CROSS COUNTRY MOTORING

CROSS-COUNTRY” MOTORING

G1R.NIAN trials drivers—and their cars—are certainly tough. Highlight of the ” cross-country motorsport,” as they call it, is the Mittelgebirgs trial held recently in the Hartz 21101111tains.

This event lasts for three days, during which the competitors have to contend with 375 miles of forest paths, steep climbs and. descents on surfaces Varying from smooth wet grass to rocks, deep mud, loose sand and swamps.

Mere words fail to give an adequate impression of the difficulties encountered, but the photograph on this page shows that the conditions are frequently a good deal worse than anything met with in British reliability trials. This trial, and others like it, is used by the German manufacturers as a testing ground for their cars, and there is no doubt that any suspension system, for example, that can be made to stand up to the hammering of fast driving over the Hartz mountain routes is bound to give satisfactory service and a great margin

of safety in normal circumstances. In this connection it is not without significance that independent suspension is practically universal on German cars. This year the Mittelgebirgs attracted 137 cars, including twenty-nine passenger car teams. Ninety-two ears checked in at the finish, and the only factory team to complete the course without the loss of a single mark was the Opel trio, Herren Gobel, Bernhard and Diehl. For this outstanding performance they received

the prize presented by Korpsfiihrer Hiihnlein, leader of German motor sport, together with the Shield of Honour. many speed records with a British M.G. The Mittelgebirgs was quite a field day for Opels, for of the ten cars of this

The Opel cross-country sports model was also driven by several private owners, including Bobby Kohlrauseh, the famous German racing driver who has broken

make in the trial, seven got through without the loss of a mark and were awarded gold medals—among them Kohlrausch.