Motoring
SENSIBLE CARS
THE two cars I have for review this week have, apart from their special qualities, commendable or the reverse, one principal point of interest, academic rather than practical. They are the 24 h.p. " Wimbledon " six-cylinder Chrysler and the 17.9 h.p. Talbot, known as the "75," and are characteristic examples of what might perhaps be called the average best automobile design in England and America, not in the expense- no-object school but in the much bigger and, to most people, the much more important one immediately below.
What at least 90 per cent. of the practical-minded motorists of this country really want is a good-sized, comfortable car, powerful enough to keep its place in the stream of traffic, to maintain a decent average on long journeys, and climb moun- tains as they should be climbed, reasonable in price and reason- ably economical to run. This reads like a counsel of perfection, particularly in the light of the fact that the price must depend entirely upon the other features and that the great majority are only able to spend an amount that procures them one of the more or less successful substitutes—that is a car that will do some of these things but certainly not all. In time, sooner perhaps than we think, that sort of car at a suitable price will inevitably become the popular type, using the word popular to mean general. Within limits it is the popular type in America (allowing for the far lower cost of everything to do with cars there) and there are signs that it will have established itself in Germany and possibly in France before another year is out. In these matters Great Britain is nearly always behind everybody else but invariably, having caught up, better.
Meanwhile I take this Chrysler and this Talbot as examples of the sort of car I believe will eventually become what can only in the dire poverty of our commercial language, be called the standard type. Neither is, at the moment, the ideal big Every- man's car, but that ardently expected car will embody many of the best points of both.
They are both good-sized cars, well set-up, as they say, roomy, comfortable and fast enough for our roads. Their engines and gears run very quietly, they are well sprung, well braked, and they are easy to drive and control. There, of course, all resemblance ends. The Chrysler is typically American, of the new American type which borrows a good deal from European design ; the Talbot could have been made nowhere except in Europe. It owes nothing that I could see to the United States. Each is the obvious product of its own land, obviously built to satisfy national predilections.
The Chrysler has several interesting features but, although
it is not actually my own choice, I think it probable that the overdrive which can be used on top and second speeds will be generally considered as the most important. In effect this gives you five forward speeds, the highest geared at 4.1 to i and the lowest at something like r6 to I. Between are available 4.3, about 6.8 and about 7.3 to 1. The change from normal to overdrive is what is called automatic and except that you need a few minutes' practice to make you perfect in timing the drop from high to low, it is a fair descrip- tion. You have very little. to do, and what you have is in fact done unconsciously. You have two main and very important benefits in this system, first the ability to cruise at a fair speed with the engine turning over comparatively slowly and therefore, from all points of view, economically ; second, brilliant performance, not so much from maximum speeds as from rapid acceleration.
I liked this gear very much but, as I said, I do not rate it so highly as other features such as the comfort of the bodywork, particularly behind, the absence of all vibration set up either by the engine or the road-surface, the quite extraordinary silence of the engine and the admirable road-holding. It is one of the pleasantest cars to drive I have yet tried. It runs comfortably at over 70 miles an hour and climbs steep hills with that satisfying feeling of being well on top of its work that means so much to the driver who likes an occasional rest from "driving." The plain side-valved engine is a workmanlike job, with a single down-draught carburettor, and it is said to develop nearly 8o horsepower at the moderate maximum revolution-rate of 3,600. The orthodox suspension gives very smooth riding over all but the worst surface, and the seating comfort of the body is exceptional. I call it a very successful product at the price of £375.
The Talbot "75," which has a 2f-litre 6-cylinder engine taxed at £13 los., and costs £425 for the saloon, has many of the same solid qualities presented, as it were, in a different manner. It is fast and lively, it climbs hills excellently and it makes very little noise of any kind at any time Its chief characteristic, perhaps, is its unobtrusiveness. You have to look twice at the speed-indicator to realise how fast you are going—disbelieving your eyes the first time. This applies as much to acceleration in traffic as at over forty miles an hour when speed increases (or seerns to) much more deliberately. It will do a good deal better-than 70 miles an hour if called upon, and fifty on third is an easy, gait for it. Its second speed is unusually low-geared for a car of this power, but when put it at a really steep hill,, under the most trying conditions, I was satisfied that it was a proper hill-gear. It put up .an excellent showing that was specially commendable for its weight of 32 cwt. A well-thought-out gear-ratio.
. Other points Iliked were the first-rate lock, the foot-brake (the side-brake, in the fashion of today, must be meant only for parking), the springing' and the steering. Unfortu- nately I rarely drive a car with so handy a lock as this one had. The gear-box is:nearly inaudible on third and really quiet on second, and the change is delightfully light and easy. It is one of the least tiring cars I have driven, and I have only one criticism to make on it If it were stripped of at least five hundredweight it would undoubtedly be one of the liveliest cars of its size on the road. Most probably a good deal of that overweight is contributed by the body, and it is quite likely that the solid comfort of that good piece of coachwork ranks higher in the eyes of the Talbot's "public " than the other thing—but for my part I grudged it. When, oh when, are wz going to learn that weight is the enemy of efficiency and economy and that its other name is not necessarily strength ?
JoHN PRIOLEAU.
[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 liodY required. No advice can be given' ofri -the- purthaie,-sak or's exchange of Used cars.] -
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