17 AUGUST 1934, Page 27

Motoring About Little British Cars As has been proved many

times over within the last few years, more especially since the last show, the British industry is as far ahead of its rivals in one type of sr as the first of the famous Mercedes were ahead of all other machines thirty years ago. Nobody makes a light cheap car to be compared with ours, at the price, and nobody offers his customers so immense a choice. In the opinion of most people a light car ceases to be cheap when it costs over 1300—cheap, that is to say, from the aspect of cost-price. There are one or two small-engined cars, costing well over 1300, whose performance and general qualities are superior to those of machines costing 1100 less, but they are in a class apart, and being definitely luxury cars are adjudged on a different basis. They compete, and now and again astonishingly successfully, with cars of greater power. In the " Y.R.U." Ten you do not buy a- particularly good 10-h.p. car so much as a small-sized 16-h.p. For 1300 and under you can buy in this country a selection of cars that has, for extent, no counterpart.

Of this enormous number there are, today at all events and before all the newest models are out, over 50 different kinds of small car of from 9 to 14 h.p. to be had at various prices between /150 and /200, inclusive. In this extraordinary category I have not counted the Austin Seven, the Triumph Seven, the Ford Eight, the Jowett Seven or the Morris Minor. Of these .the Jowett just comes into the 1150 limit, but I choose to leave it out of a list that has 9 h.p. as its lowest power. The others, with the exception of the Austin Sports two- seater and the rather special models of the Morris, are priced well below 1150, belong to a class of their own and may be dealt with on another occasion. They are no less remarkable than their larger sisters but inevitably they have less general appeal, owing to their size.

Taking the 9- to 12-h.p. /150 to /200 list alphabetically, Austin makes a two-seater, a four-seater, a fixed-head and a saloon de luxe, and a cabriolet on the Ten chassis ; a two-seater, a four-seater and a fixed-head saloon on the four-cylinder 11.9-h.p. chassis ; and a two-seater and four-seater on the six-cylinder 13.9-h.p. chassis. I am not quite sure whether the Citroen is now officially re- garded as a British car, but I believe it is. Its "country of origin" is or its countries are "England and France," in that order. The Ten (four-cylinder), with a /12 tax, is to be had at 1198 with a saloon. Ford, also of Empire origin, sells a two-door and a four-door saloon on the 14.9-h.p. chassis. Hillman gives you four saloons, from the cheapest, at 1159, to the dearest, the Club, at 1195, on the Ten chassis known as the Minx. In addition there is a two-seater, a family tourer and a " sports " tourer. Morris sells five different bodies with the Ten chassis (six, if you count the traveller's saloon), a two-seater, a tourer, two saloons and a special coupe, priced at between £165 and 1200. On the Ten-Six, which is of 12 h.p. and tax, there is the two-seater, the tourer, two saloons and I he traveller's car, from 1180 to £200; on the Cowley Twelve two saloons at 1195 and /199 10s. Singer has a two-seater, a four-seater and a saloon, all at 1162 5s., and a saloon de luxe at 1185, on the Nine chassis ; and a four-seater and saloon, at 1199, on the Twelve four- cylinder chassis, while Standard give you a tourer and a saloon de luxe on the Nine for 1152 (there is also a £135 saloon, by the way) and three saloons and a tourer on the Ten for 1168, £179 and /192. The list is completed with the 1198 Triumph Ten saloon, the 1185 Trojan tourer and saloon, the singleton Vauxhall Twelve-six saloon, at 1195, and the Wolseley Nine and Hornet Twelve (six-cylinders) at 1179 and 1198 10s., both saloons.

A tremendous array, you must agree. Perhaps you will also agree that it might be a good thing if those nine "hundred per cent. British" factories (by which I mean those that build their cars in this country and neither assemble nor import them or their components) were to join up, if not into one concern—an Utopian scheme, I readily admit—then into three or four and, classing their common products by price and power, present a formidably united front to the rest of the small car-buying world. In this country we do not take kindly to amalgamations, trusts or combines, or at all events not so kindly as they do in the United States where the building and selling of cars is organized and, to use a detestable word, rationalized, but it seems odd that not one of our leadingmanufacturers has ever shown signs of regarding our highly individualistic methods as capable of practical improvement. Would "British Light Cars," with nine factories, be able to make, say, four models, of four and six cylinders, costing 1150, 1165, 1180 and /200, that would sell in larger numbers than the imposing catalogue I have just written down ? Would " B.L.C." eventually put up a show like General Motors ? And would their products be better cars than any of the odd fifty included in my list ? Would it pay, in the end, to make them better or worse ? That smacks unpleasantly of things like Trusts and monopolies. Competition is certainly the essential tonic for car- making and it might well happen that if" B.L.C." cornered the world's cars the standard would fall, and that would be a catastrophe. The sheer excellence of the British light car, built and sold on very un-trust-like lines, is first-class propaganda for every sort of British machinery, as the result of last week's Alpine Trials must once more prove.

Lately I have taken out two little cars that seem to me admirable examples of British supremacy in this par- ticular line, the 1934 Austin Ten and the Hillman Ten (the Minx), and if you want an exposition of this individ- ualistic way of making British ears you need go no further. The two cars are utterly different in every way save their obvious soundness of design and build. They cost very nearly the same, 1172 10s. for the Austin saloon de luxe, 1179 for the Hillman ; their tax is the same, and their chief measurements. The Hillman has a slight advantage (if you regard it so) over the Austin in three inches wider track ; the Austin over the Hillman in a shade longer wheelbase. Yet there is no comparison between them and, obviously, I do not attempt to draw one. It would be not only odious but absurd.

Here are some of the reasons why I like and admire the Austin Ten. It gives you, at the outset of your acquaintance with it, an impression of great staunchness. The full power of 20 is developed at the sensible revolu- tion-rate of 2,600. That, too, is admirable. It means long and useful service. The engine runs smoothly in its rubber mountings, the gears are exceptionally quiet and the syncromesh makes changing up and down swift and noiseless. The car climbs well and sturdily up really steep hills and third speed is sensibly geared. The bodywork is well designed, and every inch of space is made use of. It is unusual if not unique in these days in being almost within the axles instead of projecting well behind the rear axle. It looks very well. Here is a car that should not only last longer than some others of its price and type, but should reach an honoured old age, an achievement usually reserved for cars costing much more.

I like the Hillman because it is very well sprung, has very good steering and brakes, and is therefore very comfortable in the full sense of the word. Its flexible engine-suspension, which is extended to the transmission, absorbs practically all trace of vibration, and that is worth a great deal in a small car. I like its swift unfalter- ing acceleration and the way in which it reaches its maximum speed, which is close upon sixty miles an hour. It has a freewheel and, although in nine cases out of ten this device leaves me cold, I do think it is useful in a light, small-engined car whose lively qualities no less than its solid comfort must tempt its owners on to the long straight roads of the Continent. A free- wheel is no bad thing to have on a long and varied itinerary. It saves wear and tear of both mechanism and nerves. I like the Hillman for the roominess of its body and for its "big car feeling "—that rare quality, If I were " B.L.C." I should standardize it.

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