Letters from Readers, June 1945
Sir,
As one who has never found any fascination in the very small, high-revving, highly and usually over-Stressed engine, I wonder, after reading Captain Moon’s informative article on the Austin ” Nippy,” just where lies this fascination. On his own showing he and other owners
of the type were seldom out of trouble, or could ever lave to be. All the “Nippies “he has ever known ” suffer from the frequent loss of big-ends and have the main bearing races work loose on the crank . . . it is advisable -hi lift the head and re-grind the exhaust valves every thousand miles,” and so on.
Finally, even putting up with all this, and after a tremendous amount of bard work, the resultant performance is admitted to be negligible. Then, again, if we Ulm to C. A. N. May’s entertaining book we find the small M.G. brigade as often in mechanical trouble as out of it. True they were savaging their cars, but what is the use of a sports car if it cannot be used for sport without perpetual breakage Their only advantage seems to be that,
on paper, they are economical when they are running, but does the few pounds a year saved in petrol, tax and insurance really add up to the cost and inconvenience of continually having the device in pieces ? I doubt it. In the halcyon pre-war years, before the motor Trade became the province of pseudo enthusiastic get-ridll-quiek
speculators, one could buy 2-litre Lagonda, ” 12150 ” Aivis. old-time LeaFrancis or similar, for considerably less than a sports Austin or II.(;., and drive the thing indefinitely with no trouble, superior performance and all the advantages of a larger car—and no one really prefers a small car, do they ?
This, dear Editor, is written in no spirit of carping criticism, but from a genuine desire to discover just what. is this something that can arouse enthusiasm of the calibre of the 7 50 Club : for, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer (lint inues on his dreary way. (wile a few of us had better start hindini out.
zini. Yours, etc..
Liverpool, 19.