MATTERS OF MOMENT, April 1937

MATTERS OF MOMENT

It has now been definitely stated that the T.T. will not be held in Ireland. The R.A.C. is examining courses in the I.O.M., and if these prove impractical our most important fixture will come to the Donington, Crystal Palace or Brooklands road courses. As Donington already has a 12-hour sports-car race we feel that the T.T. should in these circumstances be given to the Palace or to Brooklands. The loss of the excellent Ulster circuit will then in some measure be compensated by the number of enthusiasts who will see the T.T. for the first time. Is it too much to hope that the regulations will also change—that competing cars be a bit more like those you and I drive ? “The Autocar ” reports that in. the Land’s Mid Trial Mr. Keegan put up a “To Let” notice in his Hillman when he failed on Beggar’s Roost, and that Mr. A. G. Wills displayed a notice ” Quiet ! Men working” at the rear of his Ford V8. We have seen similar displays in other trials. A tennis-player with a ” stop-me-and-buy-one ” placard, or a golfer with a similarly absurd inscription fastened to his person would, we believe, call forth wrath from serious tennis players and golfers, and, childish as some present-day trials are becoming, the displays of silly notices on com

peting cars, while doubtless providing intense fun for their composers, is surely in very bad taste. We should like to credit trials entrants with rather greater intelligence, but perhaps the time has come to repress this babyish tendency by asking trials secretaries to disqualify anyone who tries to thus enliven the shining hour. We hope that we have as great a helping of humour as anyone else in the game, but we cannot overlook the view which the public may take of trials if this noticecarrying becomes commonplace. Are we spoil-sports or aren’t we ?

CONT ENTS

The 5.4-litre MercMes-Benz 155

B.A.R.C. Easter Meeting …. 138 Veteran Types •••• 168 Letters from Readers 166 R.A.C. Rally 168

Club News …. 174 J.C.C. Blackdown Scramble 178

Light Blues Win Again …. 179 A Competitor’s Log in the R.A.C. Rally 181 Rumblings •••• •••• •••• •••• 182 The:Coventry Cup …. •••• 188 Really, we moderns are so very fortunate. For are we not offered a truly comprehensive range of reliable and dependable sports-cars ? Austin, B.S.A., Fiat, Ford, M.G., Morgan, Riley, Singer, S.S., Talbot and Triumph, amongst others, offer us inexpensive, economical sports models from which a very great deal of pleasure is to be had, apart from their ability to acquit themselves well in practically all aspects of competition work. But, quite apart from sports models, consider how even the better utility cars now possess speed, acceleration and controllability to a degree that makes them not at all dull to drive, and drive fast, providing you are prepared to display your skill, as distinct from just pressing the pedals and twirling the steering-wheel. On the other hand, if you crave a car possessing truly ” pur sang” qualities, such marques as A.C., Alfa-Romeo, Alvis, AstonMartin, Atalanta, Bentley, Bugatti, Delahaye, FrazerNash, H.R.G., Lagonda, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Sunbeam, and Talbot, etc., provide thoroughbred qualities in full, without any of the unreliability, frailty or driving difficulty that one frequently associated with really high-performance, even thorough bred, cars a decade earlier. If your purse is slender, however, there is available a wide range of interesting second-hand sports-cars, such as those offered by advertisers at the back of MOTOR SPORT, while, if you really seek adventurous motoring, of the sort fascinatingly described by Kent Karslake in these pages many years ago under the heading “Alphonse,” there are still a few real veterans

purchasable. for cash. But perhaps we are apt to take this much for granted. For instance, a journey from, say, London to John o’ Groats could obviously be undertaken by anyone in any new car without any particular adventure.