Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/78

50 membership will be found owners of almost every known make.

To a man of leisure who is also of a mechanical turn of mind the management of a motor-car is doubtless a pleasure, but a very considerable amount of time is required for keeping the engine in order.

For some years I have made long Continental journeys in motor-cars, and have hitherto been exceptionally fortunate in avoiding breakdowns of any kind. My friends have been surprised at the punctuality with which we start in the morning and-arrive at our destination, some two hundred miles off,



in the evening. They are unaware that my engineers have spent at least an hour on each car before starting in the morning. Such care may not be necessary, but it is certainly wise.

One need not run to the other extreme of constantly tinkering with the machinery, a very common fault with amateurs. The desire to 'take the thing to pieces, put it together again,' and say afterwards that one has done so is very great.

The numerous difficulties of cars, the little things that happen, are ably dealt with in the other portions of this work, which should be carefully read by everyone before purchasing a