My year's motoring

The editor looks back on the cars he drove during 1969

THE IDEA behind this annual survey, which I find I instituted 17 years ago, is not to underline the variety of cars which the fortunate motoring writer is able to extract every year from manufacturers, nor to emphasise what an enthralling and exciting life such a person leads. It is much more simple than that. The intention is to discuss concisely the cars I road-tested over the preceding twelvemonth, as a pointer to which you should and which you are not advised to invest in, as they once said of those buying Austins. We receive correspondence which proves that MOTOR SPORT readers follow our road-test reports pretty closely and that sales of cars do stem from them, even up to Silver Shadow level. This being the case it seems sensible to recap at the close of a year’s road-testing, as a quick guide to how the cars driven impressed or failed to impress this critic, who has been driving for a sufficiently long period to know something of how cars should go and “feel” and corner and accelerate and so on, thus enabling the full road-test report (obtainable from outback issues or photostat departments) to be consulted where appropriate.

The qualities which a customer seeks in a motor-car must obviously vary. But surely the first must be dependability, inasmuch as if a car refuses to start any desirable and impressive performance and handling aspects it may possess are rendered very null and completely void? That in itself may be a blinding glimpse of the obvious, as Punch would put it, but can be qualified by saying that a good car which develops shortcomings involving mechanical and electrical semi-breakdowns may well come to be regarded by the luckless purchaser as less desirable than a mediocre vehicle of impeccable reliability and consistency. These days there are so many Traffic Act regulations to observe that unless a car remains fully legal its ownership can become an embarrassment—lamps which frequently fail, brakes which pull, steering which early develops play, suspension which wears tyre treads unevenly and so on, these and similar shortcomings can mar other qualities in the make-up of a car.

So I place reliability and dependability top of the list of desirable qualities a car in which you intend to invest should possess. Unfortunately road tests of the usual ten to fourteen days’ duration cannot comment on these aspects of a car but our correspondence columns can sometimes be enlightening. Next to mechanical and electrical integrity, I suppose acceleration is of great importance, in an age when in this country maximum speed above a staid 70 m.p.h. is of value only on race circuits. Qualities of control, ranging over how the thing corners, stops, the pleasure or otherwise derived from changing gear, braking and using the clutch, collectively make or mar a car’s reputation. One which lurches round a corner at very high speed without breaking away may be less enjoyable to drive than another that cannot corner quite so rapidly but does so with an indefinable sense of safety and well-being. Noise, uncomfortable seats, badly placed major and minor controls, stupidly arranged instruments, these are items which can detract from performance merits if a car is driven for long periods at a time.

Consequently, choice of a new car involves a very considerable number of factors, some measurable, some subtle in the extreme and unmeasurable. All I can do in the words which follow is to tell you how some cars impressed me and others disappointed. Letting one driver alone write a road-test report has the merit that, although he can hardly fail to be biased in some directions, all the opinions stem from the same assessment and readers who have read the same tester’s reports for more than twenty years will know where such bias lies and make due allowance for it. When a team of writers is let loose to compile a single test report the result may he what Mr. Averagedriver thinks of a car but as you, the reader and not Mr. or Mrs. Averagedriver, whose reflexes and reactions are inadequate above 40 m.p.h. the findings may well not add up. When one car is compared to another, or group testing indulged in, it is essential to compare cars fairly, not only by the obvious equaliser price groupings, but in respect of the purpose for which each car was designed, evolved and marketed. The follow-up of such group testing with individual tester’s findings is apt to confuse an issue which was never very clear at the outset, nor do I think a car can be decided upon, as a desirable personal purchase, by counting the blobs on a chart.

Anyway, we at MOTOR SPORT do it the well-established way, by giving a car submitted for test to one experienced driver, usually the Editor, and letting him express his personal opinion of it. Even detailed performance figures are a bit pointless, for we all know of instances in which precisely the same car, as revealed by its Reg. No., returns quite widely differing figures for top speed, acceleration and petrol thirst when tested almost simultaneously by two different weekly journals.

Enjoyment and a good return from a car are much more than its time over a s.s. 1-mile or its lap speed at MIRA unless it is bought purely for competition work. There are quite unexciting cars which appeal because they somehow impart an indefinable sense of well-being, of being likely to provide predictable transport over great mileages with a useful ease of control. There are other cars which have an unconventional approach to the common theme of transport and are enjoyable on account of the fresh techniques required to get the best out of them. Which is the more desirable, in terms a personal possession depends on how much you apply yourself to driving, as distinct from letting the car drive you, and maybe on how many members of a family have to use the beast of burden. It has to he recognised, too, that in the world of cars, fashions change extremely quickly. A few years ago I was of the expressed opinion that peace of mind and safety on the road were synonymous with front-wheel-drive and that BMC’s Hydeolastic all-independent rubber suspension was 100″. Some years prior to making these dogmatic pronouncements, I was a very loud advocate of air-cooling and rear-engined motoring. In more recent times I have had to confess that I have derived great driver-enjoyment from many different cars, from those of Panhard-Leyassor conventionality, from front-drivers, and from those with the engine in their tails, and that personal motoring requirements have been met by a front-engined car with de Dion rear suspension.

What this implies is that both the motor-car and motoring can give pleasure. And the latter still pleasurable, although the ever widening ripples of traffic congestion, a vehicle-density that involves driving a radiator to someone else’s luggage boot at 38 m.p.h. I find depressing Fifteen years or so ago, when driving home from the office, the Continental Correspondent and I used to remark that after we had crossed the Sunningdale level-crossing on the A30 we were on our own. Because from then on, especially after dark, there was a noticeable paucity of traffic and the road Westwards was plunged into dark ness. Now the highway is congested most of the way to Basingstoke and beyond and the nose-to-tail traffic lasts at least to Salisbury Twenty years ago the country town in which I reside was gas-lit and grass-verged and you could stop in a High Street and work on a vintage car without anyone noticing.

Today it has neon lamps, concrete kerbs, traffic problems and traffic wardens. . . . Whereas commuter on the main railway line that serves it used to mostly alight at Woking leaving a handful of yokels to travel on to the barbarian lands beyond today nearly everyone stays put to hideous New Basingstoke and further afield, and the station car park, where once my Austin 7 looked so lonely and conspicuous is bursting its boundaries, all this within two brief decades or less…. When I first found sanctuary outside England, over the Welsh border, we used to say that, after Gloucester, traffic problems vanished. Now, only a few years later, the road from there onwards has become noticeably busier, has more crawling commercials on it, so that one cannot often open-up a good car until Hereford has been negotiated.

Thus, while I would be the last to say that motoring is no longer any fun in this country, even though on our great and costly Motorways we are curtailed to 69 m.p.h., it has become increasingly necessary to choose the right routes and a sensible time, if fast motoring is to be as enjoyable as once it was. Certainly those who live within sixty miles or so of big cities have a miserable beginning and ending to the majority of their journeys, and what it will be like in the next ten years I prefer not to contemplate. . .

These prevailing conditions surely dictate that the most suitable cars for us are those built in this country or in Europe? America’s cars are too big and casually braked for British roads, and their new spate of “compacts” no smaller than the Fords and Vauxhalls we can buy here. Japan is challenging hard but so far, I think, without real impact. Russian and East German cars are a decade behind the times by our standards and the rugged promise of Scandinavian cars has faded somewhat in recent years. So perhaps it is appropriate that the two dozen road-test cars which came my way in 1969 comprised British, French, Italian and German makes, with one Japanese car for good measure, shod, incidentally, in nine instances with Michelin tyres, in five with Goodyear, three with Pirelli, two each with Dunlop, Avon and India, and one each with Continental and Phoenix covers.

Let us recap, on these ears, alphabetically. The Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV is a car for which I have almost nothing but enthusiastic praise. It is good on paper—twin-Cam engine, five-speed gearbox, disc brakes all round, etc.—and it is equally good to drive. I used this delectable sports-saloon to attend Lord Montagu’s garden party at Beaulieu, when the sun shone down hotly, the steam organs played, and Barry Clarke outwitted the waiters to the strawberries and cream, took it down into Wales, and to Bucklers Hard on another warm July day for the party to release a motoring encyclopedia. All this driving was sheer joy, the engine note never aggressive but nevertheless a reminder that there was a hemispherical-head racebred engine under the short bonnet, the performance, enhanced by the five-speed, cog-for-every-occasion gearbox, more than adequate for British roads and speed restrictions, the brakes, cornering and steering impeccable. The overall pleasure imparted by this eager, individualistic Italian car was such that I could forgive its rather lively springing, hard upholstery on the very well-contrived seats and an irritating absence of “keeps” on its doors.

I think it would have gone even better had the Webers not suffered from lack of interest below 3,000 r.p.m., but the docility and smoothness of the 1,799-c.c. engine from 1,500 r.p.m. to the impressive 8,000-r.p.m. maximum marked on the tachometer was very impressive, especially as it ignored the need for frequent oil replenishment, had a range of nearly 290 miles and gave nearly 27 m.p.g. of fuel. The brakes felt in need of some mild adjustment and the Michelin XAS tyres were apt to squeal before they were hurt, but then no car is perfect. But this Alfa Romeo GTV is so nearly so that I have since encountered many people who are contemplating going in for them.

Next, alphabetically, is the Aston Martin DBS. It had been far too long since MOTOR SPORT had road-tested a car of this renowned make. We had been keen advocates since I went down to Feltham by electric train before the war to write-up the Bertelli cars. But in later times we got no change out of our requests to test one. However last year I felt the climate improving and was allowed to look over the Newport Pagnell factory, incidentally, being taken by Dudley Gershon to see his great V8 engine, then still on the secret list. My idea of having a picture of Caernarvon Castle on the front cover of the issue of MOTOR SPORT which came out on the day of the Investiture of HRH the Prince of Wales caused me to search frantically for a suitable car. It had to be a British prestige car and an Aston Martin seemed the obvious choice, although I have ever since regretted that I did not insist on a Welsh-built Gilbern Invader. However, that Aston Martin had to be supplied at short notice by H. R. Owen Ltd. and it was unfortunate that it turned out to be the automatic-gearbox model, inasmuch as performance is somewhat restricted in that guise and the kickdown action not very nice.

But the 4-litre six-cylinder twin-cam engine got us very swiftly to North Wales and we were impressed with the excellent steering and the handling of this big motor-car, except for some sideways hop from the de Dion rear-end over rough going. Some but not all of the very comprehensive equipment of this £6,112 car also impressed but the disintegration of its exhaust system, which pretty well gassed the passenger, and a tendency to stall in London traffic, did not. However, two days was all too short an experience of a very impressive British high-performance car and I hope this year to be allowed to drive the big V8 on the Continent. As for the Castle on the cover, I hope it was appreciated, as a gesture to the Welsh, who had decorated their every tiny village and hamlet with British and Welsh bunting for the Investiture, who were so pleased with the new Prince’s speech in their native language, and who were relieved that the ceremony went off in good weather and without violence. I can only say that when I saw the pile of MOTOR SPORT at Smiths’ in Llandrindod Wells I could not refrain from asking the assistant how people were reacting to the topical cover she replied. “It’s always been green, sir. . . .” Ah well.

I drove away in the Austin Maxi from BMC’s Holland Park depot, since closed, with hope in my heart that this would be the breakthrough that the British Motor Industry so badly needs. It had a clever five-door body in its favour but I have to admit, like other critics, that the Maxi was too noisy, lacked power unless the revs were kept well up, had a notchy cable-actuated gear-change, and that its five-speed gearbox was really an alternative to having overdrive and that its rack-and-pinion steering was too low geared especially on its too upright column. The overhead camshaft 1 1/2 litre engine was new but also out-dated, being of iron, with a chain-driven o.h. camshaft for its non-cross-flow head. I tried hard to like this long-awaited new BMC car and it does have the secure road-clinging and handleability for which the Issigonis/Moulton suspension formula is renowned but it didn’t add up, in total, as a brilliant new 1969 offering; I say this with real regret, having experienced some reliable motoring in the original Mini, followed by much enjoyment of the 1100 model.

Another car which has been well received and has a reputation for ruggedness but which didn’t entirely appeal to me was the Auto-Union Audi 100LS. I assessed it over a four-figure mileage. This very spacious four-door saloon is beautifully finished and appointed but for fast driving the suspension proved ueduly supple and front-drive not entirely the answer. The 100LS is a considerable improvement on previous strongly understeering Audis I have tried but must be dismissed as a fine, very roomy fast touring saloon rather than a car for the enthusiastic driver, and its gear shift was a bit too sticky.

During last year I was fortunate in driving two BMWs, the BMW 1800TI and the BMW 2800. The present BMW range covers some of the best fast saloon cars in the world. The former was a privately owned, not a road-test car, and there must have been something amiss, because it understeered to excess and was a real handful to take through roundabouts, the steering horribly stiff. My respect for the Munich make was fully restored when I spent a few days in the six-cylinder 2800. I had wondered whether this would be a disappointment, like driving she big 3-litre Austin after an Austin 1800. I was soon reassured. The 2800 BMW was almost impossible to fault and covered congested roads to the West Country quickly and impeccably. I wrote that “If you regard the BMW Six as an extension of the great four-cylinder BMWs, with almost unbelievable performance but none of the splendid driving qualities impaired, you have a good idea of what motoring in one of the finest cars to emerge last year is like”; and I added that to try one is to buy one. That about sums it up, although the Phoenix Senator tyres tended to protest too early, reverse gear was occasionally over-ridden, and the start of the test was delayed when the bonnet jammed shut. The BMW 2800 is a great motor-car, enhanced by the typically German high-grade finish, but there were times when I felt that although this is quite one of the best ways of motoring easily and effortlessly through present-day traffic these BMWs are rather akin to impeccable humans—so smooth as to be a trifle dull. . .

A little Citroen Dyane 6 proved little only in respect of the swept volume of its air-cooled flat-twin engine. Its body is by no means little and the almost ridiculously soft but sure suspension and excellent brakes which it has inherited from the immortal 2 C.V. to a satisfactory extent wash out the effects of the modest horse-power. A grand fun car, this small Citroen . . .

The outstanding car tried last year in a price class which many buyers can afford was undoubtedly the Fiat 124 coupe. The liveliness of the push-rod Fiat 124 had made a profound impression and here was a twin-cam version with belt-driven camshafts, a light change to a five-speed gearbox, and very safe and enjoyable handling characteristics. With excellent lines and a body which is decidedly more than just a 2+2, quality finish, controls that literally “come to hand”, and seats which support the occupants as this gay car is flung through the bends, it isn’t surprising that the 124 coupe has made so many friends. At the British selling price of under £1,500, fuel economy in the order of over 27 m.p.g. and a speed in 4th gear which is rather quicker than the 99 m.p.h. available in 5th, this really is an exceptionally pleasing car to own. If you can stand a modicum of engine noise and somewhat harsh suspension, with a rigid back axle which can make its presence felt on rough roads in return for she neutral cornering, the fun of driving behind a racing-type engine willing to rev. to 6,600 r.p.m. and a car which will turn many heads, this Fiat 124 coupe is a car to seriously consider.

I also hold a high opinion of the Fiat 125S, which also has a twin-cam engine with timing drive by silent belts. When earlier I drove a Fiat 125 saloon I was not impressed and felt churlish when a neighbour who is a keen fan of one asked my opinion of the test car, to be told I didn’t much want one. I thought the ride and cornering too “familycar” after a harsh-sprung Ford Cortina GT I had been using. Why the 125S with its extra ten h.p. seems so much different I do not know, but it was one of the best medium-size closed cars I tested last year. I was also able to try briefly the new Fiat 128 and the luxury V6 Fiat 130 in their native country. The 128, like the Peugeot 204, is a charmingly sophisticated application of the front-drive, transverse engine layout and a most attractive small car in every way, so that it has already won one of those “Car of the Year” accolades. The Fiat 130 will surely build up a great reputation in its class; had I had more time to study its many ingenious technical features when I was at the Centro Storico in Turin I would be telling this page with warm praise for Fiat’s latest addition to their comprehensive range.

Last year the much-discussed Ford Capri came to me in two versions, a Ford Capri 1600GT and the 3-litre V6 Ford Capri GT. The first one coincided with some extremely wintry weather and as I had to drive cross-country from Radnorshire to Wolverhampton in it for the enjoyable VSCC Marshals’ Dinner and the following day’s snowy driving tests, I was a bit perturbed when the Capri refused to climb my drive, which commences with a considerable r.h. bend on which the Goodyears failed to grip. We had to walk our luggage to the house but by exercising care the long weekend run was safely accomplished without having to abandon this handsome new Ford in any of the valleys. This Capri came in the XLR equipment bracket, and while I found it adequately fitted out I disapproved of some of the minor control and switch-gear arrangements. I was also a trifle disappointed that this Mustang-like brute had to get beyond 80 m.p.h. before outaccelerating the beloved Ford 1600E. The figures we took showed that 17 seconds were required to reach 70 m.p.h. from rest and that a 5.5 3/4-mile occupied 18.8 seconds.

The 3-litre V6 Capri put right any criticism of lack of pick-up and must be regarded as the best of all Capris and while road-holding and cornering lack the sort of finesse which you expect from a true sports car and the ride remains typically Dagenham oval-wheel, for what they are and what they cost these Ford Capris are significant cars, whose controversial appearance has become more acceptable, in my opinion, with the passage of time.

The Ford Escort Twin-Cam was another interesting car to try, which I took to the HOC Prescott meeting for that nostalgic Bugatti cavalcade, Eric Giles taking me up the course in his Type 46, as a further reviver of pre-war memories. The Ford Escort in twin-cam form is a truly great little car, as it could hardly fail to be with a top velocity of some 112 m.p.h., acceleration of the order of 0-60 m.p.h. in less than ten seconds, and road-clinging and cornering power quite able to cope. So this modest-looking closed conveyance; with 80 m.p.h. possible in 3rd gear, is about as fast as anything you are likely to encounter, especially on twisty roads. Yet it is not, apart from a high noise level, the tricky, rally-type car some writers have dubbed it. I found it docile enough even for middle-aged and cautious drivers but it did give me a fright when, the evening before I was due to drive to the VSCC Oulton Park meeting in it and was checking speeds in the lower gears, the engine emitted a horrid noise as peak r.p.m. were reached. I thought I had dropped a valve but the automatic ignition cut-out had protected the mechanicals as intended and it was only a blown exhaust-manifold gasket. But the local Ford dealer made it apparent that he didn’t trust twin-cams and I had a very noisy journey the next day. However, this, and a sump that emptied itself rather quickly, and those badly placed switches, did not manage to mar the grand fun of driving this hot Escort with its so excellent power weight ratio. The only other Ford I handled last year was the

Ford Zodiac de luxe Abbott estate-car

. It was dealt with last month, so there is no need to say more here than that I like the estate-car version of the V6 Fords better than the rather slow-selling saloons and that this luxury shooting-brake is a very useful load-shifter.

The Hillman GT grew on me the further I drove it, which was mainly to Devon and Cornwall, a night being spent with Anthony Blight who has recently completed one of the most fascinating studies of Roesch Talbots and the history of sports-car racing ever written. This Hillman gets along very well, compared to a Ford Cortina GT has a better ride and a trace more refinement, but lacks some of the luxury equipment with which all Rootes’ medium-sized models used to be endowed. The high-back seats and speed-flash were items I could have done without, but the stupidly-dubbed GT version of the Hunter served us well and I hope it, the Marathon victory and Chrysler dollars will save a concern which has made sprite interesting contributions to motoring, not forgetting the late-lamented Sunbeam Alpine.

One of the highlights of the 1969 road-test curriculum was trying the NSU R080. This advanced Wankel-powered car came up to expectations, combining as it does comfort, effortless cruising, a level of choppy ride and safe high-speed cornering, but it used a lot of petrol and oil and was not enamoured of the automatic clutch providing two-pedal control on the “Sportomatic” system. Fascinating but expensive in this country might sum up this unusual German car and, as I said at the time, the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow rides even better, there are faster cars and some that are more comfortable, but on allround merit this NSU is one of the best family cars in the business. Yet they are not seen on British roads in any numbers.

An Opel Commodore GS coupe provided a combination of German quality, American-style nonchalence of running from an in-line six overhead-camshaft 2-1/2 litre oversquare engine, and European standards of control and braking. Performance was in the 115-m.p.h. 0-60 in 10 seconds bracket, and there was good power steering. The engine got noisy when extended and as is all too common with modern cars, after you had described the ride as pitch-free this had to be qualified by the words “lurchy” and “lively”. But I enjoyed this Opel more than I had anticipated and look forward to driving the 1900GT coupe.

The very real refinement of the Peugeot 204 coupe is a happy contrast to most other small cars and represents a sophisticated application of a transverse engine driving the front wheels. I like all Peugeots but we get them all too infrequently. Unfortunately the price of the 204 coupe in this country—£1,327—puts it out of court for most smallcar shoppers. I made acquaintance last year with the Rover 3500 V8 in its latest guise with a better system of automatic transmission. It was one of the most enjoyable cars of the year, mainly because all the good features of the Rover 2000 are allied to smoothness of power production and such effective acceleration that on I hurried run back into Wales from Oulton Park on Good Friday I am sure some road users thought t was taking chances in filling in the gaps in the traffic, whereas so sure-footed was the Rover on its Avons and such is its pick-up that the multi-cylinder 3500 can accomplish such passing operations in complete safety. As I know from long experience of a Rover 3500 V8. the de Dion back-end’s absence of weight transference and its upright wheels make it possible to accelerate hard on slippery roads and progress in a straight line. Couple such handling qualities and the compact individuality of this Rover with the light-alloy V8 engine conceived originally by General Motors and you have a very acceptable four-seater saloon for dignified and dashing drivers alike.

There are those who bemoan the fact that Peter Wilks rehashed an American power unit for the Rover 3500 when BI.MC had good V8 of their own, and I join in regretting the passing of the line 4 1/2 litre V8 Daimler Majestic. But if Mr. Wilks, Rover’s Engineering Director, had not evolved this highly acceptable Rover there would equally have been people crying out to know why they couldn’t have a compact car with a light engine of more than six cylinders. Rover have produced it and there is nothing else quite like it among all the many makes and models on the market. Bravo, Solihull!

Mark you, I think you need to be pretty senile to habitually use a car without a manual gear-change, which is the only reason why Editorial transport isn’t provided by one of these splendid V8 Rovers. But I had a most enjoyable time with the test car. I had gone to Oulton Park to see the F5000 cars race, and very dull it proved. I returned from Wales to Hampshire on Easter Sunday evening in order to be at the BARC’s new Thruxton circuit on the Bank Holiday, where the F5000 racing was much more exciting. When it was obvious that Rindt in the new Lotus 59B would lead home the Matra MS7s of Stewart, Beltoise, Pescarolo and Servoz-Gavin, and having seen him set a new lap-record of 114.62 m.p.h., my youngest daughter and I scrambled into the Rover and got clear as the race finished. I then drove back to Wales, avoiding the holiday traffic by turning away from any jams we encountered at junctions and roundabouts. This led us across a part of the Wiltshire Downs that were new to us, with some astonishing outcrops of rock amongst the grass, and finally to Swindon, where we were confused by the signposting but eventually got to the Cricklade road without much delay. The Rover then went to my eldest daughter’s wedding the following day and was returned to Scagrave Road the day after that, with over 1,300 satisfactory miles totted up.

Here I will digress to say that I later watched the BRDC International Trophy Meeting at Silverstone to see the F1 cars perform. This I found pretty dull and thereafter I confined my race-going to those events I enjoy, put on by the well-established Vintage SCC. If this seems a shocking admission coming from the Editor of MOTOR SPORT, is it any worse than that of the late C. G. Grey who, when he was Editor of The Aeroplane, used to take a delight, in telling you that he flew on one day every year so that he could spend the remaining 364 saying how dangerous it was? However, we had other reporters working around the World to describe those races we thought you should know about.

Reverting to testing, the Sunbeam Rapier H120 is a car the appearance of which does not appeal to me because I do not think fastback styling is applicable to a full four-seater but which, because it combines more than adequate equipment, ample performance, individuality and a certain rugged approach to the rigours of the road in the hands of determined drivers, has found a niche it deserves in the sales charts. I used it for sonic long journeys, including attending the VSCC. Prescott hill-climb on the way home from one of my numerous trips to Wales. There is comprehensive instrumentation and it is a comfortable car, even if the handling has dated somewhat. It runs a decent distance on a tankful of fuel, and altogether I hope this Rapier with the Holbay engine will remain in production and that the Sunbeam, unlike the Riley last year, will not suddenly find itself to be what Lord Montagu calls a “Lost Cause”.

The Japanese car of 1969 was a Toyota Corolla 1100 de luxe