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

STARTING THE ENGINE Starting the Engine by Running Backwards Similarly if one has stopped on the way up a hill and is lazily disposed, the engine can likewise be started by means of the car, but in this case, naturally, it is necessary to engage the reverse gear. It is, of course, obvious that if the engine is revolving the right way for driving the car with one of the forward gears in mesb, then, when it is going backward, if one of these gears is engaged, the engine would be turned in the wrong direction. This principle of starting the engine on the reverse cannot be so confidently recommended as sound prac- tice, but at the same time if it is done carefully there is no particularly pronounced objection to it. When the engine is started, one has, of course, to stop the car again and engage the low gear, starting away as previously described. An Exception to the Rule It has been stated that in order to start the engine when the car is progressing forwards, the top gear should always be engaged. There are occasional ex- ceptions to this. The one most likely to occur is the case when one unwittingly stops the engine in traffic and the momentum of the car is reduced almost to vanishing point. In such cases it is probable that the said momentum would not be sufficient to start the engine if the top gear were engaged, or, to be more precise, it would perhaps be better to say that the remaining motion of the car would not revolve the engine suffi- ciently. In such cases one should quickly engage the second gear of either a three-speed or four-speed box (the motion must be quick and decided), and letting the clutch in will then have the effect of quickly arrest- ing the progress of the car, but in so doing the engine will probably be turned at a speed which is sufficient to start it. 3!)