Evening star., 1932-01-24

To skid or not to skid? That still is
the question before the American mo-
toring public.
A few simple rules that formerly
served to guide the driver no longer
provide life preserver for those in
| trouble. Cars are not only designed
differently, but there are more kinds of
road surface to be considered. Skid
| ding probably would be a closed book
today If cars operated at speeds con-
| sidered prudent 10 or 20 years ago. But
| anybody's speedometer tells different
story.
Five General Glasses.
| Skids have been roughly divided into
| Ave general classes-power, braking,
steering, speed and balance. To these
may be added some of the newer type
skids, such as develop from motor
torque, side-sway, aeceleration, motor
compression, tire conditions weight dis
| tributfon and adjustment of the shock
absorbers. Four-wheel brakes and bal
loon tires, once important factors in
minimizing skiddlng, no longer cover
| the situation. They may not even serve
as reasonable safeguards.
| In recent case car nearly upset
| when striking a curve at high speed on
an upgrade. The road was we'll paved,
wide and dished. There was excellent
traction, as the surface was dry and
the tires brand-new. Hitting the curve
at SIS, the car swayed badly. It would
have upset had the day been warm, as
the shock absorbers would then have
been softer and more yielding.
| Thousands Of drivers are forfeiting
the dement's of their equalized four
| wheel brakes by not throwing out the
| clutch in slippery weather when they
60 to stop. This appears to be Just
the reverse of the time-honored Gus
tom of letting the engine help slow
down the car. The trouble today Is
that because Of higher compression,
the engine applies too much braking
power through the rear wheels, thus
increasing rear wheel braking out of
proportion to needs. The situation is
the same as not having equalized
brakes.
Incorrect use Of the engine Is being
cited by driving experts as one of the
chief causes of present skidding acci-
dents and as the point which the care
ful driver needs to watch most.
Erratic Steering.
While skidding from erratic steering
still Is frequent cause of trouble,
especially with longer cars, which
should be kept in a truer course, mis-
/ handling of motor power and braking
ability Is constant temptation. In
wet weather it Is not uncommon for
the rear end of a car to slue around
| SO as to jam against the side of q
parallel car when being started away
| from the white line in traffic. The
driver steps on the gas, in low gear
and starts the wheels spinning. The
tires do the rest.
Failure to consider the proper use
Of the low low of a four speed trans
mission may induce skid While il
is true that these extremely low gears
are for use in special situations, usually
hazardous ones, they may be the cause
of trouble If the driver does not realize
that such gearing should not be used
when traction Is poor. High gear
should be used for starting over glare
ice and intermediate If the road sur
face Is oily or Shiny from dirt moistened
with light rain or snow. The Low
"low" is most useful where the driver
wishes to proceed with unusual eau
ton and without any possibility oi
stalling the engine, providing traction
is reasonably good.
Free wheeling has greatly changed
the picture with respect to skidding
If brakes are kept in good condition
as they are more apt to be where a
driver free wheels a lot and Is thus
more dependent upon them, skidding
is less marked tendency, provided