Motoring The New Gear-Changing JUDGING from a recent experience of
the latest forms of easy- change gear-boxes it looks as* if the troubles of the clumsy, the ignorant, the unteachable and the insensitive driver (if you would rather refer to them as troubles and not as punish- ments) were well on the way to oblivion; and that the driver who likes doing even the simplest thing just perfectly, the born driver, if you like, must discover difficulties for himself. I do not see how anybody whose car is fitted with any of the three principal easy-change systems can fail to engage the wanted gear when he wants to, or to do it in such a manner as to damage things.
Whether you approve or not of all this is another matter. You may be of the still quite numerous company who like their driving to give them the pleasure of difficult things well and cleanly done. You may regard that point of view as idiotic in 1935. You may not care tuppence about the ethics of the thing, so long as you do not have to worry more than is absolutely necessary while driving your car on what must be easily the most dangerous roads in existence today. For myself I think all those views are perfectly sound. I do think that the saving of time in changing which you make with one system is an excellent thing, that the ease with which you change in others is a great advantage. I also like the sensation of swift, clean change, at precisely the right instant, with an old-fashioned " straight " box. My tastes are of the most catholic, and there are times when I like all the new gears in turn. It is a dull confession to make, but I have practically no prejudice in the matter, and I have only one preference. I do like gears that run quietly at high speeds.
Two of the three new easy gears are no longer new, the pre-selective Wilson box, with either a plain clutch, a Daimler fluid flywheel, or the new automatic clutch which disengages itself at about 600 revolutions ; and the ordinary straight gear with a freewheel, which is almost universal and is also to be found in conjunction with the automatic clutch. The really new one is the gear invented by Captain de Normanville and officially known as the Safety. I am not quite sure why it is so called, but it is certainly a good name and a-good gear. It also seems perfectly safe. Unless you are of such criminal tendencies that you are driven to engaging reverse or bottom gear when the car is doing a mile a minute, I do not see how you can be anything but a skilled gear-changer with any of these systems. Barring that business of the reverse or the too low gear, the only mistake you can invent is to wait too long—and even that need not spell disaster except, I suppose, on a steep hill.
Among the cars I have lately driven with these gears are
the 15-h.p. Daimler, the '10rh.ps- Rover and the Humber "'Snipe," and I am still undecided as to .which of the three systems I. would instal in my Own car if I ever wanted to give up my .6-years' old " straight " box. The choice is further complicated by the attractions of the cars themselves and I have to sift from my notes on the 'trials all sorts of irrelevant remarks. I do not know any.cars of those powers and sizes— especially sizes--that do their particular jcb3 better. Apart from their gear-boxes they are thoroughly agreeable cars, comfort. able and easy to drive, out of the ruck. The 1935 15-11.p. Daimler is, to my mind, the most successful light car the company have ever made. It is well sprung, it steers much better than its immediate predecessor (all sway on bends has now heel accounted for and you can put her on a sixpenny- piece, as they say, or, at all events, on a half-crown), the engine is outstandingly quiet and the performance is greatly improved. I had no difficulty in getting just upon 70 miles an hour on top and over 50 on third, and that is excellent showing for a 2-litre engine, even though the six-windowed saloon is compact rather than roomy. The brakes are specially satisfactory. The front seat is noticeably comfortable, but the back seat would be improved by added depth. It climbs fast and is generally lively. There is nothing to say about the pre-selective gear- box-fluid-flywheel transmission that has not been said many times before. Unless you are quite idiotic, you change speed unconsciously and at the right moment. You cannot stall the engine. The price is £450.
The Rover's freewheel gives you not quite so fast a change, except at moderate speeds. If the engine is running very fast you must, using the freewheel, allow a second or so for the speed of the gears to synchronize. That allowed, you can take unheard-of liberties, though it would be just as foolish to drop from top to bottom at 60 miles an hour.as it would be in the Daimler or the Humber. The point is that the absent-minded, blundering, ham-fisted thruster is impotent for damage, while the man at the other end of the scale, the one who likes driving, can do some very pretty work with the freewheel locked at high speeds and in hilly country, and can vary his style enter- tainingly with the gear free in flat country. This car has an exceptionally good box-and-clutch, quite apart from its free- wheel.
It is also one of the most efficient Tens I know. The ordinary
saloon weighs 24 cwt., which is the quite .scandalous normal weight of today. Carrying this ridiculous load, the Rover made excellent times up my various test hills and on the flat. I liked its grip on the road, on sharp bends and at high speeds in the straight. It sits down properly, it steers lightly and firmly, and its brakes (both of them) are among the three best sets I know. It seemed perfectly happy at 65 miles an hour and it cruised " at 50.. The 4-cylinder engine, which has a capacity of -1,389 c.c., tax £8 5s., runs remarkably silently at all speeds, and the car's manners are generally excellent. There is an unusual amount of room in the well-finished body, and a first-rate point is that the back seat is forward of the axle. The price is £248.
The new Humber gear is a joy to use. It is epicyclic, but you cannot pre-select. You have a thumb-lever on a quadrant above the wheel and you change speed, with an orthodox clutch, exactly as you do with a straight box—only without the possibility of crashing or missing. You touch the pedal and, almost simultaneously, flick her into the required gear. The loss of power is said to be only one per cent. on top, and second, third and top are as nearly noiseless as a set of whirling gears can be. At high speeds, then, I put the Daimler first in actual ."changing, very closely pressed by the Humber ; the Rover—and all freewheels—a good third. At moderate engine- speeds I put the Rover first, with the other two bracketed second.
You see how little there is to choose between them, what a foal he must be who cannot drive any of them without disgrace.
Joint Pnicn.F.Au
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