MOTORS and MOTORING.

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 253, 9 July 1926, Page 6

MOTORS and MOTORING.

(BY

"SPOTLIGHT.”

SPEED LIMITS

LEGAL TIME TO FEATHERSTON AN INTERESTING SCHEDULE The motoring organisations are drilling into a curious position in the stand they are taking towards speed limits. The North Island Motor Union has long taken the stand that all speed limits should be abolished and the test of driving to the public danger substituted. At the instance of the union a resolution to this effect was quite recently adopted by the Motor Conference attended by both the North and South Island Unions. At its meeting on Monday, the Wellington Automobile Club, so far from ■ supporting the long-established (if fruitless) policy of the North Island Motor Union, passed a resoluton urging the enforcement of the speed limit on the Rimutaka Hill. This section of road is under the direct jurisdiction of the Main HighWays Board as a Government road. In the latter part of last year the board by resolution fixed the speed limit over the approximately fifteen-mile stretch from the foot of Mangaroa Hill to Abbot’s Creek bridge on the Featherston side of the ranges at the following figures:— Touring Cars ... ... 15 tn.p.h. Service Passenger Cars ... 12 m.p.h. Motor Lorries ... ... 10 m.p.h. It is this limit which the Wellington Automobile Club is now asking to have enforced A similar request was recently arade by the W.-rrarapa Automobile Association. Both of these organisations are affiliated to the North Island Motor Union which is totally onposed to all speed limits. The position is a little curious bv reason of tire fact that the Main Highways Board in the intervening moiitus s.nce fixing the above speed limits, has veered to an opinion that they may be unnecessarily low and has requested the engineer, Mr A. Tyndall, to go over the road and report on the matter, with a view to increasing the present speed limits, which, however, the two automobile associations have now asked to have strictly enforced. The distance from the General Post Office, Wellington to Featherston, according to the official figures, is 41 miles. The first mile from the G.P.O. to Davis Street has a speed limit of 15 m.p.h. There are 15 m.p.h. speed limits also at Kaiwarra, Ngahauranga, the Woollen Mills, in parts the road through Petone and Lower Hutt, and for 1-J miles through Upper Hutt Borough. Finally, there is the 15 m.p.h. limit from the foot of the Muugaroa Hill to Abbot’s Creek, a distance of close on 15 miles. If the various distances. over which the legal limit of 15 m.p.h. prevail, they would probably total close on 19 miles out of the 41 miles. At various intersections passed en route in the city the speed is reduced

to 8 m.p.h., and similar conditions are imposed in Petone and Lower Hutt, while in the Hutt County part of the primary speed has to be reduced to 12 m.p.h. at all intersections and around corners

At the Petor.e railway crossing, moreover, the car must stop before reaching the rails, and the lines crossed at 10 m h.p. On Lower Hutt bridge the speed must not exceed 10 m.p.h. From Davis Street to the tramway barn the linrt is 20 m.p.h. Through the Hutt gorges from Park Avenue, laita, to the railwav overbridge at Silverstream the speed limit is also 20 m.p.h., but must be reduced “to a reasonable rate in the circumstances where the uninterrupted view of the full width of the road as seen from the driver's seat shall be less than iiftv yards in extent.”

North-bound motor traffic on this particular section of road is also under obligation to draw in and give wav to south-bound traffic. On the Hutt Road itself there is the 30 m.p.h. limit extending over the best part of five miles. No speed limit is ' fixed in the Hutt County by-laws for the stretches from Lower Hutt northern boundary’ to Park Avenue, Taita; from the Silverstream railway bridge to Upper Hutt southern boundary; and from Upper Hutt northern boundary to the foot of the Mangaroa hill. Particulars of the Featherston County and Featherston Borough limits from Abbot’s creek into Featherston are not at hand. It is interesting to calculate the time required for the journey if the above speed limits are strictly observed throughout. The position appears to be roughly as follows: — Speed Time limit. required. Miles. m.p.h. h. m. 19 15 1 1(1 6 29 IS B 30 10 30 1 At Time lost In slowing and stopping at railway crossing. Hutt Bridge, intersections, etc., say, 5 Total lime for 30 miles 1 49 Time for remaining 11 miles, at, say, 25 m.p.h. 26 Total non-stop time to Featherston 2 15 If the eleven miles not covered by the scheduled speed limits is traversed at an average speed of 30 m.p.h.— which is high for patrons of it—the time can be reduced by four minutes, to a total of 2 hours 11 minutes. The above figures are for touring cars. The service -car speed limit of 12 m.p.h. over the Mungaroa-Rimu-taka Hill section adds another fifteen minutes to the time required for this class of vehicle to cover the journey on a non-stop run. Although bitumen pavements are much to be desired from the motorist’s viewpoint, they are not always so welcome to horse traffic (says “The Wairarapa Times”). At Levin recently a horse fell on the bitumen in Oxford Street, and was injured to such an extent that it had to be destroyed.

A ROAD MAP AT LAST SURVEY DEPARTMENT COMPILATION. One of the curiosities of New Zealand’s official map-making department of the Lauds and Survey Office is that no map of New Zealand is on sale showing the roads in the country—that is to say, the roads that can be travelled over. A stranger buying an expensive set. of Government maps on, say, the four mile to the inch scale, would find roads liberally marked on it, but when he started' out to drive a motor-car over many of these roads he would be hard put to discover them. With nearly 140,000 motor vehicles in the country, it is an extraordinary tiling that no Government maps whatsoever should be available showing the usable toads through the Dominion. In Wisconsin, which is a State about the size of New Zealand, the State authorities there issue each , season invaluable maps showing by different coloured markings the concrete roads, the metalled and gravel roads, the unmetalled roads good in all weathers, the unmetalled roads good in dry weather, the sandv roads that are heavy going in dry' weather, and so forth. On these State-issued maps are also indicated by special marks spots of historic interest, of scenic interest, and public camping places. Public parks are marked, and there is a mark to all places of industrial interest. Wisconsin has 2} million people, against our 1J million people, and 594,000 motor vehicles, against our 140,000. There thus seems to be a good deal more money floating about there per head of population than there is in this country, and no doubt the Wisconsin authorities can cater more lavishly per motor travellers than our Government can. At the same time, it has to be remembered that during the bicycle boom in the late nineties our Lands and Survey Department issued a scries of excellent guide books for the whole of New Zealand, with sectional maps on a scale of eight miles to the inch, the whole being an immensely better production than anything available to the public to-day. However, it is interesting to learn on inquiry that the Survey Department now lias a road map of the North Island in hand, which it expects to publish in two or three months. This map will be on a scale of eight miles to the inch, and on it main and secondary roads will be shown in colours. The information as to the roads is now being collect- ' ed, and it is to be hoped that the Department will take the opportunity to issue a map that is complete, and really does meet the needs of road travellers, with full information on it as to spots of scenic and general wavs Board, undertook the issue anways oßard undertook the issue annually of a road map with the road markings on it revised as new construction progresses. The bus regulations have contributed in aiming a blow at the motorbody building industry, and in Christchurch the employers are discharging hands weekly.

A LIVE ASSOCIATION AUCKLAND’S RECDRD FOR THE YEAR. Auckland has now far and away the biggest and most active automobile association in the North Island, and with Canterbury makes the running in motoring matters for the whole Dominion. The annual report of the A.A.A., to be presented at the meeting of July 14, reveals a membership of 4123, made up of 3114 Auckland members and 709 branch members. The Hamilton branch leads with 338 members; Franklin has 149' Whangarei, 10.1; Kaitaia, Go; Waihi 39; and' Rodney, 19. The service officer covered 17,000 miles of roads and placed 1129 signs and GO depth posts; ISSO A.A.A. maps were sold,, and 2000 touring programmes were issusd, in addition to 400 route guides to the Dunedin Exhibition. The report states that the association has now touring itineraries covering 70 trips, available for members. The association has, in course of preparation, editions of “Extracts from City By-Laws,” “Motor Trips Around Auckland,” and “North Island Road Map.” The financial statement shows a credit balance of £147. The expenses of the information bureau were £1285 18s. epairs and maintenance of the service car totalled £227 19s. This works out at less than 3d. per mile. Signposts involved an outlay of £396. The total income was £2078 35., of which £2183 10s. was provided by members’ subscriptions. Muriwai motor races showed a profit of £92 after paying for the levelling of the beach approach, and providing donation of £75 to the Motutara Domain Board. A companion set of figures showing what the Wellington Automobile Club is doing would be interesting. LIGHTS ON PARKED CARS REQUIREMENT STILL EXISTS. A local motorist who left his car unlighted on the Mercer Street parking place the other evening received a visit from the police a day or two ago, as a preliminary, apparently, to a summons. Motorists are reminded that the requirements of the Lights on Vehicles Act, 1915, are that vehicles “on any public highway” must be lighted, and no by-law by a local bodv exempting parked cars from the lighting requirements can over-ride the statute. No useful purpose is served by the exhibition of lights by cars parked on recognised parking places, but the above position will obtain until Parliament makes an amendment in the law There were 1416 cars sold in New Zealand in May as compared with 1567 for May 1925. The figure was also a substantial decrease on the April total this vear. The fall was confined to the North Island. Strangely enough, the sales of cars in the South Island in May were higher than for any previous month this year.

PARIS AFTER THE SPEED DEMON • SOME NOVEL DEVICES. Picture the unfortunate speed demon’s embarrassment if he were obliged to equip his car with an automatic whistling device introduced by a Parisian inventor. The contraption is sealed by the police, and it maintains a discreet silence so long as the car maintains a discreet pace. But once let the driver exceed the speed limit, and—wow! the vehicles becomes a shrieking nuisance, and all the world knows the driver’s guilt. With this tell-tale whistle hooting like a fire siren, he is not likely to have any back-talk for the cop who hands him ticket. Telling of this and oth?r anti-speed inventions in "Collier’s Weekly,” Edward E. Slosson remarks: “This scheme is better than the automatic cut-off or safety-valve, which shuts off the gas and stops the car when the speed gets above a given point, because sometimes a momentary oyerspeeding is essential to safety. The automatic whistle does not prevent speeding up to get off a railroad track or avoid a collision, but when the driver does resort to extra-legal velocity as an emergency measure everybody knows it.” Concerning other French attempts to grapple with the speed problem, we read:—“Paris cabmen have long been notorious for reckless driving, and the substitution of motor-cars for hoses has increased their speed without improving their regard for pedestrians. “To check their perilous propensities two new devices have been invented. One is an automatic speed record, more accurate than constables with stop-watches. Two wires about ten feet apart are stretched across the street and concealed in such a way that an electric contact is made and broken as the wheels pass over each of them. The wires lead into a house by the side of the street, where the signals are recorded on a sheet of paper wrapped around the cylinder of a Joly chronograph, such an instrument as is used to record earthquake shocks or to measure reaction time. This gives an exact record of the time the wheels took in passing from wire to wire. The instrument also indicates the weight of the vehicle, so that if several are passing at the time their respective records can be distinguished. “A concealed camera can be so set as to take a snapshot of the car as it passes and register its number if the light is fair. So the speeder may be confronted in court with unimpeachable evidence against him.”

When a clutch slips and then grabs, it prophesies that the unis is going to fail completely within a short while. The slipping is the result of the plates having been burned, but when slipping is forced unon the clutch the plates heat, expand, and grab. The plates arc burned again, so that they slip worse than ever. Such a process cannot continue indefinitely. Usually such a clutch will fail completely after five or six stops in traffic.

HINTS AND TIPS NOTES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. When a steering gear begins to bind there are two possible causes, assuming that the gear, king pins, and connections are properly greased. _ On one type of steering gear the steering arm, sometimes called the Pitman arm, may work out too far on its shaft and alter the leverage, thus affecting the steering. The more general cause, however, is looseness of the whole steering, gear housing, so that when any strain is placed on the sear the housing changes its position. This strains the bearings and causes the gear to bind. Tightening the frame connection is the remedy.

If driving through water interferes serionslv with the operation of the brakes, it indi'ates that the bands need to be adjusted for Jess clearance. The temnorarv remedy is to hold the brakes part.lv on when running through the water puddles. This takes up the clearance and prevents water from logging the brakes.

Most mechanics have their own wiv of doing tilings, and the advice of one service station does not apply to all makes of cars, but the theory of erfrepair man with reference to replacing a evlinder-hend is interesting. lie agrees with the better run of mechanics that a cylinder-head gasket should be treated with shellac and not put on with hard grease, but he cautions against coating both sides of Jie gasket. His rule is to shellac one -idand place this side towards the engine block. Instead of covering the other side of the gasket, he “paints the cylinder-head. He finds tins preve,nts leakage, with the added advantage that the head can be removed more easily.

In addition to the rear view mirror, manv car owners now are using an additional mirror to give n side view. The purpose of this is to show up the car that is iiist in the act of passing. It cannot he seen in the rear view' mirror. This feature is standard equipment on one new make of car.

So much progress lias been made with four-wheel braking systems that it .is possible to stop the car suddenly with the hands oh th- steering wheel, and with the car keenin'” a perfectly straight course Hnriti" the process. Being sealed against the elements, .and operating on principles that insure perfect equalisation. «uch braking systems continue + o provide nerf-ct safetv, but only so Ion" as fraction is the same on all four wheels. If one tire banners 'o bo rolling on a bit of wet pavement when the brakes are anvhe-T cn-Irlc”b' that ivb-'-l is ant to loot- w-*’l, fl-- Lr.'-.l bral'ino system in the world. Chn-“= on the rear olsn cause variaiio’’ : n hrnt-in" nfßw-rirv

If if is desired to remove one ■ . the. battery terminals, and difficulty is being experienced in doing the lob place the screwdriver in between tinjaws of the terminal .and then w-dc-them anart. Tf the nuts have been ’-ocrpori nroncrlv. (he terminal will slip off (be post with little difficult-.-.