Motoring The New Stock Coachwork N OT the least of
the many improvements in the latest cars is the bodywork. This has reached a degree of excellence which anyone who remembers what we had to tolerate only a few years ago must regard as miraculous. At that time there. did .not seem any. likelihood of the designer of stock coachwork freeing himself from his peculiar obsessions for many years to come. He or his predecessors had made a series of fundamental mistakes, betraying a- complete misconception of the whole art and purpose of high-speed carriage-work, and they continued to make them, under one disguise or another; year after. year.- - The original open car was not so bad, probably because it presented fewer and less. acute - problems in deSign. In fact the pre-War models. were in several respects better than those that are today being re-populatised; They were generally of a -sensible size, they. were gene-. rously upholstered and if their weather-kit. was Cumbrous it was, at any rate, very well • made and considetably more comfortable to sit in than much -of the newest sort. You had a-yoluminous.hood which would Certainly offend the eye of the " spOits " car youth of 1936 as kept the rain out and gave you headroom such as you very rarely see today saye • in . a " bespoke,"_ :body, ordered by , the man who. doesn't care what - it looks like so long as it does its job of keeping .firin, dry and out of the draught. To him it does not matter a row of pins what his otherwise beautiful ear looks like when it is pouring with rain.
It was when they began their long and continuously disappointing experiments with closed cars that the real trouble started, specially in the smaller sizes. There. was hardly a saloon on any wheelbase under 9 ft. that.
was not a negation of everything a travelling carriage has to be. They were tiny, cramped, draughty, stuffy, ill-lit, shockingly seated, and their outlook was as restricted as much as heavy pillars and ridiculous back windows could make it. They rattled furiously after a few weeks and taking them for all in all they were just about the least successful and the most uncom- fortable motor-cars - ever made. The wonder is that, considering how many of them were sold—this was mostly in the boom years—they did not kill their own trade.
Gradually, by dint of unending -grumbling on the part of the usually patient public, some of the more glaring blunders were set right and the closed car became not so much a thing you must have because the British weather compels you to as a thing in which you took a faint interest. You saiv that its still numerous faults were remediable and you foresaw something -of a future for it. And then—the sudden change. Within a .year the whole situation altered. Draughtless ventilation was invented, the practical sliding-roof came in and, at long last, a serious attempt was made to make an all-weather body • that justified its name and 'did' not deafen its occupants; The new ventilation was by fat the most Indeed today, in-_ 1936, I still consider it to be the one thing that saves the closed ear froM being merely an edition-de-luxe of its horrid parents. You have only to drive a few miles in one that has no " no-draught " dodges or equipped with those that do not work, to know that. It makes life in a closed car endurable. .
The new cars have this; and they have, to the last possible inch, leg-room, elbow-room and head-teem, they are not hutches on wheels, and it is seldom that you- see one that has not neat means of stowing away a small quantity of luggage where it will neither hamper the passengers nor offend their eye. There is room still for ImProvement in seating. Upholstery is usually excellent, and it is only now and then that I try a car with a back to its seats set at a wrong angle, but -there is still a tendency to give too little depth to . the scats. A proper motor-car seat-cushion ought to come up to the in'side-of your knees; All cushions should be designed -to make to -people comfortable in this respect. Their smaller, brethren ha% only to use travelling back-cushions to 'adjust the difference—and these are, in any case, becoming so common a feature of every 'sort of car, from the dearest to the cheapest, that • their adoption can scarcely be looked upon as a makeshift. Besides, a scientifically- made hack-prop, whether, pneumatic or of prepared rubber-sponge, is at all times an 'asset to any car that is driven- more than a dozen miles at a time. It is quite extraordinary how its vibration-absorbing property delays :aches and stiffness and it is well to remember that one of the most important contributions to safe driving is comfort. • The other day I saw a. simple dodge for correcting the shortness of cushion. The sufferer from the shallow driving-Seat of his brand-new 1936 car, in all other respects- a most desirable machine, had bought three thick sections Of the cellular sponge-rubber called Duelepillo.,_ These he had rather ingeniously secured on to the tops._of the four- seats in the car (two halves in front, a whole behind) so that they projected beyond them by about :three inches. As soon as you sat on them they flattened under' your direct weight but swelled otit 'tightly .front, -forming an admirable inside knee- rest. ,..They did , not, raise. you more than an inch for alter your seating attitude, but they gaye you the Support which is essential' on long drives. They need not be as wide as the cushion, of course, and only deep enough to meet your knees in a comfortable position. His were 18 inches square.
These are, of course, sheer makeshifts and should ; not be necessary in airy properly designed -body;'71sn't the hint may be worth remembering—in other people's cars if not in your own. _ I have never been able to make out why, in nearly every case, a closed car with four windows should cost more than one with six. Personally i am not particalarly attached' to six wind'Ows., except very`itgAearsj but .I cannot see why only four should be in the nature of a de luxe attraction. On one excellent chassis,ied last year- there was a .difference of between, th tried one .fitted with a saloon that had six windows and the other that had a less _comfortable. saloon with fetal; The wheelbaSe was the same and every other detail. • Does it cost less to make six windows than four, more bodywork, upholstery, glass, carpet, roof and so on, than less of all that ? Very odd. I am not really complaining, as if I owned a saloon I certainly would not think the•absence of two windows worth paying £20 for. It is just one of the many curious things about cars.
The gadget-outfit in all cars is now really impressive, not so much by the multiplicity of the dials' arid the Argus-eyed watch that is kept on every-checkable function of the engine, as by their praiseworthy neatness of disposal, and as a rule, their reliability. A 1936 dashboard is no' longer an array of rubbish but something that Might satisfy: an engineer. The psychological effect of this on your trained—should I say broken ?—motorist is powerful. It is an indication of a serious-mindedness that has too often been lacking in the near past. Finally, and nearly .as important as the ventilation, there is the new solidity of construction. Doors can be slammed for longer 'periods than before without damage, wing- fastenings are adequate, sliding roofs no longer leak. The new stock body's foundations are sound. Presently, perhaps, it will be made about half the weight. That will be really important progress.
JOHN PR fOLEAK.
[Note.—Readers' requests for, advice from our Mosioring Correspondent On the choke of new cars should be accom- panied -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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