MOTORING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 108, 12 June 1914, Page 3

MOTORING.

The Canterbury Automobile Association has received tenders for the supply of one hundred standard sign-posts which will be supplied to local bodies for the' purpose of directing travellers on the main roads. As is done in other places, the posts will bear the name of the Canterbury Automobile Association beside the directions.

A new process by which carbon can be cleaned from motor car cylinders has been shown at a Gisborne garage. Hitherto, to remove the carbon lias been a difficult and slow process, necessitating much scraping, but science ,}i2ts come to the rescue. Oxygen is an incombustible gas, but in oxygen carbon burns freely and rapidly. This being SO, a cylinder of oxygen is brought into Requisition, and the gas led by a tube ; into the cylinder, a match being first Sapplied to the carbon on the top of the cylinder. Immediately the whole of the idttrbon in the cylinder burns out, and a I clean cavity 'is secured, the process oe•fclupying but a few minutes. This should be a valuable method of dealing with one of the principal mechanical troubles jin connection with motor cars.

POPULARITY OF THE LIGHT CAR. The growing popularity of the light car raises the question as to whether it will exert any appreciable influence #n the big ear design. We are inclined to think so, especially as regards weight. At the present time some of the big powered cars are remarkably heavy, and unreasonably so. The owner has not yet come to understand that weight means expense, both in tyres and running. The light car may lead to the bigger powered vehicles being built in a' lighter class; that is, although perhaps the present type may be retained, there will spring up a new class of light-bodied, high-powered car, which will appeal especially to sporting owners, and motorists who use their cars largely for touring. A moderatelyTflreighted car is more adaptable for iouring needs, more easily manipulated Vh©n being shipped, and altogether handier. The tremendously long chassis jtnay lend itself admirably for the town ferriage, but for everyday purposes it isi out of place and cumbersome. It has been proved in practice that the torpedo body, with the front and back seats placed reasonably close, is far more comfortable than the type which gives extravagant leg room for the rear passengers, and consequently more draught room. There has been a tendency lately to go to extremes in building bodies unduly roomy, for there is a limit so far as comfort is concerned. The light car will very possibly have a beneficial influence in counteracting this, tendency.

SMALL HIGH-SPEED MOTORS. I). M'Call White, an English engineer, describes in the "Motor Age" the development of the small high-speed engine in Great Britain. He points out that British factories have during the last four or five years been producing high-speed engines which run successfully in touring cars without any more trouble than the ordinary slow speed engines, some factories going so far as to give a three-years' guarantee with cars, the engines of which are calculated to run at a maximum speed of #bout 2300 to 2600 revolutions per minute, this speed being accelerated in some cars on a down grade to 2800 revolutions per minute. These particular cara had been successful not only in the British Isles, but also in Australia, New Zealand, and otfher parts of the Empire. Mr White's object in discussing this phase of motoring was because he had found, when comparing notes with American engineers, that an erroneous idea prevailed among them regarding the reliability of the high-speed engine fitted into a moderately light chassis. He points out that in the first place the Chassis which these engines are called upon to pull are not very light, being in many cases just about the same weight as some of the Americau most modern chassis. tfye declares that these fihassis are built to stand up, and they do stand up, not only in Great Britain but in other parts of the world where they have been used.