FUEL AND OIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 250, 22 October 1935, Page 18

FUEL AND OIL.

SPEED AND CONSUMPTION. It is generally known that the faster one drives beyond 30 miles an hour the more fuel antl oil his engine uses per mile. Figures have been compiled by the United States Bureau of Standards to show just how much the consumption increases with speed. The table is based on the performance of an average car capable of going 18 miles on a gallon of fuel at 30 miles an hour. Here it is:—

10 m.p.h 20 m.p.h 30 m.p.h 40 m.p.h 50 m.p.h 60 m.p.h 70 m.p.h SO m.p.li

15.7 miles per prallon 1 S.O miles per pull on IS.O miles por prallon 1G.4 miles per gallon ]4.1> miles per gallon 12.6 miles per gallon 10.(5 miles per gallon 8.6 miles per gallon

In • testfi conducted at the Indianapolis Speedway by the American Automobile Association it was found that nearly seven times as much oil was used up at 55 miles an hour as at 30.

FEW COMPETENT. MOTOR CAR DRIVERS. How many people who drive automobiles are competent to operate a. «>r? In my opinion not one in a hundred knows.enough to make them safe under usual conditions. Under many conditions they are positively dangerous, says Frank A. Garbutt, of the X.A.NA.

The Automobile Club says about 85 per cent are careful drivers and 15 per cent reckless. Careful drivers are not necessarily safe. How many would a railroad company hire to drive its locomotives? Yet locomotives run on tracks with comparatively few interferences, are inspected daily and are much safer than automobiles. Anyone can buy, hire, or borrow an auto, learn how to start, stop and change its direction, and use the public roads, maiming himself and others. .

I know very few drivers with whom I feel safe to ride. Most of them exhibit so much ignorance and so many careless habits that I wonder how they have lived so long. The positive proof that I am right is the number killed and maimed daily. The ignorant driver is ignorant of his own ignorance. I never met one yet who thought he didn't know all about it. Driving a ear seems to induce delusions of" grandeur, where it should create a wholesome fear of God. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."