THE CHINA MAIL.
THE MOTORISTS' PAGE WE
Sir William Morris Has Odd WOMEN MOTORISTS Second-hand Car Market
Francies For Site
Produce Motor Cars Of Record- Breaking Type
270 Milés" Through Rain and Fog.
I
AVERAGE 22 M.P.H.
A resolute band of" women, members of the Women's Automobile and Sports Aș- sociation, took part in a gruelling contest on a Satur day. It was the Lon-
don-to-Westward Ho women's
motor reliability trial, and a course of 270% miles of diff-
On a nasty bleak morning early in 1931 February 16, to be exact - Mr. G. E. T. Eyston, as is now well known, drove a British motor car with an engine of less than 750 cc. at 103.13 m.p.h. over five kilometres. He kept up the remarkable speed
the worst hilis in England. of over 100 m.p.h. for ten miles, over which distance
The awards will not be made he averaged 101.86 m.p.h. He was attacking Inter-known until about a week's time, national Class H records at Montlhery track, near when the reports from all the Paris.
calt country included seven of
checks along the road have been collected and examined. Eyston did more than annex the record on that occasion; he
The competitors had to average was the first man to attain a speed of over 100 m.p.h. with an enabout 22 miles an hour for the gine of less than 750 cc. He achieved this with an M.G. Midget.'
whole of the run, and the time- The whole effort-qur, driver and no such thing as an M.G. car, but keeping, starting, marshalling, and organisation was purely British. soon afterwards it was very much This record had been the goal of alive, and this is how it came about designers and makers of what the in Oxford, in addition to his great growing establishment at public love to call baby cars for a und long time. Whatever may be done Cowley, Mr. (now Sir William) in the future it must never be for Morris, owned one or two garages. are, known gotten that this achievement, per-These were, and still
most remarkable simply and appropriately as haps one of the
car
AS дл
I
the
at the
Fund To Scrap All Six-Year-Olds
A Proposed Levy
"Sports saloon, will go 90 m.p.h., perfect condition, cost £1,400 two years ago, for sale £265,"
That is one of hundreds of tempting offers now being dangled before possible car-buyers by dealers who are at their wits' end to dispose at any price of old cars taken in part payment for new ones. The second-hand car trade is in a desperate state. For the public seeking either to buy or to sell this is a marvellous oppor- tunity; never have there been such bargains or such fancy prices to be obtained. But hundreds of small dealers and agents are threatened with bankruptcy.
buy
to take in part payment. There is aiming at higher speeda combined a regular list, imued by the traders' with the increased safety they de- organisation, of recognised allow mand. The model is supplied as a Jances for every model of every make chassis only, price £175.
Many schemes have been proposed Schermes of the sort have been most of the checking and observing to cope with the eltuation. One of tried in the United States, where the on the hills wore done by women. the latest is to form a fund for used car flood is even worse. Many At Gradburst, Porlock, a standing buying in and scrapping cars over traders declare that unless some- start had to be made.
six years old by means of a levy of thing is done to ease the situation All the competitors used small £1 on each new car sold, the $1 half the small dealers are doomed cars, the "giant" of the trial being being added to the price to be paid to extinction. a 13-h.p. coupe. Wheel spin and by the public.
A Livelier "Hornet.". In a few cases lack of horse-power
The Annual Flood. in the latter-day history of motor-Morris Garages. The bright, shin were the only causes of a number The annual production of new New. models continue to appear,
they them was of failures on the test hille. After cars le about 160,000, but of new and
Bre not- ing.
accomplished by the ing light in charge of Was
the October one Cecil Kimber, who had already checking in at Tavistock, the finish motorists only about 20,000, and inspired by common idea Midget. Since then, on 17, 1931, Eldridge covered five spent many years enthusiastically ing place, the drivers proceeded to that number only in good times. In that the public will kilometres on a 750 cc. Midget at making fast motor bicycles faster an hotel, where baths and a hearty order to sell 180,000 new -cars nothing but the most economical. A 110.28 m.p.h., a speed exactly equal and doing the same to cars when he meat were ordered. Mrs. Goold, traders have to accept in part pay-"special" Wolseley Hornet has just to that of Kaye Don on the water got the chance. He prevailed upon secretary of the Women's Automo- ment more than 130,000 old ones. been announced, designed for eager with Miss England II.
his employer to let him get to work bile and Sports Association, said to Second-hand machines pile up in mindeners who delight in "per- M.G. cars hail from about as on the round-nosed Morris-Oxford a reporter: "I don't think it was cellars and warehouses, a drag on formance The engine is the same, unlikely a spot to house a motor of the period, and he put the 'fluence possible to have had worse weather. the market.
but twin carburetters are provided,
factory 03 any
can on them to such purpose that they It was raining on and off all the But from the trader's point of a special exhaust system, oil cool- Imagine, writes Maurice Sampson outdistanced every other Morris- time, and there was a high wind view that is not the worst. Undering, extra large brake drums, re- In a Shanghai paper. I always Oxford on the road.
to-day and a fog last night. Yet stress of competition weaker or mote control gear-box, revolution Oxford
The first year's production of most of the regard
unlikely
competitors got short-sighted dealers offer ridiculous counter on the dash, and Sin. wider spot wherein to find motor cars these hand-made cara-and do not through, and there is only one who prices for the cars they are asked track in front than in rear-all being produced! But, as all the forget they were produced only in has failed to check in
of running busy finish." world knows now, that always sur-the intervals. prising person. Şir William Morris, garages, and more or less with the and his associates, manage to turn aid of the necessarily limited tool out quite a number from the an equipment avallable, Cowley merely
(which is why they never seem to In America the long-expected cient city of learning. But If supplying the chassis-amounted, I
care how beautifully your car has eight-cylinder Ford made its bow a Oxford is unlikely as a motor car believe, to six in all. But those six
been kept), but there are many deal-few days ago. The car has the centre, how shall we regard Abing-were seeds that took root to some
A trial last week-end of the newers ready to bid more and sellers same low frame, new radiator, and don-on-Thames? Yet, tucked neat-purpose, and next year things began ly away in this little Berkshire to get busy. Then came the time Standard "Sixteen" brought home eager to get a few pounds extra, al-nicely shaped bodies as town of just over 7,000 inhabitants, when the round-nosed radiator of most vividly the truly astounding though they cannot expect proper four-cylinder models described in after-sales service from these price- The Daily Telegraph' of April 4, in the English is a modern, beautifully equipped, the Morris models gave way to the improvement
also the silent second, synchromesh and marvellously clean factory, present rectangular type, and more "medium six" during the two years cuting gentry.
since I last had out the Organised Scrap Heap. gear-box.. The engine is a V-eight, from which at least 100 or more ambitious plans were conceived.
corresponding model. The 1980 -For the growing pile of second that is to say, it has two banks of Individual Model. cara can be produced
A8 'It was The result was that only the "Ensign,"
call-hand cars the proposal is an organ-four cylinders working side by side
Manufacturers on the same crankshaft; it is claim as the engine and ed, cost from £820 to £360; toised scrap heap. The history of what is now known essentials, such
the gear box, and day's model of the same horse-and traders would each contribute ed to develop 65 hp, and give` 78 as the M.G. Car Co., Ltd., is inter-its components, esting because it shows how a single the back axle, and main frame, were power costs as a coachbuilt saloon 108.. to a central fund for every miles an hour on the road. This Individual with a single mind fired obtained from Cowley. These were from £285. to £255, and yet has a new car sold, the price being raised engine apparently is interchangeable with great enthusiasm, and backed then "specialised," and the M.G. car much better finished and more fully by £1, and traders would undertake with the improved four-cylinder..
to sell to the central fund for £5 Fourteen different body types are an entity of its equipped body. by a sympathetic and encouraging began to take on
The Improvement in performance every car they take in part exchange to be had, a convincing refutation director, can from nothing, as it own. They began to be recognised were, step right into the forefront in trials and became a usual mount is on the same scale. In maximum that is over six years old and was of the Idea that mass production speed there is probably little differ-valued at under £500 when new. necessarily limits choices." Prices of motor car constructors who mat-for the sporting driver.
was only just These discards would be broken up run from $460 to $660, pominally So things continued in a steadily ence; the car I had
| 492 to £130. / New Little Car.
growing volume until a little over still stiff, and I should put its top and sold for scrap. About seven years ago there was (Continued at foot of next Column) at sixty But its "best" speed,
the speed at which it settled down NEW BROTHER FOR CHRYSLER SALES UP
sports weekly.
ter.
CHRYSLER
A NEW CHRYSLER SIX, with aix body models;
a new Chrysler Eight, with five body models; a
new Chrysler Imperial Eight, with three body mod- els; a new Chrysler Custom Imperial Eight with
six body models. All new Chrysler caes offer the greatest engineering developments in modem times.
CARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT
THE NATIONAL MOTOR CAR CO
ON THE ROAD.
Standard "Sixteen.”
on the usual half-throttle, was 45 to 50, a good 10 miles per hour better, and the acceleration through- out the range was much brisker.
BABY AUSTIN.
·10 h.p. de Luxe Saloon for £168,
ROOMINESS IN SMALL CAR.
the new
BY LARGE AMOUNT. Dealers Urged to Ignore Easy Gear Changing. -
All Pessimism, "Of the four speeds, the third- is of the constant-mesh type, and the
4TH PLACE IN REGISTRATIONS. others are quiet, and the changes are so quick and eagy that the crudest methods do not produce
G. O. Simons, president of SI- more noise than a click 'Steering Sir Herbert Austin, father of the mons Sewart Company, Inc., an is first-class, the brakes officiant first baby car, the justly-famed Hi-nounced at a meeting of Chrysler though feeling hard under the foot, the "Austin Seven," introduced us, dealers and salesmen held at the and the suspension very comfort to a new and bigger baby to-day. Park Central Hotel, that the able.
I rode in the first car of the new company's sales in February in
Birmingham, April 18.
The present chassis is both short-type, writes, Thomas H. Wisdom in the metropolitan district showed er and narrower than the old, but the Daily Herald, an increase, of 155 per cent. over | there is ample room all ways for It had already covered 5,000 miles February, 1991. Mr. Simsons add four people. The rear seats are of strenuous sing in the wilds ofled that Chrysler finished 1981 in perhaps a trifle upright, but the North Wales before production com- fourth place in registrations, in driving seat is exceptionally well menge
[designed.
two years ago, when an opporti came to purchase a ver exce modern factory, and
activities was
made from
dozen
to Abingdon, half along the Thames,
comp
is rater
Inder. ing the State, recording an increase
hare is our of 11.2 per cent over 1980 as: Com
third pared with the industry's less of
68 per cent,
Walter F. Chrysler: alsox od the meeting and";
enlersta ignore passim
business conditio
OPEL
MOTOR CARS
BULLETIN
OPEL DESIGNS ARE TESTED — THE CARS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES. BY DAILY USE OPEL UPKEEP IS
UNUSUALLY LOW. THE FIRST SHIPMENT OF THESE CARS HAS JUST BEEN RECEIVED BY THE DRAGON MOTOR CAR COMPANY, LTD.
88, WONG NEI CHUNG ROAD, HAPPY VALLEY. YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO TELEPHONE 80228 OR TO CALL FOR A DEMONSTRATION.
PRODUCT OF GENERAL MOTORS.
YOUR
NEW CAR
SHOULD HAVE THESE
"
FLOATING POWERFULLY AUTOMATIC CLUTCH FREE WHEELING EASY SHIFT: TRANSMISSION SILENT GEAR SELECTOR FOUR WHEEL HYDRAULIC BRAKES. CENTRIFUSE BRAKE DRUMS MONO-PIECE ALL STEEL BODIES
DISTINCTIVE BEAUTY
You Want Them All in the Car You Buy —
You Have Them All in the New DODGE CARS.
DODGE
SOUTH
VN MOTOR CAR CO.