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Loose Leaves.

13th December 1927
Page 36
Page 36, 13th December 1927 — Loose Leaves.
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Keywords : Bus

THE six-wheeler controversy is still proceeding apace, but the protagonists of this type of vehicle can bring many cogent arguments to bear in its favour, whilst those who have doubts as to its practicability and future have often to go to extremes to find what they consider are debatable points.

One of the arguments raised is that the rigid sixwheeler will be too fast, but why this should be the case is very difficult to see. Certainly powerful engines are usually employed ; power, however, does not always mean high maximum speed, but the more useful quality of rapid acceleration. As a matter of fact, the sixwheeler is not essentially made for speed. It possesses better qualifications, of which, in our opinion, the most important is its freedom from sideslip and wheelspin, owing to its greater holding power on the road. This is particularly necessary in a vehicle which is intended to keep up a fair average speed, and avoids much of the present risk experienced when cornering. Consideration must also be given to the more even tractive effort resulting from the spreading of the drive over more wheels than two.

It may be that the present models are not the last word in six-wheeler design, although they certainly represent great advances achieved in a remarkably short period. What should always be kept in mind is the principle involved, and if that be correct some means will inevitably be found to carry it out in a perfectly satisfactory manner, and who can deny that the principle of the six-wheeler is correct?

B18 AMONGST the many Continental visitors to the recent Commercial Motor Show were Herr Schippert, one of the directors of the Daimler-Benz Co., of Gaggenau, Baden, Germany, and M. L. Bacqueyrisse, the engineer of the Paris motorbus, electric tramway and river steamer undertaking. Herr Schippert was greatly impressed with the progress made by British manufacturers in the construction of motor coaches and buses, and especially at the great development that has taken place in six-wheelers. On a first inspection he was inclined to think that British makers were devoting too much attention to passenger vehicles, to the neglect of goods-carrying machines, but subsequently realized that these were well represented at the exhibition, the greater size and more attractive bodywork of the coaches and buses giving them greater prominence.

EQUALLY impressed was M. Bacqueyrisse with the

progress which has been made in the United Kingdom with public-service vehicles. In the course of conversation with him we pointed out that many British visitors regret the absence in Paris of the double-deck buses, which deprived them of one of the best means of seeing the many places of interest in the French capital. In this connection, however, he held the opinion that the double-decker was not suitable for the conditions In the centre of Paris. Moreover, the present generation of Parisians appears to have inherited its forbears' objection to climbing to the top of a vehicle, preferrhig to stand on the platform of the siagle-decker. At the same time, the Compagnie Parisienne is, we learn, about to make some experiments with double-deckers in connection with suburban traffic.

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Locations: Baden, Paris

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