TURNS TO THE LEFT.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20907, 14 July 1933, Page 16

TURNS TO THE LEFT.

AVOIDING DANGER. AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION'S ADVICE. "Much inconvenience and danger is caused to all classes of traffic by faulty methods of cornering," says the latest safety-first message of the Canterbury Automobile Association. "There is a tendency on the part of many drivers to take left-hand corners far too sharply, with the ■ result that the car is carried out into the middle of the road. If a corner is taken in that way at any speed, the manoeuvre is anything but a safe one. When a driver is approaching a lefthand corner he should veer out towards the crown of the road, and at a safe speed make an easy round turn so that without any fussing he can go straight ahead strictly on his correct side of the road. It is paradoxical, but corners are taken by competent drivers before they come to them. Life golf, perhaps, the method of proper, safe cornering is all in the approach. "Motorists, in making left-hand turns, should avoid the noticeable tendency which some drivers have of disregarding the courtesy due to vehicles in the traffic stream into which the car is entering. One should avoid studiously any suggestion of butting in between vehicles in the traffic stream. If there is a procession of vehicles going past, wait until the way is clear and safe before advancing. The habit of driving in between vehicles is bad enough on a regular intersection, but the offence is aggravated if attempted on what might be called an irregular intersection, such as Colombo streetArmagh street-Victoria street intersection. In any case, it does not seem to be realised that when a driver is making a left-hand turn he is bound to apply the rule of giving way to the driver on the right."

THE MOTOR TRADE IN ENGLAND. STEADY PROGRESS RECORDED. The official registration figures of new cars show that the motoring movement in Britain continues to progress. In March 22,834 cars were registered for the first time, as against 17,511 in March, 1932, and this constitutes a record, says the latest bulletin of the British Commercial News Association, Ltd.

It is very satisfactory to note that for the first four months of the year trade in complete cars with the Empire markets shows progress in practically every quarter, while, in addition, European countries are buying British motor productions on an ever increasing scale. This latter advance is largely uue to active participation in reliability trials, competitions, and exhibitions on the Continent, in which an excellent showing has been made. An interesting development in this cultivation of Continental markets is the six months' tour of Europe recently commenced by Mr Hamley, of the distributing firm of Pass and Joyce, Ltd., who is driving a Talbot. CARS AND INCOME TAX. SOUTH AFRICAN FIGURES.

Although out of a white population of 1,827,000, South Africa has only 82,369 income tax payers, there are no fewer than 193,402 licensed motor vehicles in the country, of which 140,000 are motor-cars. The Free State shows up worst of all as a province where people can afford to run motorcars, but cannot pay income tax. More than 20,000 own motor-cars, but only 4600 are taxpayers. In Williston, a Cape Colony village, nobody at all pays income tax, yet the 2100 residents share the ownership of eight lorries, six motor-cycles, and 82 motor-cars.

The year 1929 was the motor trade's peak year in South Africa. Last year the imports of motor-cars fell to about one-third of the total they had reached in 1929—7600 as against 21,400. The country spent only £906,000 on cars as against £3,669,000. Petrol consumption, however, showed no decrease. AN IRRITATING NOISE. CAUSES OF "PINKING." That irritating sound known as "pinking," reminiscent of tack-ham-mer taps on an anvil, is usually ascribed—and correctly as a rule—to the need for decarbonising the engine. If, however, it occurs to an increasing extent with a "clean" engine, in spite of normal and correct use of the ignition control, or the proper functioning of the automatic ignition control, the cause may be one that is frequently not suspected, the need for adjustment of the contact breaker.

This latter component will function correctly—that is, there may be no misfiring—even when the contact points have worn or eroded to such an extent as to cause them to separate much too far, when the heel of the rocker unit rides over the summit of each cam. But this excessive separation of the points implies that they break contact earlier than they should, which in turn implies that the ignition timing is advanced a few or many degrees beyond the standard setting, just as though the timing had been advanced by variation of the drive gear or coupling. The consequence is, it may not be possible with full retard to have the spark in each cylinder occurring late enough for slow pulling, while with automatic ignition the spark maybe too far advanced for normal running.

Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. First aid for Coughs, Colds,, Influenza. —2