3 JUNE 1938, Page 38

The 14 Arrnstrong-Siddeley , I liked. the 1938 14 Armstrong-Siddeley because

it did a good deal I did not expect it to do and did it very well, also because it is certainly the model of all I have known in a good many years which I consider the best and most successful. It is what is so usefully called " right." As a modern (that is lively) family car, a sturdy, reliable travelling carriage, apparently ready to go on working efficiently year after year without costing its owner anything abnormal in upkeep, I expected it to put up a good steady average speed, to run quietly, •smoothly and without fuss, to have a com- fortable body, to do its job diligently and willingly. All these things it did and had and was, but it was the other side of its character that pleased me so much that I very soon put it into an altogether different mental classification. I saw that it was a car for those long voyages across continents which determine as nothing else can the real worth of a motor- car.

It is a very lively and engaging car, with qualities and features that distinguish it from the crowd. Driving it comfortably about the Surrey countryside on a fine day and on familiar roads as I did, you would not have guessed for some time at its well-masked capabilities, not until necessity compelled you to go fast very suddenly, to jab your foot down harshly upon the throttle-pedal, as it should never be jabbed in any car. The response is instantaneous, as swift, all things considered, as any I have experienced in a car of this power and type. I imagine that this comforting -absence of flat spot, this eager get-away, is chiefly (hie to the new type of carburettor fitted this year, and to the "balanced drive " which is a feature of all the new Armstrong-Siddeleys. Whatever the official cause, the effect was inspiriting. The " family " part was forgotten for the " continental."