NOTES

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21323, 16 November 1934, Page 18

NOTES

"Roadster" invites articles and paragraphs of interest to motorists for this page.

A French-Canadian lumber jobber describes a thrilling experience while driving with a companion along a rural trail to his camp in Northern Ontario. Turning a bend in the road, they met a bull moose, which resented their staccato horn blasts, and charged immediately. "I backed up," said the lumberman, "but he came on, and there was nothing for it but to await events. He hit us head-on, both antlers going through the radiator screen, crashing the lamps and mudguards. Four times he attacked. I whispered to my companion not to make a sound, lest we might draw his attack on ourselves. In the last charge he swerved to one side, and I threw 'the car into low gear and pushed ahead. In two bounds he was again ahead of us. We continued to advance, with the moose backing and glowering at us, his antlers hung with the radiator screen and one lamp.. The roar of the company's lumber truck approaching forced him eventually to retire.

"Your old second-hand car may one day be an important unit in a great bridge, a towering building, or a mammoth dam. Think twice before you harm a single rust spot. There is a future existence for motor-cars. Even the most forsaken of jalopies may in its reincarnation occupy an exalted place in the scheme of things." This is the opinion of an American prominent on the Pacific Coast: To those not familiar with the nomenclature of Automobile Row, a jalopi is a vehicle which is held together by benign providence and a piece of string. In many a steel-rolling mill up and down the coast these decrepit cars, dismantled and more disreputable than ever, enter the maw cf electric furnaces to be transferred into a molten, white-hot mass and poured into forms, the billets later being rolled into structural steel. Thousands of others are shipped for conversion in foreign countries, Japan being the largest customer, at present.

A photograph of the first streamlined hearso to be built in America is reproduced in an American motoring journal.

Extract from a description in an English provincial newspaper of a new accessory: "Constructed in brass, this new six-note exhaust 'audible warning' makes a noise like a ship's siren." The very thing for night driving, says "Contact," in the "Motor."

In an American journal the point is raised that it woulrl be interesting to know how many of the 24,000,000 car owners in the United States have actually driven a 1934 model car, how many have actually driven a 1933 car. and "how many even a 1932 model. If this applies there, where it is popularly supposed that cars change hands quickly, how much truer still might it not be of motorists in New Zealand? One firm in the United Stales made the experiment of offering to selected owners new cars for several days' trial without pressing them to buy, an enterprise which resulted in immediate sales to about 4 per cent, of those who accepted the offer, without a formal demonstration in any case.

The latest gadget on sale in America is a device for preventing the car from swerving after a blow-out. An hydraulic stabiliser lakes charge of the steering-gear in an emergency, holding the car on a straight course. In tests carried out on a United States dirt track, a racing driver steered the car with one hand at 100 miles an hour, while his passenger blew out a front tyre with a shotgun. The stabiliser, which is mounted between the front axle and the tie-rod. consists of a specially-designed piston operating in a fluid-filled cylinder. Under normal conditions the fluid moves back and forth freely through holes in the piston, but upon receiving a sudden shock the piston holes close, preventing the liquid from flowing, and holding the car on a straight course by hydraulic action.

Many owner-drivers who experience difficulty in fitting tyres to wellbase rims appear to overlook the fact that the sole purpose of the well is to make fitting an easy matter. If advantage be taken of this, it will be found that even a new tyre can be slipped on with very little effort. The whole secret is to see that the wired edges of the lyre on one side fit properly into the well, so that the side diametrically opposite will have room to pass over the outside diameter of the rim. No difficulty should- be experienced when the wheel is off the car, but when a tyre has been fitted with the wheel on the axle care must be taken to jack up the wheel to a height that will lift the tyre 2in or ; j ,in above the ground, otherwise it will not be possible to push the lower portion of the tyre into the well. For greatest ease, remember always to start removing a tyre opposite the valve.

A wealthy merchant in China owns a Packard car. In the two years since it was purchased it has been run only a total of 43 miles. He uses it for an annual pilgrimage of 10 miles from his home to the temple containing the tombs of his ancestors. To pay the highest honour to his parents he uses the car for no other purpose.

NEW MATERIAL FOR ROOFS

ADMITS SUNLIGHT BUT NOT WATER The majority of saloon cars to-day are fitted with a sunshine roof, which can be opened when the weather is favourable (states the "Motor"). Soon we shall have the "daylight" roof, which lets in the sunshine without being open at all. It is made of a new material which consists of fine wire mesh impregnated under great pressure with a special translucent substance. This metal fabric will let through light, particularly the healthgiving ultra-violet rays, but it s waterproof, fireproof, and it can be made bullet proof—a point which should be of interest to gangsters. . It is to be produced in a variety ot colours so that the light obtained can b<> arranged to tone in with the mte'rior of the car. A panel* of this material can be used to replace the existin" sliding panel of a sunshine roof, or the entire roof can be formed of it, for it is a simple matter to mould it into any desired shape. In addition the fabric is practically unbreakable; severe dents can be straightened out without impairing its waterproof properties. . ... Embossed number plates in this material will shortly be available. They look attractive, and provision to illuminate them can readily be made. A glare visor is also- to be put on the market, and experiments are being carried out with a view to using tht material to replace lamp glasses, for its peculiar properties result in a non-dazzling light with a high degree of fog penetration.