The R.A.C. Trials : Comments on the Entries.
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By Henry Sturmey.
The tabulated details concerning the various vehicles entered for the road trials of the R.A.C., which appeared in " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR of the 22nd August, afford interesting points for consideration, interesting chiefly because of the greatly divergent views ap.. parently held by designers as to the correct way of meeting the requirements of the ease, and also—if we care to look at it that way—showing a wide divergence in the manufacturers' appreciation of the capabilities of their vehicles.
Class A.
In looking through the specifications of the cars entered in class A, I notice in the first place that, whilst the Turgan Company considers a vehicle weighing 12 cwt. sufficiently strong to carry a lo-cwt. load, the Darracq Company apparently considers that its construction calls for a vehicle weighing ton /3 cwt. I qr. to carry the same load. This latter maker also, curiously enough, apparently succeeds in producing a two-cylinder and a four cylinderengine at the same weight, seeing that both the vans entered by it are given at the same figures. In quoting the weight of the Turgan van, in comparison, it must be remembered that the Turgan vehicle is listed as to price for chassis only, so it is probable that the weight given is that of the chassis alone ; but, if we add say 3 cwt. for a light van-body, we still get is Cwt. as against i ton 13 cwt. Then, again, we are confronted with widely divergent ideas as to the horse-power necessary for the work. In the case of Turgan, it is thought that 6h.p., and a single-cylinder engine, is ample for the transportation of the to-cwt. load, whilst the Darracq people, on the other hand, reckon they want t6h.p. and a four-cylinder engine to do the same work, though, seeing that their vehicle itself weighs nearly i ton more, theiY estimate is probably not so far out as may appear at first sight.
Next, we come to the matter of price, and here once more are wide divergences. The Turgan at I:200, or, say,
e;225 with a cheap body,and the Darraeq at .4390, are wide differences
which the buyer of a van has to con sider, and it seems to me that, in the rase of all the vans entered, save per haps the first, the price is " way up beyond the ideas of most tradesmen requiring to carry to-ewt. loads. I con clude, however, that some at least of these cars are capable of taking much larger loads, and that they are not really to-cwt. vehicles, which would appear to imply that they will he running " light " and thus have, in some respects, an unfair advantage over, say, the Turgan vehicle with its little 6h.p. engine, which is to do the same work.
I fancy, too, that the body dimensions given are misleading and inaccurate. Size of platform certainly means size of load platform, and is not intended to include the provision made for the accommodation of the driver. In this respect, the De Dion appears to be the only one correctly measured in regard to the length of platform given. Here we have 4 feet 9-1 inches, whereas the Darracq vans are given as having 8 feet 3 inches platform, which measurement I take it is the measurement from back of van to dashboard, and not from back of van to back of driver's seat. Certainly, if it is not so, then these vans are built for very much larger loads than are to be dealt with in the class they figure in. The seven feet of the Turgan car is also most pro_ bably measured in the same erroneous manner. It is a pity that measurements have not been properly and uniformly given to the Club, as, from the point of view of the purchaser, it is of little value to him to know that the gross platform length is 8 feet 3 inches if there is only, say, five feet available for the carriage of his goods. When he starts to compare the relative suitability of the two vehicles for his own particular work, the bulk-capacity for load is one of the most important points the buyer has to consider, and to give, in the one case, overall length, and in the other the nett length, leads him into a fool's paradise.
It seems to me that, in matters like this, it should have been the duty of some Club Official to have checked in all the entries, and to have " spotted " these anomalies and written to the various entrants in an endeavour to get the figures correct. In the matter of total length overall, in comparison, there also appears to be considerable divergence. Thus, whilst the Darracq cars, on a wheel-base of 8 feet 3 inches measure II feet 6 inches overall, the Earp (Thames) vehicle measures 12 feet mm inches on a wheel-base of only 7 feet 6 inches, thus pointing to an excessive over-hang in comparison.
Class B.
Quite the greatest divergences in design in any of the classes is to be found in class A, but in class B, for one-ton loads, we again have considerable differences. The Palmer Tyre Company is doubtless entering a van for the purpose of showing how pneumatic tires can stand up under load, but I think that, except for certain trades, the expense for pneumatic tires, both in first cost and upkeep, is likely to be prohibitive, and, unless pneumatics can be produced which will last as long and cost as little as solids, commercial-vehicle users will call for vans constructed strongly enough to do their work upon solids.
The price divergence is nothing like so great in this class as in the previous one, though we have a difference of /...;t6o between the highest and lowest prices.
Class C.
Coming to the 3o-cwt, class (class C1 we get the first class in which a steam vehicle is entered, and with these it is difficult to make comparison in some respects, though, in the matter of price, unlike the case of the pleasure vehicle, the steamers are very much higher than any of the petrol cars. There is not a wide divergence in the prices of these latter, but comparing the £4go of the Halley petrol vehicle with £790 for the Darrarn-Serpollet, we have a very wide difference for the consideration of the buyer.
We get here a very wide divergence in the weights of the vehicles, although, so far as the petrol cars are concerned, with one exception, they come out pretty much the same. The exception is the Dennis vehicle, with an unladen weight of 2 tons, 3 cwt., which compares with the I ton, 12 cwt., 3 qrs. of the Thornycroft lorry, but, when we bring the steam cars into comparison, we find the Darracq-Serpollet scaling 3 tons, or nearly twice the weight of the Thornycroft, though both are called upon to do only the same work. I notice, too, that the Halley, Thornycroft, and Dennis vans in this class are approximately the same as regards overall length in relation to wheel-base, so that some approximate agreement appears to have been arrived at by designers when we get up to vehicles of this capacity.
Class D.
Coming to class D, the price comparison once again finds the steam wagon at the top of the list : the "7885 Darracq-Serpollet comparing with the ,4-510 of the Halley Industrial Motors, though the average petrol-. vehicle price for these two-ton wagons more nearly approximates to that of the steamer. The Halley vehicle, however, has a two-cylinder engine, as against four cylinders used in all the others, and it also has single instead of twin tires. At this point of load requirement, with this single exception, there appears to be a concensus of opinion that four cylinders are required, though it seems to me that, even here, although the power called for is greater than in the previous class, the greater simplicity and lesser first cost of twocylinder or three-cylinder engines should be worth consideration.
The largest class of all is the "threetonners," and here, with the exception of the steamers, four-cylinder engines are universal, and, I should say, correctly so. Prices, too, show a very close approximation : in fact, a more general agreement than in any other class, ,..75o to ,800, or thereabouts, being the approximate figure; still, there is a jump to no less than ..1,294. in the 4oh.p. 'Wolseley with petrol-electric
transmission, and it would seem to me that such a price, in comparison with the general average, must be a considerable handicap to business. However, that is a matter for the manufacturers, and, if they can show sufficiently superior advantages in these vehicles over others, they will probably have no difficulty in dealing with their output. In this class, again, there is a considerable difference in the weights, as we get a variation between the 2 tons, 15 cwt. of the Thornycroft vehicle, and 5 tons in the Milnes-Daimler, but the types of bodies explain these apparent discrepancies.
In this class there appears to be a practically absolute agreement as to the over-hang of the load, the total length of the vehicle being approximately so per cent, more than the wheel-base in all cases. This is accounted for, doubtless, by the general practice with the heavier classes of vehicles, all practically balancing the load over the back-axle.
Class F (including G).
Class F will be found to be chiefly interesting because it virtually resolves itself into a contest between steam and petrol, four steamers and half a dozen petrol vehicles forming the entry, and, in this class, the steamers are much the cheaper, although, on looking into this matter further, it is seen that, with the exception of the Dennis wagon, all the petrol vehicles use solid rubber tires, whilst the steamers rim upon iron ones. Now, when it comes to 51-inch rubber tires, and twin tires at that, the cost to the manufacturer is enormously increased, which doubtless is largely accountable for the difference.
Class H.
The final—class H—is confined to what are practically light traction-engines, and this class of locomotive stands entirely alone : it can in no way be compared with other types.
General.
There is one column in the table which has puzzled me a good bit. I refer to that dealing with ratios of road-wheel to engine. In this respect, as in all classes, there are some striking differences, as, for instance, in class E, where we have the smallest-powered car in the class—the De Dion-Bouton t5h.p.—with ratios of i to 2.4, varying to i to 12.2, whilst, on the other hand, we have the Atkey vehicle, with an engine of twice the power, fitted with gear ratios varying from one in 8.8 to one in 41.3. Other vehicles differ in a like degree, but here we have, for a three-ton load, a car with half the horse-power yet three times as high a gear. It is possible that the De Dion Company, in filling in the form, may have given, instead of gear ratios, miles per hour on their gearing, and by this explanation only can I account for the difference. Turgan, another French maker, seems to have done the same. This is a matter—like that of platform area—which the Club Officials would have done well to have ascertained accurately, because figures which are inaccurate are worse than useless. [The error in the figures should have been detected,' but they were so given by the makers.—ED,] Reverting once more to the question of platform area, I do not find the obvious errors which characterised class A appearing in the heavier classes, the makers in all of which very fully understand what platform area means, and the apparent failure to grasp what is requisite in giving these measurements in class A would appear to indicate the pleasure-car nature of the manufacturer's business, and to show that the entrants making these errors are 50111ewhat new to the commercial side of the business, i.e., of course, if I am right in supposing them to be errors.