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

HOW TO DRIVE A MOTORCAR nerve in a case of emergency varies with the person in question. We are assuming that it is impossible to stop, there- fore do not jam the brakes on too much, as this is sure to upset the steering, and anything in the nature of a skid may render a successful passage through the narrow imaginary spot an impossibility. Apply the brakes then only so much as they do not affect the steady direction of the car. If a pretty expert driver, they can be put on fiercely some distance away, the car straightened up again, and then the secondary applica- tion made of only such strength that it will not now affect the steering. Do not look first at the brick wall and then at the steamroller and try and figure out whether it is possible or whether it is not. The assumed circum- stances are such, that one has either got to get through or have a smash-up. If there is to be a smash-up the more nearly you get to passing through the slighter the accident is likely to be. Take, then, the right-hand object (we will assume it is the wheel of the steamroller) and steer just to miss it with your front wing and try and brace, yourself to the knowledge that if the first few inches of the front wing successfully pass the wheel of the roller the rest of the car will do likewise. This fact is important, as in such cases there is always an idea which rushes to the mind that although the thing has just been missed at the beginning, one is steering into it, and therefore it is necessary to steer away from it. Do not, then, steer out through sudden alarm, be- cause you imagine you are too close to it, but keep the eye firmly on that front wing and the steering quite steady until you are through. If there is room, then, by adopting this means you will get through. On the contrary, if, as so frequently is the case, one glances first to the right and then to the left the manœuvre is by no means so likely to prove successful. If in point of actual mechanical fact there is not room for the car to pass, then an accident must, of course, ensue, but the fact that you are, so to speak, in the 56