The great VW mystery

Sir,

With reference to the VW advert “The One that Got Away,” I think your suggestion that model cars were used is correct, considering the following points:

(a) The shadow of the top car is almost square, whereas that of the lower two are at a much steeper angle. This would suggest a lamp as a source of light, as the sun being so distant would not cause such a variation.

(6) The shadows are very long suggesting that the sun has only just risen. If this were the case, surely the houses would cast shadows reaching to the road. If this were not the case the houses would have to be far back, in which case the width of the gardens would surely be wider than one car.

(e) The road is too wide!!

(c1) Seems strange no vehicle has passed down the road since the snow, eg. milk van.

(s) Car was parked straight onto the kerb yet the front wheel tracks only appear from a yard out. If as Mr. Cheese suggests, this is due to the front being lifted out, etc., footprints would appear at the space front and rear of the departed car.

(f) It seems strange that all the cars should be parked on the right-hand side on the road and that the departing VW drove down the right-hand side ot the road. Presumably the photograph is meant to be in England as the windscreens are cleaned on the right side.

(g) All the drivers must be trying to start their cars simultaneously, as there are only one set of footprints leading to each car, ie. they are still trying to start them.

Richard Manning. Sale.

Sir,

Your correspondent, Mr. Cheese, has not considered the direction of the sun. The wheel tracks that can be seen are those which are at an angle to the sun’s rays and it is the shadow in the tracks which is visible, not the tracks themselves. The front wheel tracks are parallel to the rays and therefore have no shadow in them. This realised, the advertisement makes sense.

AM Rudd. London, NW5.

[Verily, the spirit of Sherlock Holmes lives on !—Ed.]