JOHN R. BOND LIKELY CRIBBED the road test idea from Brit magazines. The Brits had been stylizing their presentations since the 1920s; the year 1951 was a pivotal one for R+T (the “&” came in mid-1954). Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are tidbits about road tests gleaned from the Brooklands Books’ Bugatti Type 10 to Type 251 and from my R+T 1951 volume.
A Brit Road Test from the Twenties. The Brooklands collection includes “The 17.8 h.p. Straight-eight Bugatti: A Fast Touring Car With Ample Accommodation,” from Motor, August 17, 1926.
Image from Brooklands Books’ Bugatti Type 10 to Type 251.
Plenty of information is offered, an Acceleration Curve, a Braking Curve, and Condensed Specification together with speeds in gears, top speed, and the like. However, the data are spread throughout the article rather than in a single panel.
A Tale of my 1951 volume. I had accumulated R&Ts since my dad, rest his soul, brought home the May 1954 issue (its purpose: to keep me off the Cleveland streets and out of its pool halls). By the way, the “and/&” transition came in February/March of that year.
I had no earlier R+Ts until I stumbled on a personal ad in the late 1960s offering volumes of the magazine beginning with 1950. Coincidently enough, the fellow selling them lived only several blocks from my eastern Cleveland suburban apartment. Alas, he was selling the magazines because his eyesight wasn’t up to much reading. Nor was he driving very much, and he proudly showed me an MG TD in his garage. Even the fair price he offered for the car was beyond my grad student means.
But the R+T/R&Ts were a real treasure. And, as I noted, the 1951 volume was pivotal: Although an earliest R+T had a test, sorta, of a Ford sedan, R+T officially inaugurated such features with March 1951 and its Road and Track Road Test No. F-1-51 of a Hillman Minx Sedan. (“F” as in Foreign. Two months later, “A” as in American came with a Studebaker Land Cruiser.)
Image from R+T, March 1951.
The Hillman Road Test. Like Motor 25 years before, the magazine had its information spread throughout the article, which ran a page and a third. (The other two-thirds, Rochester’s sports car, has already appeared here at SimanaitisSays.)
Lurking in the Hillman text were 0-60 mph in 40 seconds and a top speed of 68 mph in top (4th) gear. The test concluded with “It should be thoroly [R+T spelling at the time] reliable, low cost [$1495] transportation for thousands of Americans who would appreciate such a car—but do not know it even exists.” Its price equates to $18,226.25 in today’s dollar.
Image from R+T, April 1951.
MG TD. The first of several tests of MG’s TD came a month later as F-3-51 (F-2-51 was a Simca 8 Sport, a Franco-Fiat of sorts). Again, data were sprinkled throughout. This time, text was split between Mr. X and Mr. B (perhaps Technical Editor John R. Bond and Editor Oliver Billingsley?). R&T eventually was to meld opinions in road tests sans bylines of any kind until years later when we were persuaded to “personalize” things with author id.
Mr. X suggested engineering enhancements, concluding with “When judged by the overall excellence of this exciting little car, these faults are minor indeed.” Mr. B said, “Since putting the TD thru [another R+Tism] its paces, I can easily see why the MG enjoys such a phenomenal popularity in this country.”
Image from R+T, May 1951.
Jaguar XK-120 Roadster. Another variation appeared in May’s F-4-51, the Jaguar XK-120 Roadster: Lots of data was concentrated in one place, with an overkill of separate opinions from Messrs. A., B., C., and X. All bets are off on guessing A. and C. It also added another R+Tism: “Altho.”
Verifying the 120 claim, Mr. B. reported, “Both the driver and photographer turned a deep blue from the early morning desert cold” with windshield swapped for an aero-screen.
Tomorrow in Part 2, we see May’s A-1-51 test of the Studebaker Land Cruiser and December’s F-10-51 of the Aston Martin DB-2, with yet another variation of collected information evolving into something resembling the R&T road test layout we came to love. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024.