IF there is one feature of motoring today on which
opinion is or seems to be widely divided, it .is on bodily comfort. I do not -mean easy riding, which we have at last achieved, but seating comfort, which includes leg-room, elbow-room and head-room as well as sufficiently deep seats comfortably upholstered. You have only to review a park of cars anywhere to realise at once that, to all appearances, what is one man's meat in coachwork is another's deadly poison. In many respects cars resemble each- other far more than they did only a few years ago, but when you come to examine an odd dozen of them closely you are astonished at the fundamental differences. that distinguish each type. They are either for children or adults.
Before the days of streamline the accommodation of a car varied with its power and chassis-length, a x5-h.p. being roomier than a I2, a 20-h.p. than a 15. One of the main reasons why you bought a powerful car was because it was obviously more comfortable and afforded better accommoda- tion for yourselves and your belongings. Today, except in the smallest classes, power has no connexion with comfort. You can of course buy large bodies on powerful chassis, but your choice.. is astonishingly limited if you believe that roominess is an integral part of car-comfort. That extra- ordinary word saloon, you will find, seldom connotes the dignity and spaciousness you would expect.
It is a fantastic name for what is at best a sort of all-enclosed broughatn, and if coachbnilders- had not been obliged to think of passenger-ships, private railway-carriage and American public-houses in order to find a name for a motor-car they might have done better. If the plain word coach will not do, the carriages of the eighteenth century offer a glorious choice from tilbury to sociable, dirobligeant to berlin. (One need not insist upon the remarkable applicability of desobligeant.) Cabriolet is the only one we ude, though-America has taken sedan-:-without looking it up first iii the dictionary.
The craze for close-fitting coachwork is inexplicable, as are most fashions and it. difficult to believe that it is shared by experienced motorists who have the habit of driving long distances. My private impression is triat the low-roofed, short, narrow body, with its undoubtedly graceful lines and its general suggestion of pace,- is bait for the beginner. The trouble is that the rest of us are left unprovided for, or rathc r that our choice is restricted to a definite number of makes and to definite powers of those makes. I suppose it would not -be good business to market, say, one or two powers instead of several and to offer a chi:dee of two body sizes. As all cars'noW ,go as fast as is safe on nearly 'all British roads, it would be so ankh beiter to lie able to: choose the new car for its comfort rather than for its performance, to prefer the
12-h.p. chaise to the 20-h.p. "caleche. ' ' The last two cars I have had out on trial for The Spectator, the 28-h.p. Humber limousine and the " Master " 29-h.p. Chevrolet, are naturally totally differtnt types,. but they share this one important quality of great coachwork comfort. The Humber is a limousine, with the extra word Pullman added, the Chevrolet a sedan (" saloon "), with "de luxe" as a mark of distinction ; the first costs k735, the second £338. Com- parison is not only odious but futile.' Yet there was, I thought, considerable similarity between the two from the sensible man's .point of-view. There was plenty of room in both, not only to; sit in comfort but to sprawl. You can change your position within very wide limits without poaching on your fellow-passengers' territory, and at no time need you feel that a larger car would have been a better choke. I consider that to be one of the acid tests of car:comfort.
The Humber has a 6-cylinder engine of just over four litres' capacity, taxed at £20 5s. the same as the " Snipe " model. It runs very smoothly and quietly and develops very high power. It weighs well over two tons; yet a comfortable maximum of over 70 miles an hour can be reached on its 4.3 top gear, with 6o on- third, which I found to be its really easy cruising speed. It has a marked degree of liveliness, with excellent acceleration, the steering is 'quite first-class, light, sensitive and steady, and the braking, both foOt'and hand, What it ougfit to be. It holdi the road admirably in the straight and on bends (its overall length is 16 ft. 8 in.), helped here no dOubt by the " Evenkeel " system of independent front-wheel springing which gives really shockless and steady riding at all speeds. " Evenkeel " is in this case a singularly happy name. All things considered, including weight, I regard this as the most successful of all the recent Humber models.
The point that pleased me most in the coachwork was the adjustable angle of the back cushion in relation to the squab. By turning a winder you can alter your sitting position to another or to a reclining_ one, as you go. On the whole I believe this was the most comfortable car seat I have ever sat in. The equipment and finish are well up to the standard you would expect at the price. A fine car.
The Chevrolet is comfortable in a different way. It is not so big (the Humber will carry five behind the driver), but it gives you the same pleasant feeling of being able to move about freely if you want to. The upholstery is deep and yielding and has a comfortable holding effect. You sit reasonably high, which I always prefer to the fashionable low position. It is much less tiring. It is a car in which, sitting in the back, you do not dread high speeds. The rear pair of the six windows open and with the front ven- tilating flaps do really insure adequate and draughtless ventila- tion. There is the usual very large luggage-compartment, which also carries the spare wheel.
The new Chevrolet engine (6-cylinder, £22 IOS. tax) is rather bigger than the last described in The Spectator, the cubic content having been increased from 3] to 31 litres. In addition the compression-ratio has been raised to 6.25 to I. In other respects there is no change save in details of design. The car is a little lower, owing to the use of a hypoid rear axle, which is an advantage. Like all good Americans it is extremely quiet at -nearly all speeds, and the " knee;iction " independent front springing gives it very pleasant riding and good, firm roadholding. The steering is -particylarly good. The comfortable maximum -speed is' about 70 miles an hour, but 75 is to be had. Well over 5o can be reached on second, and, as the gear-change is exceptionally swift and easy, the lack of a third is never felt. Top gear is 3.7 to I and the [Note.—Readers' requests for advice from our Motoring Correspondent on the choke of new cars should be accompanied a stamped and addressed. envelope. The highest price payabl, moo be gipgn,_o s.w111 os the type of Jody wruired_.
can be given on the puichase, sale or exclicmge of used cars.]
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