Evening star., 1932-07-10

A friend is a person who knows how
badly you drive but who thanks you
for giving her a lift.
Throwing cigarettes from the car is
bad business at best, and particularly
hazardous If the woman doing the dis
carding throws the cigarette as she
would base ball. A woman was Just
confessing to me that one of her back
| handed miscalculations resulted in the
cigarette landing between her back and
the back of the seat. Result: A burned
coat and an unsightly hole in the up
holstery.
There's a lot in being frank with po-
| lice officers who check you up on vio-
lations. I am thinking of the young
lady who went to the officer who tagged
her for ver-parking, admitted that she
| had run afoul of the ordinance and
asked him II it would be all right If
she mailed the Police Department a
| check to cover the fine. He was so
amazed at this first experience with a
driver who admitted being in the wrong
that he promptly tore up the tag.
Those of you who pick out cars of
short wheelbase' should heed the advice
of color expert who says that smaller
cars look more impressive in darker
colors, such as dark green, Maxwell
Parrish blue and red. Also using one
| color for the whole car improves the
stream line effect and makes the car
look longer.
A woman who has been in the Gus
tom of using the engines compression
! to check the speed of the car on the
downside of a local hill was alarmed
recently when the machine did not hold
! to it's usual speed. It was almost as if
/ the machine were free wheeling. A me-
/ chanic explained that due to the heat
! from a slipping fan belt the oil had
| thinned out, lowering compression
| through a poor oil seal at the piston
rings. In addition some of the valve
stems had expanded until their heads
failed to close tightly. This also low
cred compression and leSsened the brak-
ing effect.
Sometimes heat improves compress
| sion, but 1t usually works out that the
harder the motor works climbing a hill
the less Of brake it will be on the
doWnside.
There goes another woman pulling on
| the hand brake the moment the engine
stalls. A clear road ahead and no rea-
son to delay the restarting process by
stopping. The instant the motor stalls
always touch the starter button, but
press your left foot to the floor to re-
lease the clutch. No need even to shift
| to neutral.
All that may be news to you and
yet so fast does this motor world race
along that the paragraph above is
out OF date for women who drive
many of the latest cars. When there is
automatic starting the driver doesn't
even need to think about the stalling
Nor does she have to declutch. because
the instant her foot is lifted from the
accelerator that is all taken care OF
automatically.
When. a woman discovers that she
can pilot the car without running into
| approaching vehicles she usually Jumps
to the conclusion that she has mas
tered the art of steering. What has
happened is that she has acquired
that time-honored little knowledge
that Is very dangerous thing Steer
ing is vital to safety and high per-
centage Of accidents are directly at
tributable to lack Of proficiency in this
particular act.
Whether the rear Of the car sways
dangerously, or goes into skid, is en-
tirely dependent on the way it Is
steered. Skillful drivers can pull a
car out of bad skid with no as
sistance other than the wheel Even
the riding qualities of the car can be
altered by steering. Without a full
knowledge of steering no driver can
make good job of parking.
Good steering is essential when you
are taking curves. Most women do
not start to cut the wheels for a
curve soon enough and try to straight
en- up the wheels too quickly. The
steering wheel figures prominently
when you apply the brakes, because If
the brakes are not equalized and the
/ car tends to pull one way or the other