THESE FAST CARS Mot o ring THOUGH it might seem odd that
as the roads grow more congested and it bece5mes more and more difficult to driVe fast, makefs should continue to increase the maximum speed of their Cars and, in their advertisements to lay greater stress on -it, in point of fact it is all perfectly natural. Very few people Who have their wits about them ever attempt to drive really fast today (except where it is absolutely safe), but everybody sets great store by that vivid acceleration which only high efficiency can give you in a normally geared car.
Apart from the fact that a ready pick-up followed by swift acceleration is one of the few driving pleasures left to us on British roads today, the ability to get-away is almost an essential of safety. Take a string of cars on an ordinary day of ordinary traffic on any main road and accompany it for twenty miles or so, taking note of what you see in driving, good, bad and just poor, and at the end of that time you will be forced to the conclusion that, hogs apart, the man who causes most trouble, who is potentially, if perfectly innocently and helplessly, -the source of most of the unpleasant situations, is the driver of the old car that won't go.
Motor traffic is slower than it has ever been, and faster. The average speed of the average man's journey over any known distance is lower than it was five years ago, but in spasms much faster. There are several week-end drives I make pretty regularly, to the coast, to two places in East and West Berkshire and to one in the Cotswolds.' I have known these roads so to speak blindfold for many years, and when I set out on them I know, or rather knew until lately, within five minutes how long it would be before I reached the end Years ago, with a car that could reluctantly touch fifty miles an hour I arrived at one of the Berkshire places in between i hour 4o minutes and i hour 5o minutes, the difference being invariably due to weather and level crossings. Now, with a car that is quite 20 miles an hour faster, with infinitely superior acceleration, I take from 2 hours to minutes to 2 hours 25 minutes. With the old car today there- is no telling what my time would be, but it is not difficult to imaging how much I should loathe the whole business. Nobody wants to drive fast now, but everybody has to .unless he is willing to be always late, always deafeningly overtaken, always hooted at. It is not in human nature to endure these things. Only those Who cannot do otherwise drive-slOWly in the traffic stream. If you doubt me, go out oii to the Great West Road or any of its abominable fellows and see what happens. There is no help for it.
These things occurred to me with considerable force when I was testing the new 20-h.p. SS and the new 20-h.p. V-8 Standard. Both had the new kind of acceleration to a marked and pleasing degree, both were thoroughly well adapted for I getting out of the ruck without annoying other people. Both were very fast when opportunity offered.
These desirable qualities they shared, but in other ways they were quite different cars. Reading over my notes of the trials I have a certain difficulty -in explaining precisely where two cars of nearly equal power and perforniance varied so much. Figures prove nothing. There was a definite difference between their maximum speeds, but in all else they made almost exactly the same showing. The difference, which is not here used as a comparison, must lie in the ideals of the designers and therefore in the peculiar Characters of the cars themselves. For, it is very comforting to remark after a year's trials, good cars still have perfectly distinct characteristics of their own, not only by models and makes but by individual cars. When they are all as alike as eggs, when standardisation is a real thing and not an unpleasant vision, the pleasure of motoring will vanish.
The SS has a six-cylinder, overhead valved engine of rather spectacular performance. The, bore and stroke are 73 by io6 and the cubic content 2,663 c.c., the tax being L15 and the rated power 20. It weighs 29 cwt., with the ordinary saloon body, and costs £385. The gear-ratio is comfortably high, top being 4.5, third 6.1, second 9.5 and first 16.2 to Among the several points I liked about its general design was the position of the silencing air-cleaners which are fitted beloiv the intake and well out of the way. All the gear is neatly, disposed, the tools being fitted into the boot-fall. It is a well-found car and the body is much less cramped than most of those of its type. Its lines are very good and it has plenty of headroom. The upholstery is specially good and there is plenty of room for luggage in the boot.
It is extremely fast. I don't know exactly what it will do, but its showing on a very wet and sticky road, with half a gale blowing, was such as to compare very favourably with that of most 3i-litre cars. I should tentatively estimate its maximum at 90 miles an hour, on its own gauge. I touched over 85 for a fleeting second. The engine runs very quietly indeed and the steering, brakes, road-holding and suspension (particularly the last) are quite first-class. With all its striking performance it is a docile car.
The Standard V-8 is an entirely new model, and from its design alone a very interesting newcomer to the British market. We have made very few Eights, whether V-type or straight, and not all of them have been conspicuously successful. The engine capacity is almost the same as the SS, 2,686, the bore and stroke being 63.5 by 106. Rated power and tax are the same. With a well-proportioned saloon body it costs £349. It, too, goes very fast (well over 8o) and its acceleration, particularly in climbing steep hills, is striking. The engine shows great liveliness and has the likeable quality of always seeming to have "more to come." It runs specially quietly and very smoothly. There is no sign of hesitation anywhere in its pick-up, from ro to 8o miles an hour. The springing is very comfortable, giving good road-holding, and the steering is light and steady. The gear-change is first-rate. A car to [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 advice icqyje "0;11..0_ the purchase, sale or exchange of used- r445.1.
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