THE SHOW HROUGH FRENCH EYES
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ACCUSTOMED to visiting the Motor Show each year, the Commercial Motor Exhibition came as a surprise and, indeed, a slight shock to me. We Frenchmen do not suffer ' from an inferiority complex when thinking of mechanical matters. Far from it.
Rightly or wrongly, we regard our own country as the birthplace of most important inventions and the jumpingoff place for mechanical progress in general.
So far as the private-car show is concerned, it does little or nothing to shake this conviction, but at the Commercial Show we are up another street, as your Milton would have put it.
Humility.
A stroll around Earls Court may cause amusement to a Frenchman, but it also breeds a certain feeling of humility to the mechanically minded. Stay-at-home compatriots of mine may hear sometimes that Britain leads the world in industrial-vehicle design, and production, but they just refuse to believe it, and the sight of English cars touring in France does not alter their opinion. , They, should have visited this Show, for it demonstrates that we have years of leeway to make up. In almost every respect, except; perhaps, that of suspension, British chassis are, well in advance of our own. Curiously enough, however, some of the most " advanced " designs to be seen at Earls Court are not British. No Even worse, they are German!
In France, we are inclined to blame restrictive and unpractical legislation. when things do not progress as they. should in the industrial-vehicle industry, .but, in conversation at the Show; I found that some of your laws are as quaint' as our own, if not more so. I do not. therefore, think
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(Above) The finish of the light vans shown at Earls Court is .superior to that found in most Continental vehicles. This is a Reo.
(Right) Britain leads the way inthe oil-engine market. This fine example is a Dennis product.
that legislation can be used as an excuse for the lag that exists in our progress, as we seem to have our feet in the'same boots, or should it be boat?
In external appearance, many of your passenger Vehicles are, to us, distinctly amusing. A compatriot of mine visiting the Show with me could not refrain from frequent expressions such as "Oh que c'est moche," or " Quel horreur,' but fortunately nobody understood him. Speaking seriously, the Show presented the ugliest, but best-finished and most practical collection of passenger bodies I had ever seen. Grotesque-looking things in our eyes, the interior arrangements, nevertheless, calledfor unstinted admiration and, after all, the exterior is presumably designed to please British tastes. A point which at once strikes a Continental visitor is the high floor level in British coaches. This gives passengers a splendid view of the country, but would probably be looked at askance by French authorities, on the ground of stability, as we have so many mountain roads.
An extreme example was the fine Duple body on an Albion chassis, with an observation deck accommodating 17 passengers. Travelling in this vehicle
over your splendid English roads must be. pleasant and the luggage space beneath the rear deck appeared to be equal to the capacity of a small furniture van. • One thing rather surprising was the • prevalence of cloth or moquette upholstery with leather trimmings. Up to now I have been inclined to associate leather with British bodies and cloth with French or Belgian coachwork. Leather, however, is steadily making headway in France.
• Why " Dorsal "?
• A body which puzzled me had a tail fin, said to be used for ventilation as well as for ornament and as a stabilizer. It was called a dorsal fin, but why dorsal? A French fish does not wear his dorsal fin on his tail.
Turning to mechanical matters, it was interesting and instructive to note the real care and attention given by designers to keeping down maintenance costs. Removable cylinder liners, hearing shells, exhaust-valve inserts, etc., seemed to be in rgeneral use:
Oil engines have conquered the French market during recent Y9als, hut we still rely on foreign licence and in going around, the Show I saw many of our power units in their original versions. Gear controls of a particularly straightforward and sensible nature were noted on the E.B.F., A.E.C. and several other British chassis.
Profoundly Intrigued.
As a thoroughly satisfying example of commercial-chassis design, the Bristol oiler seems to-be hard to beat, but there were many others which aroused my admiration and a certain measure of envy. The Tilling-Stevens, with its central flat-eight engine, intrigued me profoundly.
This is a most advanced design and incorporates Continental ideas in the way of independent suspension, but why employ a 12-ft. shaft to drive the Jan, oil pump and dynamo? We shall never understand the English. They are too obscure.
In France we have developed the travelling shop to a large extent—so much so, indeed, that local tradesmen revolted and the operation of these vehicles is now much curtailed. They still carry on, however, although tew. are so well turned out as those I sae at Earls Court.
One thing that surprised ine, Was the, small number of light delivery vans exhibited. Quality made-up for quantity and the few displayed were, •I regret to say, much superior to-Most of-' our own.
Another surprise was the absence of dual-purpose bodies for general goods. This form of body has an -euormons vogue in France and. .quite apart from light-delivery work, it is a; hopn to the commercial traveller whose. samples are
bulky. _
On the Dennis stand. I was pleased to see a. fire-fighting vehicle with an enclosed body to protect the crew on long-distance calls. This can be justly claimed as an idea of French .origin (old issues of The Commercial Motor bear witness to the fact). -but it is cal:lied out in a. novel and practical. manner in the Dennis machine.
Another good example of this type of machine figures in the big display _ staged by Leyland -Motors; Ltd. It is illustrated on this page.
A big passenger vehicle that pleased me ;spec \ as a 32-seater with a body
hfiilt to R.E.F. specification. Con
fo'rtning with Continehtal ideas in many ways, they are better carried out than
in , France. The :Central emergency door at the rear, opening tiiit,„vards, impressed tile as being a good point.' -Too many French coacheshave such doors openinviinvi.-irds and in caSe of 'fire, the door would he instantly jammed by passengers endeavouring to make an escape. Beardmore taxicabs excited' my admiration, aa. I amaware of.the'rigid regulations which hamper a London cab designer.., The,e Vehicles Showed –a successful effort to deal with a...difficult problem, and when-COmpared with the
• designs current liveyears ago, represent what may be regarded as the zenith of taxicab production.
Solid Business Progress.
There is no space here to deal with ambulances, municipal 'vehicles, aerodrome fuel tenders and other special machines. Suffice it to say that they were admirable and that the entire Show gave evidence not only of advanced design and -thoroughness in construction, but of solid business progress.
Felicitations, by the way, on the fine new building. • It may not be so majestic as our Grand Palais, but at least one can see the exhibits properly.
• British 'commercial-vehicle people are fortunate in having a Show to themselves. In Paris we are pushed into the cellars beneath the annual car Salon.
I noticed that the standard nameboard system 'employed at all Continental shows for so many years had, to the great advantage of visitors, at last been adopted by your conservative