MOTORING
The Roadside Driving School Some 800 of the new mounted police have now begun their duties on the highways and byways of Essex, Cheshire and Lancashire, and yet another hopeful experiment is being made to find the solution of the accident problem. It is still much too soon to hear of the driving public's reaction to the work of this remarkable force, but from what I have seen of its training and of its members I am inclined, from this impossible angle of time, to put all the blame for the failure of the scheme, if any, on the public. The new police's duties are to warn and advise and instruct, and if they are given a fair chance they should more than justify their existence.
A Complete Training In them we have what should be a real educative force. The men are trained as few drivers in this country or any other have ever been trained, in mechanical competence as thoroughly as in driving, and (I have seen it myself) they are highly proficient in the extremely difficult art of teaching as they drive. When you can take a car at 75 miles an hour through by-pass traffic, do everything right and explain how, why and where as you drive, you know as much about the road and its dangers as you are likely to learn. I would not have their job for a fortune, but as they are there it is most earnestly to be hoped that every driver who is held up by them will pocket his stupid pride and listen to practical sense and the precepts of decent behaviour. It is nearly certain that the adviser will know more about it all than he does.
My own view is that we shall never make much difference in the accident-rate until we realise that 1938 traffic cannot be adapted to roads designed centuries ago, and that all attempts to keep pace with the swiftly increasing stream of traffic by rebuilding old roads must be a waste of time and money.
The Opel " Olympia " . The new medium-powered Olympia which I took out on a trial run a few weeks ago is one of the most interesting 1938 models I have yet seen. It is very modern in two particular points. Its four-cylinder engine is actually " less than square," the bore being greater than the stroke. The nearest approaches to this design in modem times have been one or two Italian makes and the 24-h.p. Opel which I described last year. The new car has a bore and stroke of 8o by 74, the cubic content being just under 11- litres and the rated power 15.
-Actually the developed power exceeds this by a substantial margin, and although the car's performance is surpassed by several others having engines of the same size it is still very high and, I should say, considering the accommodation, higher than that of any at the same price. The second point is its light weight of i6i cwt.
A " Square " Engine The square engine .gives it an extremely smooth action, very ready acceleration and, presumably, a proportionately longer cylinder-life (material for material) than the same machine with a longer stroke, owing to the lower piston speed. The low weight allows a high gear to be used, with a consequent reduction of engine-speed, noise and wear-and- tear. On top gear, a 4.5 to I ratio, 70 miles an hour can be reached fairly comfortably ; 55 on the 6.7 third ; and 40 on the 11.2 second. Its general behaviour and performance were an outstanding vindication of the virtues of simplicity, " squareness " and low weight. It costs ,Silo for the 2-door saloon, £190 fbr the drophead model and £195 for the 4-door. For A6 extra they give you de luxe turn-out. Good Points The front springing is independent and the whole suspen- sion excellent. The points I liked best were these : the neat lay-out of the engine, its silence and smoothness ; the quick gear-change ; the quite extraordinary flexibility and top-gear performance ; the hill-climbing ; and the generally sturdy feel of it. Judging by this and one or two other exam- ples, I should think that the square engine is likely to stage an impressive come-back before long. Whatever its construc- tional drawbacks, its advantages from the driver's point of view are undeniable.
Luce Bay No doubt if Luce Bay were shown on a railway poster it would be labelled the Scotch Riviera. For all I know it may have been, though I have kept open a jealous and suspicious eye for the outrage on many platforms since I first drove a car there, without receiving that particular shock. The passion of the unidentifiable public as well as of railway companies and tourists agencies, presumably anxious to keep the Briton at home, for giving British scenery foreign names is inexplicable. You have lidos and rivieras, Italy has godfathered at least one county, and any hilly district that escapes the Swiss tab at the hands of either propagandist or public can consider itself lucky. No British scenery reminds one of any elsewhere—" abroad " in the, Victorian, insular phrase—and it is as well able to stand on its merits as any other.
And it seems to be an exclusively British foible. The Dolomites are not made attractive to the Italian or " Greater German " by being nicknamed the Snowdons of Italy, nor would an advertisement of " The Swiss Windermere " be likely to swell the tale of Sunday excursionists to Lausanne. How we have escaped a local Venice is beyond guess.
A Sun-trap Luce Bay would, of course, be merely an arm of the Lowland Riviera; a Golfe de St. Tropez or la Napoule of the whole, for it is simply the last of a string of bays that belong to Solway Firth. In itself it is one of the pleasantest places in Scotland, a sun-trap, but the journey there from the east is an indispensable part of it, the building up of the climax you find when you reach the edge of the sea at Port William. As you come down from Dumfries, round Grifell Hill, you see across the firth the tops of the Cumberland, Fells, and on your winding course round that broken coast by Kirk- cudbright and Gatehouse, Creetown and Wigtown the noonday sun is generally over your left shoulder (Isn't that the right place for it ? I seem to remember a saying), and across the widening waters you still get their vague outlines, a shadowy blue in the warm haze.
Waters of Peace Luce ihy is the end, a placid sheet of water enclosed on three sides by reedy shores and gentle, unassuming landscape. The fourth side faces due south, and when the sea-road brings you to Glenluce you look straight across into the eyi. of the sun. Snaefell, the Isle of Man's 2,000-foot mountain, lies half-way between you and Anglesey, and I hear it can be seen in the right kind of weather. I was not so lucky or. perhaps too lucky. For it was a day of silver sunshine, of no more wind than would out a candle or rib the silky face of the sea before me. There was nothing to see and only the warmth to realise. I have known the real Rivieras much colder at the same time of year, and with nothing whatever of its remote charm,. its decent peace.
JOHN PRIOLEAU.
[Note.—Readers' requests for advice from our Motorin.: Correspondent on the choice of new cars should be accompaniel by a stamped and addressed envelope. The highest price Pa.Yah, must be given, as well as the type of body required. No advic: can be given on the purchase, sale or exchange of used cars.]
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