CAR-TESTING.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 12 August 1932, Page 6

CAR-TESTING.

AN INGENIOUS DEVICE. An ingenious mechanism for testing the various capabilities of <*ars was introduced in England recently. The tester consists 'of a set of drums, all mounted on ball-bearings, supporting the front and rear wheels of the car or chassis, one drum being directly coupled to a Froudc dynamometer of the type which has been adopted in most parts of the world for testing automobile engines. The dynamometer is supplied with water from the mains, and resists rotation of the drum to an extent which can be regulated by means of a single hand wheel. The arm of the "dynamometer pulls upon a weighing machine arranged to shev direct and instantaneous readings of the tractive effort and brake horse-power at the surface of the power drum. A pair of ramps is mounted at the iear end of the plant, so as to permit cars of varying wheel track to run up them under rtieir own power. On reaching the upper end of the ramps the front wheels sink into the space between two rear drums, bus do not remain there, passing on until they come to rest on front drums mounted en •< trolley running in tracks which are laid down on the floor of the test shop. A safety device prevents the trolley from moving forward until the front 'wheels have conic safely to rest imon it. Bv means of a hand winch the car and the trolley are moved into testing position, in which the rear wlu-ols rest over the rear drums. A flowmcTor is connected to the carburettor, and auxiliary cooling arrangements are quickly adapted to the radiator to allow for the absence, of the cooling air stream experienced on the road.

A novel petrol-filling station litis lately been opened in Cincinnati, U.S.A., it being made to represent an aeroplane The cockpit of the machine forms the office of the station, while the monoplane wings act as a shelter to the six petrol pumps, two of which are located under each wing tip and one at each side of the cockpit.