THERE are welcome signs to be - found among the new
specifica- tions that when the show at Olympia opens next month your sensible motorist will see more sensible cars for the money than he has been offered for many years. These specifications, describing in August the ears that may be supposed to be mint- new in October and will bear the label of next January, promise us several excellent things—more power, greater riding comfort, a further degree 'of silence, increased safety, higher performance and the like, but the most important change will be the bigger bodywork.
At very long last our coachbuilders are providing in the cheaper class of car room enough for adults to sit in comfort. It has always been said of these craftsmen that they never drove or were driven in their productions, that nine motor- bodies out of ten were no better than impractical applications of the drawings of theorists. This can no longer be true. Several coachbuilders who are responsible for the hundred-odd thousand new cars that are beginning even now to sparkle on the roads must have done some ordinary motoring. ..You can easily 'get into their carriages, drive in them for quite long periods without suffering cramp, and, at journey's end, get out of them without contortion. They are more or lessdraught- less, which means that they are also properly ventilated; you can see out of them, and there is " somewhere to sit "—an advantage long denied to many ambitious small-ear designs. There used to be seats; but while the human trunk could un- doubtedly be accommodated on them, there was very little room for its legs.
I have lately driven two of the 1986 issue, the biggest Vauxhall and the smallest Wolseley, and in both I was relieved to find enough room for four ordinary sized people to sit in comfort. There is no question of comparison, of course, between the two cars, but it is odd that the space lengthways for the passengers in both front and back seats'should seem so nearly the same. This does not mean that the Vauxhall is too short, but that the Wolseley is long enough. When I reflected that there is a difference of 1 ft. 4 ins. in the wheelbase, and
that the big ear is of 27 h.p. and the little one 10 I realised that here at last was a really clever piece of body-building. Of course, a good deal more of the ehassis-length, proper. tionately, is available in the Wolseley, with its pocket engine. than in the Vauxhall. It would not be pOssible to add another inch to the seating of the latter, without sacrificing,soniething of its appearance. Yet it still seemsvery reMarkable that the little car should be so big. It is...111110i narrower, of course, but none the less it carries its four very successfully, Both these cars are good examples of sensible modern design. The Wolseley, which, for no, very clear reason, is called the Wasp, is one of the most successful low-power*d cars I have ever driven, and when I call it low-powered I ani only, as it were, classifying it. For one of its outstanding features is its remarkable performance. The overhead-valved four-cylinder engine has a bore and stroke of only 61.5 by 90 millimetres, giving it a cubic capacity of just over one litre and a tax-rating of £7 10s., yet its achievements compare favourably with those of considerably bigger' units. It is one of those few cars—the Riley and the two-cylinder Jowett are two others—of which you instinctively say' you Wonder where the power comes from. Its power-rating is low but its slibWing is very high. On my timed hill-climb it proved faster than several cars up to 20 11.p.;' being beaten only by an exceptionally light 10 h.p..(of larger engine size), a 16 h.p.. a 24 h.p., and two 11-litre cars of admittedly special design. It was faster than either the 1985 14 h.p.' or the 18 Wolseleys. It owes some of this to its weight., which is given as 181 cwt, but not all. These result's were clocked, no special attention being paid to the speedometer readings. The latter, however, were stated to be as nearly accurate as it is possible to get them.
On its 5.28 to 1 top gear the Wasp will comfortably exceed a mile a minute, comfortably for the passengers as well as for the driver, and over 40 can be done on the 8.4 to 1 third, without over-running the engine. These are unusual figures for a 1-litre engine pulling a saloon body. In these days of rubber engine-suspension one does not expect vibration or tremor except perhaps in the get-away from a standstill, yet it is only fair to record that the Wasp engine ran with excep. tional smoothness. It is very quiet up to well over 50 mileS an hour and the noise it makes after that is perfectly normal and inoffensive. All the controls are good. The gear-change i4 particularly easy, the Lockheed hydraulic brakes are smooth and powerful, the side-brake is better than the average of its kind nowadays. The steering is a little inclined to wander but it is light and safe. The springing is very good indeed, as it must be to allow of that speed. The body, as fitted to the " de luxe " model is well ventilated, you can' see all round you and the pneumatic seats are very restful. . It should he very good value at £178 10s. The cheaper model, less well
finished, costs £165. . .
The Vauxhall is a car of American character—by which f mean that it has a roomy body, a large engine with.plenty of power reserve, and a very sound all-round performance. Its 27 h.p. engine (cubic capacity a little over 8 litres), with an abnormally short stroke, gives you a high cruising speed with what seems to be effortless ease. It is not very fast as spec!! is understood today, but it will do better than 70 miles an hour when called upon, and will keep up 60 as inconspicuously as 40. . Its maxima on third and second are comparatively moderate, about 48 and 35, but as a brake horsepower of 64 is reached at 2,800 revolutions it is plain-that the work is done in easy conditions. It is, in fact, the sensible sort of engine, not theoretically of high efficiency, but a comfortable kind of machine to have. The car is lively enough, having remarkable acceleration, but it feels leisurelyand that is very agreeable in these days of squeezing the last ounce of power out of little engines.
The chief feature of this Vauxhall, to my mind, is the gear- change. There is synchromesh between top and third and you can do remarkable things with that excellent box, such as changing down from top at over 40 miles an hour and using third as a very efficient brake. The .ratio is high, top being 4.1, third 6.1, second 9.1 and first 13.1. This, too, contributes much to the peaceful behaviour, of the engine at all speeds. As I said,. there is plenty of robin in the body, particularly, sideways, the ventilation is . scientific and the upholsterY, satisfying. It is a thoroughly ebinfertalile car to drive anGP be driven in, and deserves the often misapplied. epithet
It costs £325. .Torre l'ru ol,r1 vv.
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