Abroad with a 1936 Austin 18

Sir,

You may be interested to hear of the performance of a 1936 Austin 18 station wagon which this summer travelled to Greece and back, a total of 4,500 miles, in a fortnight.

The car carried five people and all their kit for camping as well as sufficient tools and spares in case of repairs. During the whole trip only two gallons of oil were burnt, and in order to reach Boulogne on time on return the car was driven almost non-stop (only two or three stops taken for coffee) for 41 1/2 hours, and half of this time we were constantly climbing in Northern Italy.

Throughout the whole trip we did not suffer one puncture (for your tyre experts, we had second-hand Michelin “X”s on the front and Michelin Ultra Grip on the rear) and the only trouble entailed replacing the universal joint cross in Athens. This item was fitted to the joint, which we had removed from the car, in under 20 minutes by the B.M.C. agents. Can you get service like that in London?

P.A. Freeman.
Morden.