THE ROAD AND THE CAR

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1932, Page 17

THE ROAD AND THE CAR

THOSE -.'SPEED- TOURERS

PLACE IN AMERICA

It is a. moot point whether the motor has made the road, or the load made tho motor. When-roads were bad, if wo are to lieJiove. soruo erf'the old hands:, quality cars were- made io run Upon them. This was-true, but quite candidly those samo quality cars gave a terrible lot of'trouble' in doing so. trouble tho motorist of to-day probably knows nothing of, and if he does, most.of it he has quito possibly quito forgotten. The car of to-day is a better car than were its predecessors. True, it would probably bo very uncomfortable if run under the same conditions, being fast and different as regards .suspension, but all the same,, it "5s a better vehicle, and, modified for bad roads, greatly sg. Modern cars are equipped so that the "ride;" .as 'tho Americans call it, f can bo controlled, and some have advanced so'far that this control

is obtainable without so much as loaving the diiving scat. < When motoring 'first developed the world was quick to realise thai, suitable roads would have to be bmlt. To that extent the road, followed tho car. Lonal bodies everywhere found themselves in an impossible position, and so came tho day when the roading' burden began to fall on the motorist himself. With that came the super-road; and.with the: suparroaditlie modern ca,r. ; ■! ;w; /

; For it is-quite true/ the modern cur, is built for the super-road. That is thegreat trouble in Ifew Zealand,'We have not got the super-ioad, bufwe have got the icars; In, the ,main these cars are far too fast forf the. average of ;. our roads. It is not merely a .question of surface; lots of our roads, have now got real good* travelling surfaces, but nowhere have we any great stretches of the super road, i.e.,.the wictai straight,1 easy. grade roads that ♦exist, for" in-: 'stance, in the United States, running for 'hundreds of miles at a time in unbroken length so that the car travels as well as if;it were running on rails.! Here■ in New Zealand <we go a few miles and theii it is nothingl but hills, gtillfes, aiid curvcsj'a. short straight, and Once agaju hills, gullies, r and, curves; ifinning often to what'are no thing more,\or /less than mountainous -: track's;■■wlje.re the superspeed car is as much out of place almost as would bo an ocean liner.

Take a glance at America, A few years.ago it was a great feat to'mako a trip from coast to coast. To-day any motorist can, do it within a week, over 3100 miles in seven days ,of normal touring./What,is the.-Teason. Partly it is the- car, but mainly it' is jthe road that has made the fast car possible. Let us follow the routej -Starting at New York, the highways' are ■down through Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas, crossing tho Mississippi at Memphis. The first' break in tho pavement occurs further on, a six miles stretch of gravel and one or two others of about the same length in ,the samo State. The first 1200 miles from New York are unbroken pavement; over most of which a steady cruising speed of up to 50 miles an hour is possible; \ cf 150 miles In- three hours was the average speed, maintained with safety and comfort," says one who made the trip. . . '

• After Arkansas the route is by way. of. Texas and Arizona to San Diego. West of Globe, Arizona, is the Million Do^ar Highway, a;, marvellous road through formidable'mountains, yet with easy grades and easy curves. It is hot and dry travelling front Globe through Phooriix j and Gila- B«nd to Yuma, on the-Colorado Rivor, but no travoller need suffer for want of water, as service stations are plentiful, and it is possiblo to cover the stretch at close to 50 miles an thour. . ..,;...

From San/Diego it is only a stop to Los Angeles, the natural termination of such a journey^ ■ . ■ . . The only drawback to the journey is heat. The Southern States arc hot andithe atmosphere grows even warmer in the exceeding 110 deg. Fortunately,* it is a dry heat. T.here is a peril of sudden and violent hailstorms which can riddle a car in /a few minutes. '•■•. ' ■' ''■ '- ■■ ■ :'■-■ ''',

This, however, is not tl^e customary route across Amerina. : The V routes usually followed, are the famous Lincoln Highwayy Pikes Peak Highway, and National Old Trails) more direct, and bo it noted, better paved than the southern one-just described.;. No 'wonder, then, that the American likes fast cars. He has the country to cover and the roads to cover it on. '

the f,K t that i ear fiom othei dwoc tioji nuv ioict i situation that can. onlycud hl iceidcnt If attention must bo given from the traffic side, it is unl\ the moic irason tor the cai being gpt is fai nvajr ns possible from the tiallic stream. ri