How To Drive A Motorcar
A Key To The Subtleties Of Motoring

I HOW TO DRIVE A MOTORCAR then is he to control it to the best possible means, and to secure the maximum safety all round, in conjunction with reasonable use ? On Training the Eyes Well-trained eyes are an. all-abounding fount of security. The statement is a strong one, but it is capable of substantial proof. Few drivers, it is to be feared, have made a point of training their eyes. The eye itself is a remarkably complex piece of the human anatomy, yet its powers of observation can undoubtedly be improved by scientific training. It conveys that which it perceives to the brain in a wonderfully short space of time, but the main thing to aim at is to en- courage, by careful practice, the power of the eye to act—as one may so term it-—on the offensive, rather than on the defensive. That is to say, the eye should be assiduously trained specifically to seek obstructions to the car’s progress rather than that the obstruction should be allowed to become apparent through its own magnitude. For the sake of example, when touring along, say, the main road of any large town and approaching a cross- road—even if it be quite a by-road.—the eye should intuitively pick out in the distance the presence of that by-road, and as one approaches it the mouth of the by-road should come under the active and positive vision of the eye whilst the main outlook is still straight ahead. One can gradually train the eye until such action, rather complex though it sounds, becomes neither more nor less than an instinctive habit. The Value of a Second It is hard to convey in plain black and white the extreme value which eyes so trained are to their owner. Say, for example, that one is going along the said main road at about 20 miles an hour and, quite hidden to anyone’s vision, a butcher’s cart is coming along quickly in the side road. Assume that, if neither alters speed, the two should meet at right angles. It 4