A Record Trip. THE LIZARD TO LONDON.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 6, 1 April 1907, Page 225

A Record Trip. THE LIZARD TO LONDON.

W 'Filson Young, author of " The Complete Motorist," and well known as a motorist of the first class, m a letter to Mr S. F Edge, of New Burlington Street, London, gave the following interesting^ account of the trip made during last February from the Lizard m Cornwall to London. " You were good enough last week to send down to me in Cornwall a sixty hoise-power six-cylmder Napier car in order that I might make a trial of it and form my opinion What you will be more interested in however, than my opinion (which is entirely favourable) is a. statement of what I actually did with the car On the first day I felt very awkward on it, the division of control betweerf throttle and accelerator not bein^ what I am most accustomed to ; but after three days of driving in very hilly country and in very bad weather I felt quite at home. On the fourth day I started from the Lizard, and drove the car home to London on the top gear the whole way, a performance which, considering the very severe nature of the road through Cornwa.ll and Devonshire, and also between Exeter and Bath, seems to me probably unique in the history of motor cars,

I must confess that as an independent person, with some knowledge of the way in which records are sometimes made, I had been tempted to regard with a certain amount of suspicion — probably unfounded — the accounts of similar performances when made by interested persons or employees of the firms concerned ; but when I tell you that this achievement was in no way premeditated, that the car was in no way specially prepared or geared for it, anr 1 that indeed it only occurred to me to make the attempt after I had been some miles on my journey, you will realise that it constitutes a very genuine vindication of all you have ever claimed for the flexibility of your six-cylinder engine. In order that there may be no misunderstandings, let me tell you exactly what I did. On leaving Hilston I put the car into its top gear and drove through to Exeter where I lunched , the car was again started on its top gear and driven to Taunton, where I slept the night In the morning I again started on the top gear and drove through to your office in New Burlington street, the latter part of the way through fog and darkness and all the miseries of the Brentford and Hammersmith traffic. The first and second speeds were never used throughout the whole journey of three hundred miles. On two occasions, however when I encountered traffic in the middle of a hill and had to stop, I ran the car back by gravity to the level, started again on the top gear, and proceeded on my journey. On two other occasions when I took a wrong turning, I ran the car back on the reverse to the point of divergence, starting again in both cases on the top gear. On only two hills did I find it necessary to keep the engine running by slipping the clutch. And as a proof that the car was not geared low or specially prepared, I ought to add that it carried two passengers, four heavy pieces of luggage, and covered a flying mile on a very favourable piece of road in 50 sec My other exploits on this journey included threading my way on the top gear through a narrow and hilly street of Bath, and of turning right round m the main street of Taunton where I had taken a wrong turning Although I think there are other good cars besides the Napier, I honestly do not know of any other car capable of running at a speed of over sixty miles an hour on which this journey could be made on the top gear throughout."