere in England. You begin it at Corfe, taking the road by Church Knowle and Steeple to Tyneham, where you turn to the north and commit yourself to a steep and narrow road- of rustic description.- - On the Knife-Edge As I said there are gates in obstructive profusion and the very summit itself is marked by one of them, but none of these things matter. When you finally balance your car on that knife-edge and draw breath after that painstaking climb you are richly rewaided for your trouble. Northward lies the weald, an endless expanse of heather sloping down to the valley of the Frome ; 'westward and eastward the sharply-etched coastline, -warm with the red of the Dorset cliffs ; southward Worbarrow -Bay and the sea. Is it imagination that just at this point the Channel discards the dirty yellow-grey of the 'narrows and 'puts on the blue of the -Open sea ? It always seems to me that, against all the rules and boundaries, blue water begins off Dorset.
'Where Time Waits _ Clean sea air blows over that knife-edge, scented, in the by the wiry pasture -and 'the sweet smOke of winter bonfires. You are within- half a mile of a village and no more .than a mile and- a- half of Lulworth itself, yet you Might be as well and truly-lot -as any traditional wayfarer on the moors. You- are .suspended in space and time. Here you put a finger on the clock and bid it wait until you have seen ancient England as she was. There are few places left to us where you can do that.
JoHN PRIOLEAU.
[Note.—Readers' requests for advice from our Motoring Correspondent on -the choice of new cars should be accompanied by a stamped and addressed envelope. The highest price payable must be given, as well as the type of body required. No advice can be_ given on the_purchase, sale or .exchange of used cars.]
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