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1929 In Retrospect
By E. K. H. Karslake
Published in "Motor
Sport", December 1929
ANOTHER year has come to an end, another succession
of epic battles has been fought out on road and track,
and once more we may look back on the year that has
passed and see how we stand for the future. There is
no doubt that the 1929 season was eminently sucessful;
we must see to it that the future is equally well filled
with scope for the racing enthusiast.
In the first place the point which stands out is that
the race for standard cars has swept everything before
it. Starting as almost a local affair in 1923, the Le
Mans race has now become the cardinal event of the year.
We have got our own Tourist Trophy on an assured footing.
Ireland has started her own race, and the Italians in
typical fashion have set the seal on their own idea
of reviving almost the town-to-town races of the young
years of the century. On the other hand, races for real
racing cars have practically vanished from the calendar.
The French Grand Prix has become an affair of very little
importance, and the 200 Miles Race has faded.
There is no doubt that the new type of racing has provided
excellent sport. Entry lists are very much better filled
than they were in the latter days of the Grands Prix,
while the public are definitely more interested in comparing
the performances of various cars which they can buy
than they were in noting the success or failure of some
novelty in design. The fact, however, remains that as
a result of this situation, no special racing cars at
all are now being built. In Italy alone have any successful
races of the old type been run—the Targa Florio
and the Grand Prix at Monza. Neither of these events,
however, occasioned the building of new and special
cars. The Targa Florio became a battle between the standard
type Bugatti and the equally standard Alfa-Romeo; while
the Monza race united a collection of sports models
and old racing cars. Finally the Brooklands 500 Mile
Race organised by the British Racing Drivers' Club witnes.sed
a battle between modern production models and special
racing cars two or three years old. This race alone
showed how quickly things still move in the automobile
world, for it was the modern sports car and not the
racing car of yesterday which carried off the prize
in a straightaway track race of 500 miles.
This situation, however, is one that must give us pause.
There is, without doubt, no better way of finding the
weak points in a production model than in racing it
against its rivals. No one can deny that the sports
car race is an excellent idea, and ought never to be
abandoned. On the other hand, one may ask how well we
are going to get on without any races of the old type.
What is going to be the effect of running no races for
special cars?
Take the outstandingly successful cars of this year—
the 4i-litre Bentley, the big Mercedes, and the AlfaRomeo.
The last-named especially may be taken as a good example
of how we are using the lessons of the post-war Grands
Prix. Would Alfa-Romeo now be building a car with a
supercharged multi-cylinder double overhead camshaft
engine, had it not been for the firm's experience in
the Grand Prix races of 1924 and 1925?
During those years the most advanced type of engine
in the modem sports car was tried out, its weak points
eliminated and the whole design brought to perfection.
But this development of the modern engine could never
have taken place with the same rapidity, had it not
been for the special racing car. When Fiat appeared
at Tours in 1923 with a supercharged engine of this
type, would this or any other firm have dared first
to sell 50 such cars to the public and then try out
the design in racing ? One hopes not, for at Tours the
Fiats all fell victims to their superchargers, and it
was not until the next year that the device was really
perfected. The lessons learnt at Tours in 1923 and at
Lyons in 1924 are directly embodied in the Alfa-Romeo
of 1929: but what advances in design are to be learnt
to-day and incorporated in the sports cars of 1934?
When the Mercedes won the Tourist Trophy at Newtounards
this year, it achieved its victory over a course by
nature winding and difficult and over wet roads—
both features unfavourable to the large car. It won,
however, on its road-holding because in fact its makers
had so embodied their experience with special racing
cars in the standard production, that they were able
to make a giant car more easy to handle under difficult
conditions than smaller machines developed only on the
experience of their manufacturers in touring car races.
The value of races of the old type is obvious to anyone
who has given any attention to the matter, and examples
from the past can be multiplied. How long would we have
had to go on changing the tyres in the old-fashioned
way whenever we had a puncture—and I know just
what that means having scoured the continent from San
Sebastian to Vienna at excessive speed in the days when
the roads really were bad in an und.ertyred light car
and the grilling heat of mid-summer—if Renault
hd not realised that he could win the 1906 Grand Prix
by using detachable rims, and thus set going the rapid
advance of quick tyre changing, perfected by Georges
Boillot when he evolved the integral flange type Rudge
Whitworth hub-cap ? How long, too, would it have been
until we got four-wheel brakes, if the same driver had
not insisted on them for his 1914 Grand Prix Peugeot,
and had left them to be developed on the standard cars
built by Argyll ? Would we now have the super-charger
fitted to so many standard sports models if Fiat had
not used the device at Tours, and had left it to be
evolved by Mercedes in the days when that firm was debarred
from all the classic races ? If design is to go on advancing,
we still need races for special cars, and the only objection
to their revival would seem to be the reluctance of
manufacturers to take part in them. I feel, however,
that the solution to this problem lies in the reorganization
of the Grand Prix. Why not revive the Gordon Bennett
Cup idea, that is to say, make the contest one between
nations rather than between firms ? Limit the entries
to three cars for each nation, and let the race be run
by the victorious country of the year before. I feel
that under these conditions entries would soon materialise,
and the old spirit of racing would return.
With regard to a formula governing entries for the race,
this has caused considerable difficulty in the past.
The capacity limit has apparently outlived its usefulness,
and the only alternative that I have seen put forward
so far, is the fuel consumption race. This limit, as
the only test of real efficiency, is obviously ideal
in theory, but is very far from it in practice, as it
spoils all the driver's fun if he has to close his throttle
in the middle of a real good "dog-fight" because
his fuel gauge does not look too healthy. What we are
really aiming at, however, in the air even more than
on land or water, is a good power-weight ratio, and
I should suggest that the limit for our new Grand Prix
race, should be one of engine weight. The engines would
only have to be weighed some time before the race, and
sealed by the examiners, and otherwise the designer
would be given a free hand.
However we can leave the actual regulations to be fought
out by the real experts, and I will content myself by
saying that I should like to see a race between Sunbeam,
Miller, Delage, Bugatti, Fiat, Alfa-Romeo, Mercedes,
Austro-Daimler and Minerva, using cars with supercharged
twin-eight engines with the crankshafts geared together,
working on the 2-stroke cycle, and each employing a
different valve principle : these engines driving propeller
shafts passing forwards through the crankcase between
the crankshafts and driving all four independently,
sprung wheels through de Lavaud-type infinitely variable
gears. That should develop quite an interesting sports
car for 1935! However, I seem to have wandered rather
far from my original subject of a review of motor racing
in 1929; and surely this subject has sufficient interest
in it. From a national point of view, any one who was
lucky enough to be at Le Mans for the 34-hours race
this year cannot complain of England's performance.
The Grand Prix d'Endurance is now the blue riband of
the racing calendar, and in this event the big 6-cylinder
Bentley driven by Birkin and Bamato showed its prowess
by contemptuously holding the lead throughout and finally
winning the race at the record speed of 73.6 m.p.h.
One might well feel proud when one remembers that it
is not so long ago that we all gasped at the Lorraine-Dietrich
for winning this same race at 100 kilometres per hour.
Nor was this all, for contemptuous to all other corners,
if respectful to their big brother, the three "
41-litres " steamed in in line ahead formation
behind the 6-cylinder. Bentley, always our great protagonist
at Le Mans, set the seal for ever on the prestige of
the British sports car on the continent.
Italy, too, may well feel proud of her Alfa-Romeo. When
the marque swept the board in the Italian 1,000 miles
race, we began to look forward to a good season for
the Milanese firm, and it was not long before the "
Alfa-R's " had gained for themselves a reputation
for invincibility in their class almost equal to that
of the Darracqs some years ago. The Brescia-Rome-Brescia
race was followed by the T.C.C. "double-twelve,"
when for two long days Ramponi with his 1500 c.c. Alfa-Romeo
fought with the big Bentley, and just won on handicap
at 76 m.p.h. in one of the closest races that has ever
been run. The greatest triumph of the year, however,
was undoubtedly the Dublin Grand Prix. In the light
car section of this event Ivanouski on the Alfa fought
with the Lea-Francis and came home a winner at 75 m.p.h.
; but not content with this, the same driver decided
that he must give the 2-litre model a chance to win
its spurs. This time it was the Bentleys that he had
to contend with, but once more he proved victorious
and put up his average to 76.4 m.p.h. The Alfa-Romeo
has certainly had its share of victories, and well it
deserves them. It is perhaps the most modem sports car
built to-day, and the most efficient for its size. Something
of the spirit of the great Ascari must live on in those
magnificent little cars. Finally the great races of
the season were brought to a climax by the Tourist Trophy.
Some of us, impressed perhaps by the huge chain-driven
veterans of the past, always suspected that Mercedes
still made the world's supreme sports car. We were impressed
with the 33-180 h.p. ; when the " 220 " appeared
we rubbed our hands with glee, but when the 250 h.p.
S.S.K. followed we just gasped and murmured "what
next ? " And when Rudolf Caracciola brought his
car home a winner of the 1929 T.T. at 72.82 m.p.h. over
a course which was altogether unfavourable to his car,
we realised that all our eulogies had been too faint.
I may be wrong but I fancy that there has been a slight
inclination in the British press to pass over the merits
of the Mercedes' victory, and I do think that Caracciola's
performance in the T.T. should live for ever as one
of the greatest achievements in motor racing history.
Some of us, at least will raise our tankards and cry
"Hoch die Mercedes!"
England, Italy and Germany may well feel then that their
cars have acquitted themselves well this season. But
what of Prance, one time the leader in all matters automobile
? France to-day seems definitely to have retired from
the field of motor racing. This course may seem on the
face of it to be very " pratique," but I think
that it is a most short-sighted policy. Bugatti it is
true won the Targo Florio, and when Albert Divo brought
his car home at 46.27 m.p.h. he had achieved a magnificent
performance, and that of Minoia on a similar car who
finished second was also remarkable ; but then we can
count on Ettore Bugatti never quite to let us down.
Otherwise France has this year hidden her light under
a bushel. At the Le Mans race the Bentleys scored a
clean sweep, and their most dangerous rivals were not
French cars, but American. In none of the other great
races of the year has France made so much as a showing.
All this seems to me to be terribly bad publicity. Time
was, shortly after the war, when we used to gaze at
the Hispano at Olympia and murmur "is not this
perfection? "Do we do this to any French car now
? France by refusing to race is losing ground in the
even keener race for automobile prestige. At Le Mans
where were the Bugattis, the Boulogne Hispanos, the
3-litre Delages, the Peugeots, the big Renaults, the
Voisins and the rest? At present, as is always the case
in the winter, rumour is busy with the French cars that
are going to compete next year. Let us hope that they
materialise, for whatever happens, good a season as
we have seen in 1929, 1930 must show us a better!
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