Professor Low- Reformer

Some Drastic Proposals for T.T. and Stock Machine Trials.
There can be few whose opinions of the T.T. races, past, present, and future—particularly the future—are likely to carry greater weight than those of Professor A. M. Low, the Judge at this year’s event. We found him, in discussing it, in a very disgruntled state of mind.

Very few things seem to the Professor to be all they might about the recent Isle of Man races, and he had some drastic alterations to suggest for future years. He was not at all satisfied, for example, with certain light weight machines, which were, as he truly remarked, almost as heavy as the medium weight types, and as regards the majority, at any rate, certainly used as much fuel.

This circumstance may have influenced him in his rather drastic proposal that, in future, there should be no capacity classification, but that all sizes should run together, the distance covered being extended to three times the present length, the races being run for three days instead of one.

In addition to this, Dr. Low advocated a standard stock machine trial, to be run over 4,000 miles at 30 miles per hour, a trial which would be impossible in this country, because of the speed limit. This test, he thinks, should be run as a non-stop event, the machines being equipped with the necessary lighting sets, and drivers being changed as required.

Certainly, if the two events, the T.T. and this standard stock test, were run one after the other, the result would be ten days to a fortnight’s programme, which would be a great attraction, and would allow of a much larger number of spectators being able to see something of what modern motor cycles can do.

As regards the future T.T. winner, the Doctor thinks that it will be equipped with a supercharger, thus getting over the present difficulty that, with the high piston speeds needed with the current type of four stroke engines, failures are too frequent. With the improved accelerative powers thus conferred, he expected that the T.T. would be run at an average speed of over 70 miles per hour. Many of the Professor’s prophesies have already become true, and those outlined above should certainly give the A.C.U. Competitions Committee and the Isle of Man authorities ” furiously to think.”