MODERN MOTORING.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 1, 2 January 1924, Page 10

MODERN MOTORING.

BY SPARKWELL

MOTORING IN ENGLAND. TRIALS AND TESTS. i OUE HOMELAND LETTER. (Special to the "Star.") LONDON", November 24. Effect of Cooling Fan. The Royal Automobile Club has recently issued certificates in respect of a number of interesting trials. Two of these refer to further trials of the A.C. cars, which have already successfully passed through a number of observed tests this year. In one instance the object was to demonstrate the effect on the temperature of the radiator water by running a car without a fan at forty | miles an hour on the Brooklands track. j The car was driven both with and withi out a fan for forty-two miles. No al- ! teration other than the removal of the fan was made between the tests. With the fan in use and with an initial temperature of 53 degrees centigrade the temperature -of the cooling water after five minutes was SO degrees, after ten minutes 87 degrees, subsequently rising slowly to reach 90 degrees at the end of the hour. The f«el consumption was 35.95 miles per gallon. Without the fan and starting at 51 degrees, the temperature at the end of five minutes reached S4 degrees, at the end of the ten minutes 90 degrees, in half an hour it had risen slowly to 92 degrees, at which it remained constant until the end of the hour. The fuel consumption was 36.8 C miles per gallon. Fuel Consumption Tests. An apparatus known as the Lovelace Volatiliser has been submitted to the R.A.C. for an official statement indicating the fuel economy resulting from the use of the device. The car was run with and without the Volatiliser over a distance of about sixteen miles at a speed of about twenty miles an hour. With the device out of action, consumption was 25.4 miles pci 1 gallon and with the device in action 32.6 miles per gallon. A Saurer lorry has been submitted to a 1000 miles road test. The lorry weighed 4 tons Bcwt and the average load was C tons 4\cvrt. The fuel consumption worked out at 9.84 miles per gallon. Olympia Motor Cycle Show. In the show that has just been held at Olympia, the British Cycle and Motor Cycle Manufacturers and Traders' Union has achieved the greatest of a series of great successes. The enlarged building was fully occupied by the exhibits, upwards of three hundred firms being represented. The exhibition was international and as such, representative, but British products predominated. This was not due to any preferential treatment of British exhibitors, but is the result of a highly satisfactory/state of affairs in this industry; namely, the supremacy of British "productions in face of world-wide competition. This has been emphasised during 1923 by the remarkable series of successes of British machines, not only in home events, but in the biggest race's and* trials held in other countries. . This ye,ar the French Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix of Nations were both won by the British-built A.J.S. 2J horse-power machines, which have also secured awards in Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, and Australia. In the tourist trophy races British machines swept j the board. The senior race wa3 won by a Douglas, other prominent machines , being the Norton and the Sunbeam. i The junior tourist trophy went to the I Cotton with an A.J.S. second and a j Douglas'third. In the lightweight race , the New Gerrard and the New Imperial distinguished themselves. With hardly any exceptions all the principal European events have been won by British motor cycles, which have been just as prominent' in'reliability trials as in races. In many recent trials the machines have not been of special types or specially tuned up, but have been selected haphazard by tbe trial organisers- from the. manufacturers' • stocks. I j Thus the results of such trials are of | I real value to the buyer, as enabling him I jto estimate .the results he can get jjjiy buying a stock machine. • •■ The 350 C.C. Class. While the show contained, machines with engines varying in dimensions from 150 cc. up to 1000 c.c. or over, a j very large percentage of the exhibits I come within the 350 c.c. class. Here, | mention may be made of the reintro- ! duction of the 346 c.c. four-stroke light--weight Triumph,', which has unit construction for the engine and gear box, a dry sump with forced feed "lubrication and a Webb front brake. The Triumph people have successfully pioneered the use of electric lighting on solo motor cycles, which is likely to become very general in the near future, especially perhaps on single cylindered machine's and of course on the larger sidecar combinations. The A.J.S. model is the 349 cc, which, is to be had either with side or overhead valves. This firm has just introduced a new variety of its "99 c.c. sidecar outfit, embodying all the essential features of the previous models, but marketed at a strictly moderate price. A newcomer "to the 350 cc. class is the Enfield. This is marketed either with side or with overhead valves and with foot operated gears. The well-known 2J horse-power two-stroke Enfield.and the 8 iorse-power Koyal Enfield sidecar outfit are of course, to be retained on the firm's' programme. The latter is being sold in increasing numbers for trade delivery purposes and for the distribution of letters and postal parcels. I

Tendencies in Engine Design. The exhibition clearly illustrated the great popularity of the Blackburne engines which are now fitted to machines of a large number of different makes. These engines have been extremely successful during the .1923 season, their successes including the Junior L _„ h ' t . weight T.T. races and the Belgian Gand Prix races m the 250 c.c. solo and the 350 c.c. sidecar classes. Also the first three places in the .Italian T.T. and the first in the Ulster Grand Prix. An ex amination of the Blackburne exhibits emphasises the fact that both side and overhead valves continue popular for their respective purposes. Also that the demand both for single and for twin cylindered machines continues good Four-cylinder engines for motor cycles have become almost obsolete, though they are still used by a few foreign makes. -

' NOTES and COMMENTS LOCAL Anp OENeBAL

TIPS FOR MOTOR CYCXISTS,

fa !-ivir.:r a few hints on the suhjeet j of easy starting, it is fairly certain! that a" matter is being touched upon that will interest quite a lot of people (judging by observation!) as, to the motor cyclist, there is no worse infliction than the' possession of a machine which is difficult to start. It exhausts him, wastes time, exposes him to ridicule, and creates a bad (and erroneous) impression. I A motor cyclist recently candidly admitted that he was afraid to stop for more than a few minutes when out for a run, as he could never rely on an easy start, unless the engine was really warm! The fault does not always lie with the machine. Plenty of people fail to start up because la) tir: lovprs r.re incorrectly set; (b) the "knack" of kickstarting has not been acquired; and (c) of an unaccountable reluctance to give an injection. ! The Open Throttle. There is a widespread but erroneous belief that, because an engine goes faster as the throttle is opened, it must necessarily start most easily on a fully open tliro'ttle. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the ease of a singlelever carburettor, it may be definitely stated that a start from cold (without injection) wi- .id be almost impossible; with the throttle fully open. j What is wanted for easy starting is j plenty of suction over the jet, because, the engine can only be rotated comparatively slowly. Maximum suction (and the richest mixture) is obtained by closing the air lever and opening the throttle just a little, the exact position to be learned by experiment. The ignition lever should be not quite fully advanced. There is no re Am why we should not nssi't matters™y injecting a little petrol into the cylinders, which will free the pistons and give us the initial explosion or two. , The Knack in Kick-starting. j There is quite a knack in kickstarting. The great thing to remember j is that the engine must overcome one compression stroke, and, as the amount j of travel is limited, we must commence at the right moment, so to speak. The right moment is on the compression stroke; put into plain language, this means that we leave the exhaust valve lifter down, and press on tho kickstarter until we feel the full resistance of the compression; then we allow the! kick-starter pedal to return, lift the exhaust valve, give a --lefty kick, and release the exhaust valve lifter just a | fraction of a second later. "The engine should then start," as the catalogues say. Do we hear someone say that we have omitted to mention anything about turning- on the petrol, or flooding the j carburettor? True, we did not; but then, everyone knows all about both — perhaps too much as regards the latter.' Bear this in mind—if an engine does :hot! start with one flooding, a second is unlikely to help matters. This is particularly true in the case I of some makes of machines. Occasion-1 ally the best-regulated engines develop J •a fit of sulkiness, and it is as well to I remember that it we do not succeed in ' starting up inside two or three minute 3, j despite injection, flooding, and what not, the chances are that the cylinder! has become flooded with liquid petrol | by this time, and that a start would be ! impossible even when the original de- j rangement had been put right. Gener-' ally, when the cylinder becomes petrollegged, the liquid can be seen oozing out past the inlet-valve stem. How to Procccn. The remedy is to take out the sparking plug, allow it to dry, and, before j replacing it, keep on revolving the en-' gine with the throttle closed. This' will dry out the interior of the cylinder, i Some engines are difficult to start only when hot This is undoubtedly due to the carburettor setting living an over-rich mixture, and no amount of. juggling will produce any result until the engine cools down,, or until the sparking plug is taken out and a charge of air allowed to enter the cylinder. The perplexity of the gentleman who had starting trouble due to (as he thought) defective .sparking plug, which could be cured by taking out the plug and looking at it, can be understood! i'his is, by the way, a fact. Two-stroke engines are not, as a rule ' instantaneous starters, as, obviously it takes several strokes to charge " the crank-case, the lengthy induction system, moreover, causing condensation which seriously impoverishes the first lew inspirations. A good tip for ensv starting (it will not accelerate the process) is to revolve the engine a few times with the compression release valve open and the levers correctly set in the starting position. This wiL fill the crank-case with explosive mixture