t"'i;E AUTOCAR B Journal publis-beb in the-interests of tbe mecbanicalll? propelleb roab carriage.

EDITED BY H. WALTER STANE~.

No. 664. VOL. XXI. J SATURDAY, JULY IITH, 1908.

[PRICE 3D.

The Autocar.

:Published Weekly.)

Registered 4S a newspaper for transmission in the United Kingdom.

Entered as second-class matter in the New York (N.Y.) Post Office.

Editorial Office :

COVENTRY.

Publishing Offices :

20, TUDOR STREET, LONDON, E.C., England.

CONTENTS. NOTES,,

USEFUL HINTS AND TIPS • •

THE GRAND PRIX RACES (ILLUSTRATED)

THE 2i000 MILES TRIALS. MARKS LOST ON THE ROAD

SMALL CAR TALK

AN IRREVERSIBLE STEERING (ILLUSTRATED)

FIRE EXTINGUISHING DEMONSTRATION • •

IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

43

• • 44-56

57-59

60

61

61

62

THE FOUR !NCH RACE

CORRESPONDENCE • •

AERONAUTICS (ILLUSTRATED)

62

• • 63-66

67

RACING AT BROOKLANOS (ILLUSTRATED)••

REPAIRING TUBES FROM INSIDE , •

, , 68-71

7I

THE RoTAX SrEED MILEAGE TIME RECORDER (ILLUSTRATED) • • 72-73

THE MARSHALL TYRE J ACkET (ILLUSTRATED) • •

74

FLASHES

Cwa DotNGs..

, • 75·77

. . 78-79

SCOTTISH RELIABILITY TRIALS. REPORT

Bo

Subscription Rates :

British Isles 16s. Abroad (tbin paper edition), 22s. Bd. per annum

/

rotes. Hardships of the 2,000 Miles Trial. Before a man joins the a1my or the navy he is sub­ jected to a strict medical examination as to his physical fitness and general state of health, and the physically unfit are rejected as unsuitable. \Ve are inclined· to the opinion that in future trials of the strenuousness of the 2,000 miles the makers would be ,Yell advised if they were to subject the drivers and mechanicians to medical examination. There is no doubt that the 1011g daily drives, bad weather, and hort nights told very severely upon some of the drivers, and the greatest credit is due to several competitors for bringing their cars through the trials, as they were really seriously unwell, and ought rather to have been in bed than ·at the steering wheel of a motor car. How hard a time some of them had in the Scottish portion of the trial is only realised by those ,rho actually followed the event throughout. The bad condition of the roads and the severity of the hills, combined with the very bad weather and exposure, made the task a severe one for a person in the most robust health, and any man who was not quite fit suffered severely. The conditions were rendered much more severe by the fact that all the competing cars were open cars, as no compe~itor thought it wise to handicap himself by the extr:i w':1g~t of a hood, and even if hoods had been earned 1t 1s equally certain that most of the keenest of the competitors would not have used them because they would ha 1·e increased the windage, thereby reducing their peed upon the hills and putting up the petrol consumption.

A Meeting of Competitors. It would not be, at all a bad idea if the Royal A.C. were to call a meeting of the competitors while the subject is fresh in all their minds, so that suggestions might be made and discussed for the conduct of future long distance trials. The 2,000 Miles Trials have been a great success, and we congratulate the Club in general, and Mr. Orde and the Trials Committee in particular, upon the way in which they were conducted. Never before has so severe a test been held, and never before have its results been known class by class immediately at the conclusion of the distance. The clever system of scoring has been a most successful one, and now that experience has been gained in its working it can undoubtedly be still further improved. The idea is simplicity itself, and nothing could be much clearer than its working. It can scarcely be said that any one competitor suffered any sort of unfairness through it. He knew beforehand exactly how the scoring would be arranged, and it has certainly brought out the strong and weak points of every car competing. At the same time, like e,·erything else, the second z ,ooo Miles Trial will undoubtedly be still more satisfactorily conducted than the first. The classification can be improved and simplified and one or two matters corrected, such, for instance, as the wind resistance area, which, as we pointed out before the trials commenced, has resulted in the compulsory use of unnecessarily hideous and uncomfo1table bodies on many of the trials cars. The touring car standards were badly needed, and as they were only finally settled last February, the current year's use of them must be regarded more or less in an experimental light. Just where they have been unsatisfactory is best known to the competitors in each class, but the three points which particularly want attention are unquestionably engine rating, weight, and wind resistance area. A fe11· comparatively small alterations in these "·ill undoubtedly make the touring car standards eYen more useful than they are, and as the 2 ,ooo Miles Trial was classified according to these standards, it follows that any improvement in the method of classification woulcl also re~ult in an impro,·ement in the 2,000 :Miles Trial of the future.