HERE AND THERE., June 1927

HERE AND THERE.

SUCCESSFUL END TO RUDGE TEST.

G. R. Butcher, who has been carrying out a test of a Rudge-Whitworth combination under A.C.U. observation, has now brought this to a successful conclusion. He started by making 100 ascents and descents of the famous Bwicy-y-Groes hill in North Wales, equivalent to 300 miles of running, on an average up and down gradient of 1 in 6, so that in all he climbed to four times the height of Mount Everest.

These climbs being satisfactorily completed, Butcher set off on a tour round Great Britain, with the A.C.U. observer still in the sidecar. He stayed the first night at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the next at Carlisle, having gone there via Edinburgh. He then competed in the Alan Trophy Trial—one of the most strenuous of the year—and was successful in tying, in marks, for the best sidecar performance.

On the following day, Sunday, he rested, and as the machine had then done over 2,000 miles, the engine was decarbonised. Next day, Butcher set off by a winding route to the South Coast, returning through Devonshire and reaching Coventry on the Friday night. Butcher’s run exceeded 2,000 miles, and as the machine had previously competed in the Stock Trial it had some 3,000 miles to its credit by the time Coventry was reached. Throughout the whole trip there was no involuntary stop, and the manufacturers may well feel proud of the performance.

The machine has now been taken to London, where it is again in the care of the A.C.U., in order that the further tests which are contemplated may be carried out later.

The Rudge-Whitworth machine used by Butcher for this observed test was picked from stock by A.C.V. officials and ridden solo by D. R. Lees in the Six Days Stock Machine. A gold medal was earned in this trial, and the machine was taken to Coventry, where a sidecar and low gear sprocket were fitted from stock and, still under observation, Butcher set out on the remarkable ride described above.

THE ROVER NINE.

We hear that the Rover Company is now many behind in deliveries of the” Nippy Nine” car. one reason for the popularity of this model is the care with which it is made, for there are no mass duction methods about it, where “any old thing” do so long as the cars are made and delivered.

An example of this careful manufacture may be in the engine test shop. When an engine is it is first run in thoroughly at a slow speed under from a similar engine which is in a later stage of After being run in, it then motors under its own for a certain time, whence it is transferred to bench and coupled up to a new engine which, in it drives as it was itself driven. It then goes on a test, where it must give off a certain definite horse power, and is finally stripped down and examined for high spots, signs of wear, and the before it is reassembled and mounted in the chassis.