Gear-boxes and other matters

Gear-boxes and other matters.

NE hundred thousand spectators are said to have witnessed the French Grand Prix this year, and there was a strong contingent of English racing drivers and enthusiasts amongst them. The race was most interesting as a foretaste of things to come, with the German cars challenging the undefeated Italian machines. The new three-litre engines on the Alfa Romeos seem to have proved too much for the gearboxes. TrosSi experienced this trouble at Montlhery, and the same thing happened to Varzi and Chiron at the Nurburg Ring, and the fact that the latter was able to finish third on one gear is at once a tribute to the driver’s skill and the power-weight ratio of his car. In the Dieppe race, Lehoux changed the complete gearbox of his car between the heats and the final, so the situation must be fairly acute. I hear on excellent authority that Signor Jano is already contemplating a new racing car for next year, which will no doubt embody independent springing for all wheels and either a five-speed gear-box with a geared up top, as used on