THE MOTOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 20, 25 January 1911, Page 4

THE MOTOR.

{By "Autos.") There is a very great deal to be said for the email car, especially fox business purposes, where constant usage necessaxy, and passengers are but seldom carried. The type of small caT most popular is the single-cyjindered or twiacylindered runabout euch as doctors find so valuable iv their practice. There are single cylindered cars, which will climb practically any reasonable hill likely to be met in ordinary travel. They consume very little petrol compared with the great touring care, thej are much easier and safer to handle on all ifoads — particularly on narrow winding roads^ — and if they do not cover the ground at 30 or 40 miles an hour they can average over 20 comfortably. "Autos" had experience of a couple of Cadillacs up in the Manawatu district recently. The first was old-fashioned (as compared with modern cars in appearance), a plain, old four-seater single-cylinder car about lour or five years old. During that time it had done yeoman service and was still j running excellently over Tough and hilly roads. The other car was a 30-40 new ear, immensely powerful and swift, but the driver in taking some of the steep and winding descente eaid he longed for the old single cylindered light car. It was easier to handle, and the responsibility was lese. Of course it is always a matter of degree, but there does seem to be an opening for a simple, light and cheap car. One looks tfeough journals and catalogues in vain for the ideal. Not under £200 does it seem possible to get anything near what is wanted.

"Runabout" in th.© Autocar ims a worcl on tbe email car. Olympia has one very plain meesage for the man, of strictly moderate means, namely, thai the cheapest cars a3>& not in a hurry to get any cheaper. We remember how, twenty yeais ago, Paterfamilias eaid there was no hurry about buying himself a bicycle, for ere long the cream of Coventry'e cycles would bo selling at £5 a time. To-day Paterfamilias is still cyclelesß, and w-e, the once hopeful impertinente, usually pay nearer £15 for the machines on which we coael down to our offices. Now it is with cars that history repeats iteelf. The modern Paterfamilias is waiting for the cosy iittle governess-cart type of car, which is to cost him not more than eighty or a hundred pounds, never give any trouble, and never, oh ! never, send the policeman's furtive fingers into the fob pocket. But once again we have to search Olympia for that oft-boomed, long-in-coming £100 car. As a matter of petrified fact, Olympia could only produce seven cars listed at less than £200, and of these only one is new. Cheapness there was indeed, but it took the form of better value rather than of lower price, and is evident chiefly above £250. There is a good deal of truth in what "C. S." writes to the Autocar on this subject. "That we are on the threshold ot a vast development in the motor-car world few will deny," he says. "The introduction from America chiefly of light cars at a popular price will result in extending the market for cars to strata of society which have hitherto been unable to afford cars. All patriotic motorists will be anxious to see what steps English manufacturers will take to stem the invasion of the American car, and it is much to be hoped that the competition will be taken at its true value, being neither ignored nor result in a panic. Having to fight American competition in another groove, > I can testify to the keen business habits and to the wonderful cleverness as salesmen of Americans. As an engineer, with some knowledge of car manufacture, to my mind the outstanding feature _of American cars is the enormous saving of weight coupled with simplicity, accessibility, and ready renewal of parts. Of these I regard the saving of weight as of paramount importance, as it enables the running costs to be reduced to a minimum, which includes a great saving in tyres, the bugbear of heayy cars ; if the car be light, coupled with a really economical engine of relatively high pow.er,*it enables- the use pi a twospeed epicyclic gear, and the abandonment of the present sliding gear box, which' is wasteful, noisy, and heavy, and is beyond doubt the most ijnmechanical contrivance on a car. It is not too much to say that if the light ears now being sent over to this country stand up to their work they will revolutionise motor-car construction in this country} in this connection it must be borno iv mind that the class of motorist now coming into the market will only use his* car for week-ends, Easter and Whitsun T tide recesses, and a summer holiday, and only ask for a car life of 25,000 miles, spread over, say, five yearb, by which time the natural evolution of car design will probably have rendered the car obsolete. It seems to be a fact beyond dispute that some of the fourseater cars from America with 20 h.p. engines weigh about 12cwt to 13cwt ready for the road, and will give not less than twenty-five miles to the gallon and do fully 85 per cent, of the road on the top gear, and 'have a very large reserve of power for hills. Many English, cars are nearly double this j weight with nothing like the mileage per gallon; a good deal of the economy , of the very light cars is attributable to an adjustable carburetter jet and variable ignition. Time alone will show whether the light cars will stand up to the conditions obtaining on this eide^ and it remains to be seen if the invaders will obtain a permanent hold on the English market, and one can only hope that English makers will assimilate all the good points of American cars, discarding all the weak point*, to the general advancement of car design." The cost of running a car is always a matter of deep interest to owners. In fact, the depth of the interest varies in inverse ratio to the depth of the motorist's pocket. The following little bill contributed by "X. Y. Z." to the Autocar is apropos just now : — I have recently sold my car after four years' use, so I can now give a complete cost, including depreciation. The car was a 16-20 h.p. four-cylinder, always driven by myself. Mileage, 18,900. Amount. Per mile. Tyres £186 ... 2.37 d Petrol 80 ... 1.02 d Lubricating oils 10 ... .13d Bepairs ... 184 ... 2.34 d Sundries ... 100 .... 1.27 d £560 ... 7.13 d Loss on selling 250 ... 3.18 d Total ... £810 ... 10.31 d A good long distance run was made last Friday by a Hawera party from the Taranaki dairytown into Wellington. The distance is about 230 miles, and the actual running Lime was 8 hours 30 minutes. Stops of three-quarters of an hour at Wangamu and ajx hour at Palmerston North were made, and several minutes were lost thi6 side of Palmerston through a mistake. Between Palmerston and Levin the main run is extremely difficult for a stranger to follow, and the County Council should certainly here particularly erect pioper sign posts and notice boards. The car making the run was a Talbot. Xhe party will leturn to Hawera, some time thiV week. | Mr. \V. Souter, of Cambridge, le ports a very pleasant motur Inp from Cambridge to Wairakei, Napier, Palmerston North, Wellington, i"o.\tou, Wa|,Sgaaiu, Kew' Plymouth, and .thence yia ;

Taumatairmire and the Mokau to Te Kuiti and back to Cambridge. The West Coast roads were very rough from New Plymouth;, and they® were three or four bogs at Taumatamadre. Mr. Souter •was in a light Ford car, which, he declares, behaved very well throughout. lie average consumptiou of petrol was 21 mike to the gallon, for the whole trip, and 30 mike to the gallon from Haet^ ings to Palmerston North. The party -were joined by a Napier and a Daixacq

at New Plymouth, and all three care had to he assisted by all hands pulling on the ropeoverTaumatamaireandite We The wonder is that the care could be got over that terror to motorists and cyclists at • * JK? ° Ue of the worBt bite of road in all Now Zealand as "Autos" knows to his cost. Th e New Plymouth-!^ Jluiti load is one the Government should improve finst of all, as it is a very important highway— the only practicable route from the West Coast to Auckland