MOTORING
Motor Ways Generally speaking the speeches of Cabinet Ministers at the annual banquet given by the Society of Motor Manufac- turers and Traders are distinguished by a lightness of touch on current problems, an after-dinner affability rather than by that gravity which adorns their utterances in Parliament. The occasion is one of good-fellowship, one supposes, of confidential talk in which nothing much is said that might be called in question later and in another place ; above all nothing that might depress or discourage the hosts. This year, on the eve of the motor show, the Minister of Transport chose as his subject the hope (if one can so describe it) of motorways being built, and in many phrases destroyed it.
A Depressing Speech • Mr. Burgin went at length into the details of cost, laying stress on the multitudinous difficulties that lie in the way. Of these I thought tcie most depressing, as sketched by the speaker, was the business of buying the necessary land. He said : " Land acquisition is bound to be a longish proposi- tion. . . . In some of my schemes I have to acquire as many as 15o interests per mile of road. I have to negotiate with each one of those 15o (and some of them may be corporate bodies of trustees and not single individuals) before the scheme can proceed. On a large scheme (say, costing J5o,000 or more) land acquisition may take anything from one to two years." Remarking that " the initial climb " would soon be finished, he said—" By preparing and pressing on our schemes for land acquisition two or three years ahead, we are able to overcome the disabilities caused by our limited powers of compulsory acquisition."
Fatal Delays A longish proposition indeed. Nobody should know these difficulties better than Mr. Burgin, but one is driven to ask the foolish question—is he the first to discover them ? And if not, why did the German Roads Delegation waste its time in going to Germany and preparing a report ? At this rate years before any sort of motorway system, even a nucleus can be built, the traffic will have reached congestion point. In view of this one wonders if the assembled makers and traders fully appreciated the Minister's little homily, ending with—" If an industry is to maintain a sound financial position and play its full part in the economy of the nation, it must move forward."
The motor industry will certainly move forward (make and veil more cars, that is), and just as certainly the Minister of Transport will have occasion to revise his gloomy views.
The New 12-Vauxhall By the time I had finished my trial of the new i2-h.p. Vauxhall I had come to the conclusion that, granted the necessary miracle, this design was likely to be some sort of milestone in the progress of the English car for the majority. The miracle, now old history, came off. The day I drove the Vauxhall was the Wednesday of the crisis, when it seemed ridiculous for a motor manufacturer to be sending me his car for trial and report and for me to be driving it about the Surrey hills while civilisation trembled to its fall. It is old history (five weeks ?), but if in years to come I remember the 1939 12-h.p. Vauxhall trial for nothing else, I shall remem- ber it for the silence in which the demonstrator and I con- ducted the operations. There was nothing to talk about. I asked the usual questions, and when the answers had been given and noted down we did our respective jobs without a word. It was so very plainly for the last time.
Pleasant Behaviour With the assistance of the miracle I shall, I am glad to say, remember that Vauxhall for many pleasant features. To take its behaviour first,- it is one of the liveliest as it is one of the suavest cars of its type, power and price I have yet driven. It will do about 65 miles an hour if required, but it will cruise at over 5o, and reach 6o so easily that its maximum should very seldom be needed to produce a high average speed. At its maximum if -'runs very smoothly and without much betrayal of effort ; it is hard to believe that its engine-size is less than i,5oo c.c. Its liveliness includes a rather out- standing degree of flexibility and rapid acceleration on top as well as second (it has a three-speed gear-box, of very success- ful ratios), and very good hill-climbing shown by its easy negotiation of a i in 54 gradient on second. The engine develops a surprising amount of power which, in conjunction with the all-in light weight of 184 cwt., gives the car a per- formance that should satisfy most people. I was much impressed.
The body and frame are one, as in last year's Ten, and with the expected detail improvements the design is the same. The synchromeshed gear-change is exceptionally quick and light ; the steering firm and direct, with caster action ; the road-holding admirable, particularly on corners ; and the brakes are what they should be. The only complaint I have to make is that they only sell this attractive car in closed form. With a drophead coupe or open 2-3 seater, it would almost be the light car of my private design.
Ribble Head
If you like lonely places Ribble Head should give you what you want. It is nominally the source of the river Ribble, but in fact no more than a name marked on the map at the cross- roads. The river ceases official existence somewhere in Selside Moss and becomes Gayle Beck for a couple of miles beyond Ribble Head, but when you get there, after a superb drive up Ribblesdale through the moors, there is no sign of any stream save a brook here and there which no cartographer has yet bothered to christen. If there is any other you cannot sight it among the heather, nor can you hear its loudest murmur. The voices in that empty place are those of the wind and, when they come near enough to you, of peewits and curlews, once in a very long while grouse—but the wind drowns them easily. I have not yet been at Ribble Head when a gale was blowing, but on any ordinary day if there is any stir of air at all your ears are filled with unending sound, as of the sea.
In the Wild There is absolute solitude at those cross-roads. Behind and below you lies the road you have come from Settle, a wavering grey streak, diminishing into the distance ; left and right the road that joins Hawes to Ingleton ; in front of you Whernside, lifting its grim and heavy bulk twenty-four hundred feet to the horizon like some fantastic ocean roller. Both roads are man-made, tarred and of today, but their little modernity is the feeblest of gestures before this elemental stuff. But a little (and in a moment), and a careless gust of that sleeping wind will bury them under the first handful of the boulders above your head and no man will be able to say. where they ran. It is their fragile presence that emphasises the void, even more than the tumbled pageant of grey moors itself. Follow the eastward arm up the long pull to Newby Head, looking back every now. and then -down the narrow valley, and you will marvel for the hundredth time at the infinite change in England's scene. Except for the reading of your aneroid and the swift-footed sheep that scatter before your car with all the indifference of London Sparrows,' you might be in the [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 advic.: can be given on the purchase, sale or exchanze of used cars.]
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