EDITORIAL., November 1927

EDITORIAL.

ANOTHER motoring year has drawn to a close. Both the Motor Show and the Motor Cycle Show is finished. These eagerly awaited events close the motoring year, and we now look both ways, backwards at a year completed, forward to a year of progress and success, let us hope, in sporting circles.

There are many lessons to be learnt from our failures in the year behind us. We have learnt that the foreigner is a fine engineer and a fine racing driver. We have learnt that the Continent is capable of producing cars which can beat us on our own ground. We have learnt that we are not all mighty in the realm of motor racing.

Let us take these lessons to heart in the coming year. Do not let us waste time in bewailing what is done or explaining our defeats. We must now buckle to, and prepare for a stern struggle when the racing season reopens.

The European Grand Prix is to be run at Brooklands in 1928. Here is our chance to wipe out whatever disgrace may have come upon us in the recent R.A.C. Grand Prix. Here is the occasion to restore whatever prestige we may have lost in the eyes of Continental nations.

Many plans are afoot for the restoration of our racing prowess. Let us look to it that something comes from the heated discussions that occupy so much space in the motor press.

The International Calendar is very full, and offers ample scope for British manufacturers to show the world that we are the supreme motor engineering country in the world. No one doubts that we are, and that our racing men are the world’s finest. All the world views with amazement the steady decline in the past year of our racing triumphs.

Now as we stand on the threshold of a new year is the time for us to make our resolutions, to put Britain at the head of results in all the important races of 1928. It is fairly obvious that the 1928 season is going to

see roads more crowded than ever before. The reduction in prices, increase in value and progressive economy of motoring, is going to put more cars on the roads in 1928 than in any year since the war.

It behoves us sporting motorists to set an example to the new corners in the motor world. Although we may own fast cars and habitually drive far in excess of the speed of ordinary man, yet we must also show the others how real enthusiasts use the road. We must set out on our every journey with the intention of making our driving an example to all road users of “how to do it.”

Let us all pull together in this respect, and, drawing a definite line between fast driving and hogging, preserve the spirit of the road and the chivalry associated with motor sport.