Motoring How to Tour , in Comfort ONE would suppose that
everybody who owns a car today would as naturally and inevitably use it for touring as he does for the regular week-end outing and to increase the comforts and amenities of life in the country. It is so obviously the land-yacht; there are so many hundreds of places at home and abroad that, until the motor-car took its place in our lives, could only be visited by train and in comparative discomfort or in imagination through the pages of books; the whole business of using a car for the Grand Tour as well as for the daily round is so easy and agreeable, that nobody would guess how many of the thousands of cars one sees swarm- ing out on the highways between Friday and Monday never go outside the hundred-mile limit of their homes, never cross the Channel. Yet if I can judge by what I overhear, by what a scandalous number of my friends tell me and, above all, from the'letters I receive weekly from strangers asking for safe counsel, by far the larger number of owners are of the most stay-at-home kind, waste most of the golden hours of their ownership. For touring, and especially touring abroad, may be likened to opera—it is the ultimate purpose of every good car, as opera is the ultimate ambition of every good singer.
Perhaps it is the weather, perhaps the lifting of the financial clouds, perhaps a joyous blend of both that has brought me so large a number of letters during this month demanding information and advice that, to put it plainly, we should have regarded as elementary even before the War. All sorts of people, from the obviously rich to the obviously poor, want to know all about it, where to go, how to be comfortable and what it costs, and it seems to me that with holiday-time close upon us some hints on how to be comfortable on the road at home and abroad may be of use. In spite of the lurid stories of unpleasantly active politics on the Continent Which one reads and the indisputable fall in the pound value, the salted motor-traveller goes placidly abroad, as before. During that month of August that was, financially, the worst and most critical for fifty years, over thirty ears were carried across the Channel every day by one com- pany alone. Things are a little easier now; intim' cars are being bought, old ones have been brought out of the seclusion into which the demands of the motor-tax and insurance companies drove.thern last year, and, as I find in my Work, the call of the' road is *being more widely heard. -Which is very much to the good.
The Main thing in motor-touring is not, as you might perhaps. imagine, seeing things themselves—countries, peoples, cities and unfamiliar matters—but to see them in comfort. In nothing one does for pleasure is comfort so essential as in motor-touring. You put up with hard lying here and there, when you must, eat or are compelled to refuse bad food, drive when you would sooner sleep, but only because and when you would otherwise miss something you want to see—a mountain, a people, a country-or an inn where they keep a good or a famous cook. That is an accident of travel, not discomfort. Comfort means that you travel without a care, or in a state of mind as nearly as possible akin to it, and that you have always the means to avoid or assuage worry. Never, for example, be in a hurry. Never make out any but the- sketchiest of time-tables, and always be ready to cancel them whole or in part. Never was Steven- son's down-at-heels remark about the superiority of travel over arrival more apposite. It is nearly always the getting there that you remember afterwards -with the greatest delight. Go very soberly, therefore, on your way to these and all other places, and be a slave to neither time nor milestone.
The preliminaries of a motor-tour can be one of its most delightful phases ; the fitting-out, the planning, the ordering of everything with an eye to that peace of mind which is the true object of every escape from home by road. It is a thing that must be -done thoroughly, and in the doing there is deep ,satisfaction. The car comes first becanseon its continued proper behaviour detends good half of your comfort. You will know beforehand whether it stands in need of a general overhaul or not. A car in constant use, driven by a conscientious owner, will iirobably be fit to undertake a five-thousand miles tour at hOine or abroad- with not Much more than it tool. and lit 'inspection and a checking of spares. - It is a matter of chance whether decarbonization and brake , re-lining are necessary at that precise moment, but , obviously-ft in better to do both at home, and unless you are certain that you can finish the tour without having to do these jobs, messy and irritating in one case, long • and fairly expensive in the other, get them done before You start. If you are exploring Great 13ritain and Ireland you are in touch with supplies of all sorts at most times and what are termed running repairs, which I take to be easy ones, can be generally made by local mechanics, . In France Italy, Spain and Austria mechanics are born every minute and—particularly in France—a roadside breakdoviiiis rarely too serious to keep you -long delayed. Thereis alw-ays somebody,efficient and obliging, to carry out any repair at any hour of the day or night, anywhere.
Plainly, it. is wise to have, your engine looked over, valves 'adjusted, _ignition. checked (do not forget that platinum points wear, and thatciuri may be thinning) and radiator and waterways scoured. With _a modern car it is almost superfluous to carry any spares, but if you are for the high bus, such as 'the Alps and their like, take a set of alternative jets for the carburettor. Altitude, over 4,000 feet at any rate, has the worst effects on carburation and if your engine is a small one the effective power falls off very disagreeably at the most inconvenient moments: Further—a very old piece of advice, but essential in 1933 —take your own engine oil and such tyre-spares as you are likely to need. Some brands of oil sold at home are to be found on the Continent, but by no means everywhere, ' and if you have room it is best to carry a supply. It is a Misfortune that, at this stage Of standardization, different types of tyres' should be used on either side of the Channel. You should be able to get your own type in capitals and large towns, but elsewhere you may very likely find that the local " stockistes "stock nothing but the low-pressure; small diameter tyres that are now universally fitted to French cars. Be on the safe side.
- Take a. careful look at your tool-kit. It may very well be that you have not touched a spanner for a year, except to remove a plug, to lift and replace the head or to adjust the brakes—and Most of these have finger-nuts—but if you are going far from home be advised and start with a full range of set spanners, not the shifting sort, which are an abomination. There must be a spanner (I like the French word key better—it should be a key and not a pick-lock) -for every nut on the car. It pays over and over again to collect a set and enjoy peace of mind and freedom from burred nut-heads. See that your jack is in working order, that you can get it into place under the rear axle without trouble and that it Will lift the ear high enough, quickly and without too much exertion on your part. A great many people who have bought cars 'during the pant-two years. have never used a jack on them._ It might happen that a most unpleasant surprise awaited you the first time you Used it. Again, be sure. A wide block Of wood is sometimes valued above silver on a main road.
Finally, see to it that your luggage is properly disposed. If you are off for a month or more and you have no servant to deal with it there is nothing more detestable, at the end of a long and tiring day, than to have to dig out all or some of the heap in order to get at one piece. Keep all the " Not Wanted on the Voyage" stuff where it call remain undisturbed, in the boot or on the grid, and have the case you need every night where it can be got at with- out upheaval. 'The ideal method is, of course, the modern built-in container (the Vauxhall had, perhaps still has, an admirable example of this, with two large suit-cases and one small one, at the side) but if your car is more than three years old the chances are that you must make shift with grid and strap and waterproof cover. Make proper shift, and start with your main luggage in long-distance trim, liñpervioiis to' everything - including washing. Leisure, reliability .and absence of manual- labour—these three make for real comfort on the open road.
JOHN' PRIOLEAU.
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