VETERAN CARS

VETERAN CARS

Sir, Your correspondent ” Countryman ” might be interested in the following. I now own a 1914 Renault ; chassis purchased 3914 for about i850 by local lady and fitted with ” utility ” body. It was then taken to Salonika, where it did service throughout the War by carrying wounded. On its return to England it was used locally and then purchased by my uncle for 1,550. It then covered many thousands of miles and shifted hundreds of tons of broken concrete for garden use. For the last eight years she has lain in the open and is used for carting gravel, hay, water, etc. about the estate. The radiator has been dispensed with owing to a burst in frost ; cooling water being used in the block only. The car starts in any condition almost immediately after being primed through the plug holes. This applies when covered with thick frost, the 2 ft. 6 in. external induction pipe then frosting up nicely I It has a very nice four-speed right hand change gearbox ; clutchless gear changes being possible. The front shackles of the rear

springs are rubber bushed. Back axle and gearbox have large oil fillers which lift up against a double spring, no nuts having to be undone. The sump can be drained by turning a tap. Tyres are now getting a nuisance, and its demise will be for this reason, should it come.

Incidentally I have just been shown a fine photograph of a 1910 45 h.p. Renault with. full electrical equipment including horn. Other old cars of which I have intimate knowledge are the 12 h.p. Rover from 1912. These had S.U. carburetters with leather bellows ; these bellows having to be soaked in linseed oil frequently,

otherwise they got hard. Right hand change three-speed gearboxes were fitted giving about 55 m.p.h. max. My uncle bought one of these cars at the 1912 Motor Show and owned it till the crown wheel broke about five years ago through lack of lubricant.

I drove one of the 1014 models several hundred miles with all the big ends gone, using the car daily in this condition while another was being overhauled, subsequently scrapping the Rover. I am, Yours etc.,

W. HARBORD. ” Woodlands,”

Normandy, Surrey.