"Take a clean sheet of paper..."

Sir,
Surely it should not be necessary to take a completely clean sheet of paper to give us the sports car indicated by recent correspondence !

The development work would, in the main, appear to have already been carried out in our own Formula III class. The ideal would be, in my view, not to design a 750-c.c. 25-b.h.p. unit as advocated by Mr. Barker, but to utilise a motor already in existence, such as the Triumph T110 600-c.c. twin, which gives, with reliability, 42-b.h.p. and, in my experience, over 70-m.p.g. in a motor-cycle frame.

Combine this with the braking, cornering and roadholding ability advertised in such measure at every Formula III event, and one should have at a comparatively reasonable cost a vehicle able to hold its own with most, and certainly more fun than the majority.

Possibly with plastic body and careful attention to airflow, and with a functional emphasis, such a model ought to be capable of at least 85 plus m.p.h. and a fuel consumption figure between 40 and 50 m.p.g.

It should fill the gap caused by the loss of the sporting Morgan three-wheelers of venerated memory and lie within the same price range, and would provide us with a class of vehicle appropriate to modern economy, and be a fitting development from our own racing class.

It just seems odd that it has not yet been done.

Another matter ! The inclination of the engine in the new Cooper Mk. IX has, I read, been the subject of a patent. Does this imply that the Daimler-Benz Grand Prix cars will have to tilt them back again before they can race in this country.

I am, Yours. etc.,

Coventry. L.G.May.

(We think the answer to the last paragraph of Mr. May’s letter is that it depends which way you tilt it !—Ed.)