WE ARE CRITICISED!

WE ARE CRITICISED!

Sir,

I received my copy of August motor sport for which I thank you. I should like to append detailed criticisms on this last number, as I think I can see it from the point of view of the ordinary reader. I shall try to make it instructive, not destructive, and you need not read it if you do not want to.

Short Notes on the Grand Prix Cars. These are very interesting. I consider that the road racer is, as it were, the stallion of the breed, and it is therefore very interesting to read the descriptions of the various road racers that are produced. These notes should be repeated before important races when new machines are produced. Sporting Cars on Road and Track. This is a really good series. A few criticisms might be made. I do not consider that 68 m.p.h. is a very good speed for a car

of the size and price of the 0.M., although 72 m.p.h. was apparently obtained by using the down hill. The presumption is that the engine was a bit stiff. If this was so, it was only fair to the car to say so if it was not, the reader should be told the worst. I would suggest, therefore, that the reader should always be told whether the car had been run much before being taken on test. Another thing readers like to know is the top gear ratio. Some cars with a useful third gear are deliberately overgeared in top for the purposes of sustained speed, and in judging maximum speed it is again only fair to the car to tell us whether it is intentionally overgeared. Actual figures for braking and acceleration are also interesting.

The Articles on Tuning A.J.S. motor cycles, and High Efficiency Piston Design, appear to have been written by the same hand. This contributor appears to have the gift of writing articles of this type lucidly, and can state his points clearly. They should, therefore, be of great interest to the sporting but comparatively inexperienced rider-mechanic, and the writer in question should most certainly continue his contribution. It is to be hoped that the article on Tuning A. J.S. motor cycles is the first of a series. People who have been successful with other engines should be got to write companion articles, and the article on pistons might be followed up by articles on other components of sporting motor cycles.

Sporting Machines on Test. This is a thoroughly good article, and the writer does tell us that the machine was a new one. These articles are so similar to the car ones, that the remarks on car tests apply to these, and no more need be said on this point.

Motor Cycle Speedmen. I always find this most interesting. I am glad to notice that you have been doing more motor cyclists lately, as you started off with a run of car drivers. However, the car people should not be forgotten. I think the more amateur the rider or driver is, the more interesting his biography, but I think it is a good plan to keep the scope of this series as wide as possible, and to include trade rider and amateur and designers, as well as drivers, as you have been doing. The Fernihough Morgan. This article is distinctly interesting, as descriptions of home-made vehicles always are, and I consider amateur motor building a sport in itself. It is very refreshing to hear of a more or less serious experimental job being undertaken by an amateur, especially when it is sufficiently sporting to break records. I hope Motor Sport will continue to tell us about any special jobs that are undertaken in the motor world, whether they are chiefly interesting from the fact that they are amateur, or that they are original. Special jobs undertaken in a more professional way, too, are often worth a description, as they play their part in the development of the breed, and an

occasional article devoted to such machines, of any size, from the pigmy ” Jappic ” to the giant ” Babs,” would not come amiss, although these particular cars are probably fairly well known by now.

Another very interesting article in the first volume was the personal reminiscences of Miss Ivy Cummings, which suggests another line to work from.

The J.C.C. Production Car Race. This is a very interesting account of the race, a type of contribution worth keeping up. May I thoroughly endorse your remark about the Frazer Nash success ? If I remember rightly, Captain Nash once waxed wrath about a remark in an earlier edition of Motor Sport. It is high time England put up an effective challenge to the Amilcar, Sal mson, and Senechal type of car, and the Frazer Nash deserves encouragement as the best attempt on these lines.

Finally, Motor sport has always been justly proud of its photographs, and I hope that you will preserve the standard of one of the best features of a thoroughly good paper. Wishing you good luck in future, Yours sincerely,

J. R. SIMPSON.