Sir,
\nHaving read the “Letters front Readers,” both praising and criticising the Fiat Topolino, I feel I must tell you of our experiences with a 1937 500.
\nIt was bought by my wife 10 months and 10,000 miles ago as a local runabout, the thirst of our Ford V8 being a bit too much on short journeys. Quite frankly, at first, I only regarded it as a cute little toy. I suggested that we should throw away the engine and fit pedalling-gear, the car would obviously be much faster : Now, however, I am a converted “Mouse” disciple.
\nWhy ? Well, the fact that it does 50 m.p.g. over long and short runs was enough. Added to this is the excellent springing, “hairline” steering. and superb brakes. (Oh yes. I know I’m used to a V8) The astonishing amount of room inside, too. Although I’m 6ft and 14 stone plus, we often do 50-mile journeys, three up plus luggage, and average a comfortable 33 m.p.h. We regularly do the 103-mile trip from Ely to Derby in 3 hr. 5 min.
\nThe car is not quite to standard specification. I have fitted an S.U. Carburetter and S.U. electric petrol pump, and these have made a big improvement to the pick-up over 30 m.p.h. I have also replaced the Marrelli distributor with an ex-Morris Minor Lucas distributor and Vauxhall suction advance mechanism
\nOn the debit side : Oh well. of course, it’s no road-burner : but, providing you “take your hills before you come to them,” you don’t have to wear a hole in the palm of your left hand with the gearlever. (But then. having driven “brakeless” V8s for years, I’m accustomed to driving with a bonnet a mile long.) Oh, yes, and we get prop-shaft vibration at over 48 m.p.h_ due to worn prop-shaft ball nuts and bushes, but I don’t propose to remedy this as it acts as a very efficient governor on my driving. Being a farmer, my driving methods are definitely of the agricultural variety and I have a quite justified reputation for brutality to my motor cars.
\nMay I conclude by saying how much I enjoy your magazine, in fact acute financial distress has caused me to cancel all my other motoring magazines, but not Motor Sport.<\/p>\n
I am yours, etc.,<\/p>\n
Witchford. J.A. Giles.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":739,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[251,226,190,34654],"issue_decade":[121602],"issue_year":[121604],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/11098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/739"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/11098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266573,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/11098\/revisions\/266573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11098"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=11098"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=11098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}