SPEED AND MORE SPEED.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 284, 18 April 1929, Page 7

SPEED AND MORE SPEED.

! REMARKABLE MOTOR PROj GRESS. If the recent rate of progress in motor speed is continued, what will be the quality of the motor car ten years hence ? Ten years ago the average car owner drove at 28-30 m.p.h., and averaged about 20-22 miles an hour over a long journey. To-day many drive at 38-40 m.p.h. and average about 30. The -enthusiastic driver of a sporting type of car •drives at 50 and averages 36-38 m.p.h. The sports car, tuned for racing, is capable of anything from j '9O to 100 m.p.h., and can average round about 60 over 400 miles of reserved road. To-day a small touring car of about 10,. rated horsi'-power •can carry a saloon body as well as, if not better than, a 29 h.p. car of ten years ago. It used to be necessary to be an •engineer before one could be a suc■cessful owner-driver. Now the veriest :slip of a girl can cover 200 miles a •day on a large and fast car with j •ease. When all these • things are taken into account, increased reli- j increased comfort, safer i ’brakes, easier handling, and so forth;

when one calls to mind that there are now a hundred cars on the road where there was one only, one realises that greater traffic skill is necessary to a driver, and that drivers are ordinary non-mechanical people, then surely the speed of progress in automobile design may well be termed marvellous. Furthermore, progress is accelerating rather than slowing down. . •