The Ups and Downs of Motoring

H. W. SLAUSON

THE romance of touring is found, not on the open plains but rather in the mountainous rolling districts, in which frequent turns, rises and descents uncover new beauties of ravine, hillside, or mountain top with such frequency as to make the exclamations of surprise and pleasure the only monotonous feature of the trip. Fortunately, good hard surfaced roads have extended their ways into the very heart of our wildest and most beautiful scenery and today the hardships and inconvenience of highway pioneering are no longer associated with touring.

But the very turns, hills and bridges which make of motoring a scenic delight, are necessarily the source of mental and muscular strain to the driver. He, too, would like to enjoy the scenery of that distant vista, but because of a blind curve ahead or a narrow bridge at the foot of a hill, his mind must be concentrated on operating the car, or a momentary turn of the head away from the straight and narrow path may bring him, his passengers and the car into serious difficulties.

For this very reason, therefore, the driver should be able to devote himself to the topography of the country as indicated by the turns, twists and grades of the road ahead and not have added to his troubles those caused by imperfect mechanical operation of the car or by imperfect knowledge on his own part of the best, most efficient, and easiest means of controlling the vehicle under all the variety of conditions which his day's trip will encounter.

The most important part of the car to be thoroughly inspected before entering upon an extensive scenic trip are the brakes, for a good engine which will take you to the top of a hill is of but little avail if you have no means of controlling the speed of the car on the downward trip—for that inexorable law of nature, "What goes up must come down", holds good in motoring as well as in physics.

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The recent advent of four-wheel brakes on a large number of cars has made the lot of the driver easier, for not only can the speed of a car be retarded more easily, but the danger of skidding, even on a wet and slippery hill, will be greatly reduced. It is necessary, however, to make certain that the brakes are properly equalized so that one side will not grip before the other, and also that there shall be no greater braking effect at the front than at the rear.

But, speaking of skidding, there is no more dangerous condition of motoring than that attendant upon a slippery hill, a sharp turn at the bottom, and a car driven by a man unfamiliar with the causes and cure of skidding. A car can only skid when the wheels are sliding ; the wheels will only slide when the brakes hold them with a greater tenacity than the grip of the tires on the road; and the grip of the tires on the road is smallest when the car is travelling down hill. Wheels which have once started to slide on a slippery surface will continue to slide more easily than they will roll, and in lieu of any railway locomotive attachment for spreading sand in front of the wheels, the brakes must be released until the wheels begin to turn and then be applied gradually to the point just before sliding occurs.

This should indicate to the average driver the foolhardiness of attempting to descend any steep hill with his clutch released or his transmission in neutral. Even a poor engine may be used as the most effective kind of a brake which, while tending to slow down the rotation of the wheels and lessen the speed of the car, will, nevertheless, keep the rear wheels turning so that the deadly skid cannot occur. Of course, the brakes may be applied so hard as to stop not only the wheels, but the engine as well; but the rear axle power which is multiplied by the use of first or second gear will eliminate this difficulty. In fact, first or second gear alone without the use of the brakes will serve to retard the average car on almost any hill, if the throttle is kept closed. Remember, therefore, that if the gears are in low, the clutch engaged and the throttle closed, you may descend almost any hill, no matter how slippery, with but very little danger of skidding.

To do this, however, the gears should be shifted from high to second or low before the top of the hill is reached—for one of the most difficult feats of motoring is to shift to a lower gear while driving down a steep hill. The engine must be speeded up quickly, the clutch released, brakes applied and the transmission lever "felt" into engagement, at the same time that the car is kept on the road with the steering wheel, and the average driver does not possess enough feet and hands to accomplish this with ease.

Reliable, efficient, and properly adjusted brakes will also add materially to the distance which you can cover in a day. Your car will be under safe control at higher average speeds and you may approach a concealed turn or top the rise of a hill at a speed considerably faster than the crawl which must be maintained by the driver of a car, the brakes of which would not bring it to a stop if another stalled vehicle were found on the other side of the turn or at the top of the rise.

But, even with perfect brakes, no driver, under any circumstances whatsoever, is justified in committing that most serious of all motoring crimes— overtaking another vehicle on the wrong side of the road when approaching a blind turn or the top of a hill which conceals the road for a quarter of a mile ahead. Fortunately, state police as well as county and municipal officers are realizing the seriousness of this practice and are posting special officers at such turns to apprehend these offenders and it is hoped that action will be taken to suspend their driving licenses.