Motors and Motoring The - Car in Cold Weather THE bulk
of; wintry weather so often Jeomes after' New Velar that a few. suggestions. about driving the ear whin frost and snow prevail will not be out of place at this time. That many persons fail to realize the difficulties which may arise in driving when road condition's are bad is evident.' A short time ago I was on the London-High Wycombe road testing a car, and it is barely an exaggeration to say that the route was strewn with smashed cars between Uxbridge and Wycombe. It is true that the road was extremely treacherous, there being patches here and there which the sun had not touched and which were thinly, but eciiiipletely;- (Seated with ice. Clearly drivers had not realized,'One that be-anise many parts of the road where the ice liliclIbeeh ,thatiect-tave a reasonably firm grip it did not mean that one could -safely travel fast, and, two, that one has but little control of a car when it is
required. to pull up , quickly on ,slippery_ surface of this kind,
As _in. all _motor driving, the chief essential is to use ..the
iniegination and _consequently and actin adiatice. " The:wise.. man: only :speed: Where :he knows _he
can AP:Sewith.sediiiity to -birriself and others.: His vision will be ketn'and he will read his rota surface-well ahead. ' Intident-- alky,::recicling- the road evist'hi these days is an art and one well -Worth acquiring. Thus, he will expect a shady patch, will sense that it is probably ice-covered and will reduce speed materially before he strikes it and not_3vait and. attemptio slow down on it. On this particular ..morning I saw on the outskirts of High Wycombe an unpardonably bad piece of driving oti the, part of a man who presumably should ,have known better, namely, the chauffeur of a 40/50 h.p. closed Rolls Royce. In front there was a small tradesman's cart, the pony of which had . just-slipped, down and .pitched, an elderly woman on to the road. Immediately behind was a breakdown van towing a badly smashed car which was running on two. wheels. Behind that -was a small touring car with two women in it who had passed my car a short time before. I was thus the last of the procession of Ave and had practically come to a standstill leaving a good space between the touring car and myself since I saw there was a block ahead. The surface all along this bit of the road was icy and obviously called for the greatest caution. For some reason heat known toThimstlf the chaliffeur.ofibeRollt Royce must needs try-to cut in or pass the block of-vehicles waiting tlrturn. He had just passed me when he saw that he co d not get through owing to traffic approaching from the other way. I may say that the road was straight and perfectly optii. He then jammed on his brake with the inevitable result. The back of his car swung round to the off side and he-Started the cannonade by- crashing- bioadside on into the car" with the two women in it. -I-can well imagine their feelings since _they. were stationary and on the right...side of the road.
* * * *
Here then is an excellent example of what not to do. It is clear that this driver should in the first instance have taken his turn lice everybody else, used his imagination,' and begun to pull up some time previously. Secondly he shiiuld not have been travelling at the speed he was in view of the state of the surface of the road. Thirdly, his brake control was bad, and fourthly, either through lack of skill orbfrom losing his head, he made but little effort to correct the:side slip or to exaggerate it for the purposes of safety. FOUr-wheel braking has added enormously to the motorist's security under practically every condition, but it is imperative that the brakes should be properly balanced or adjusted. If they. are not, four-wheel braking may be a source of increased risk. because, obviously, a driver will put great faith in his powers of deceleration simply by reason of there being brake on each road wheel, while if the compensating device or.; where none is employed, the individual adjustment :be faulty, the brake shoes win not exert similar pressure and the machine, if on slippery surface, will tend to swing to one side. It is important then at. all times, but particularly in wintry weather, to see to the evenness of the brakes and, in: any case, it is a good point to remember in the matter of control that severe and prolonged pressure should alwayS . be. avoided when the surface is treacheroui.
* * * *
-Many drivers still imagine that they obtain the greatest braking force by locking the wheeli. • This is.entirely erroneous. Directly a wheel of a moving vehicle , becomes stationary aeTto its rotary motion, deceleration force is promptly lost. The highest braking effort is obtained by bringing the wheel just short of the point of locking, and to get this result brie brake-4tedal :alieuklbe preseedt refecieed.4resed,-again, aifd so fOrth: A series of jabs, in which progressiveness is comb With firmness, will give the most stopping power coupled with the least tendency to wheel skid and consequent side slip of the car. This brings us to the question of steerage. When side slip takes place at the back of a_ car the steering should be immediately and temporarily' turned in the direction towards which the back is sliding. It is a curious fact that the natural tendency Under such circumstances is for the novice or for the man who is nervous to take the opposite action and so make bad matters worse. The point-of steering towards the way to which the back is sliding is to check the action of centrifugal force and to regain a grip of the road. Directly this has-been done the car will generally answer the steerage even if only in 'limited degree. The point .is to convert what might well be a broad side slide into a series of small waggles and thus to occupy more nearly the normal width of space which the car takes-up when travelling along. , In the ordinary way when there is a tendency to side slip the power should immediately be released from the engine by letting up the accelerator.. A front wheel slip is the worst kind because there is so little one can do in the of correction._ The main point is to avoid the, possibility ,by foresight, caution, and, by not overspeeding. The brake can be jabbed and the steering wheel waggled in order to try and get a grip of the road surface again. Side slip can, on the other hand, be used intentionally to "avoid a "ccillEsion,". although the inexperienced will be 'Wep advised to try this rather Ulast resort.; Ati illuitlition of its posSible Utility is to :be seen in the aCcident which I have quoted above. There is no do:AIM-ill my. mind that if the driver of the Rolls _Royce had. employed, correct taetic k. especially in view of the speed at which he was travelling, he might well have avoided Collision With^_any - of the vehicles which- were pulled up. When he-began to-slide he should have touched his accelerator smartly and pressed the brake hall, when, on the ice, he would have swung 'round the complete half circle practically on his own axis. He:would then.have been facing the opposite . way and ,.,could. have_ :gone ahead without impeding approaching .tralitc. -.The above- remarks and suggestions are of importance when driving !under., bad. conditions on a road which is level. or more Or less so, but especially is this the case whey descending. hills., I. „paneot lay too much emphasis upon the need of starting. down a bill on which there may be frost or frozen incl.*, at the gavist rate, and, if the gradient is at all severe and long, wrtli a`,low gear engaged: Examples are, perhaps, the best Way' by which to giVe point to the arguments. Only this week a driyer was telling me of a series of accidents which was extraordinary in, that no one car hit any other. There happened to be live.carsdeseend- ing a slippery hill and I suppose that the incautiousness of the leading driver encouraged those following him to go too fast also At any rate the first' machine started -to run Side. ways. Then the fun began. The result was that; althoUgh none of the cars hit each 'other, all five landed in the ditch
or the hedge. - * * * * Do not be afraid of being- cautious.Under certain con- ditions care is not the sign of timidity but depotes that use of the imagination without which a driver can never rightly be called first class.
YOUR MOTORING CORRESPONDENT.
Previous page
