THE MOTOR

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 100, 28 April 1921, Page 13

THE MOTOR

(By "Autos.")

TRADE OUTLOOK BETTER,

Confirmation of. my 'observations last week on the improved outlook in the motor trade was given to-day by a gentleman, of the widest authority and knowledgi in the great business whioh has grown up round motor transport in New Zealand. The trade knows exactly where it is now, and the position is absolutely sound. There is no doubt that the awkward situation oreated by huge imports all arriving within a few'months haa been admirably handled, and that the trade has pulled together with mutual assistance and co-operation and pulled out of its difficulties. Business iri some lines is such that there is likely |. to be a shortage in a few months. Thereis no prospect of a general sudden drop in prices. If there is any drop, it will be gradual. Production has been largely curtailed in America, and there are still big stocks of high-priced material to be worked off. Labour will come down, but the effect will be slow. .Meanwhile, the foolish rumours of cars to be bought at £100 apiece on the wharves, or some other such ridiculous price, have done much gratuitous harm. A farmer recently came down, on the strength of a rumour like this, to Wellington with a couple of hundred pounds in his pocket, to buy two cars, which he had heard were going at £100 each. Importation has practically ceased for the time being, and the stocks of cars at present in the Dominion will be readily absorbed in the next few months. EEPAIR INDUSTRY GROWS. The motor repair industry has developed so greatly in the last few years that it is to-day a good second to general engineering, likely to be. first in a couple of years at present rates of progress. There is not to-day the shortage of skilled motoi 1 mechanics there was a, year a.go. Business is rather quieter, and every Home .boat has brought several skilled men who have had no difficulty in getting job 3. A few men who went into the trade when the demand was greater than the supply, and who were not qualified motor'mechanics then, and are not. the best now, are out of employment," There is so much money at stake in a motor-car that the owner is entitled to have his repair and. overhaul work done only by experts. While America is faced with a "used" car problem, which presents great diffionlties 4 New Zealand fortunately is as yet free from this incubus on fresh trade. It ia a regular business in America—putting the second-hand oar in order, or reassembling a collection of old parts and making a new vehicle |f them. Here nobody up to the present ia specialising in this line v . though several garages may dismantle old cars for their parts and occasionally rebuild a car. With proper plant there might, one thinks, be something in it to a man who studied) the problem right through. Okl cars or second-hand cars can be picked up pretty cheaply now, and some are oapable still of a useful extension of life, if properly put in order. storage; qf benzine. Motorists will be specially interested, in the new regulations for the storage of benzine under " The Explosive Goods Act Amendment Act" of last session. These will be issued almost at once. Provision is made for a reduction in the quantity a private owner may keep in his garage to 8£ gallons, apart from the henzjne in the tank. For country motorists there will be more generous allowances. Generally, the regulations, -which are to be enforced .by the local authorities, make for greater safety in the storage of petrol in centres of population. The leaking case lying about and benzine ■ running over the floors, and so forth will have to be watched more closely in the future. The motor trade; generally welcomes these regulations, but motorists who are cut down to a modest case of spare benzine will feel the- change from the free-and-easy times. It is not likely that the regulations will be very / rigidly enforced for a little while, this to enable owners' to make their arrangements for carrying out the law. ./lcohol process. The raport issued recently by fli'e Empire Motor Fuels Committee of the Imperial Motor Transport Council inspii^es the belief, pays an English, motor journal, that something really constructive isboirrg accomplished in alcohol' research,.' Definite experiments and progress h»vo been made in regard' to the discovery of a satisfactory dienataranfc,' and conferences have been held with fcho Board of Customs and 1 Excise. Many substances ha.vo b**P, and aTe still being 1, experimented with at the Imperial Collego of Science and Technology, whelre laboratory accommodation has been provided for the purpose. The laboratory research, goes hand in hand with experimental work, which is being undertaken by an engineering sub-committee. The work of this body is of the highest importance, for it has in han<J ai series of tests which, it is believedi,; will establish definite data governing the-'design and operation of internal-combustion, engines running on alcohol fuel an'di mixtuTes of alcohol-benzole-ether aod similar mixtures containing varying propoitiona of certain kinds, of denaturanta. View- | ing the report as. a whole, we regard it as very enoouraging, as, in spite of the- gloomy views expressed by othe-n committee's, we still regard alcohol as one of the possible solutions of tha fuel problem. It is true that there are a number of very serious difficulties to be. overcome, but we are certainly by no means, convinced that these are insuperable. It appea,rs to us that by tackling, the subject of alcohol with aji eye to the whole range of complex problems the Empire Motor Fuels Committee is doing a real service to the State. WHICH WHEELS LIFT? A correspondence discussion in. an English - motor journal discloses the curious fact that many people—perhaps oven a majority—think that when a car turns sharply round a corner it is the outside wheels that tend to lift—that is, that when the car turns to the lefts the right side wheels bear less heavily on the road than those on the left. They even support their view by pointing to the "banking" of high-speed, tracks, claiming that the track is raised at the outside in order to maintain contact witJj the wheels. As a matter of fact it i« the inside wheels which lift, becanse the car tends to tra,vel in a straight Hue and the centrifugal force is exerted in an effort "to throw the car outwards. Those in the car, of course, feel this ''outward" force. The point is of more than theoretical interest, because people who hold tho mistaken view have been known to lean their weight deliberately on the outside of the curve "to keep the wheels down." Nothing could be more dangerous. They are simply conspiring with an already powerful natural force to help it throw the cat over on its side. It is true that a bicycle leans inwards on a curve ; but that is not because the force tends to throw it in; it leans in that direction so as to oppose the capsizing force. As a Cai cannot sb lean, the centrifugal force is opposed only by the fact that the weight of the car lies within the vndth of the wheeUbase. PENALTY OF BIGNESS.

Commenting' on the report that Mr. Henry Ford had recently gone to New York with the object of raising a loan of something like £15,000,000,. The

Motor (London) says the news probably came as a shock to many who had come to believe that if stabilised conditions were to be^found anywhere it would be in the vast industrial organisation tX Datroit. But if one pauses for a moment to consider the matter on a logical basis, the fact that Mr. Ford is endeavouring to raise this loan is not, perhaps, so surprising as it might at first ■ appear to be. The magnitude of the Ford concern has to be kept in mind in considering the matter. Everything is on the colossal scale. The staff numbers some 50,000 hands; the works turn out some million cars a year, In normal times demand is large, and this output has been rapidh' absorbed. When demand falls off it generally does so on a big scale, and circumstances have evidently combined to make the falling off greater; for instancy, obstacles in the way of exporting cars would create a tremendous disturbance in the flow of business, because, as is well known, the Ford' car penetrate to all parts of the world. When the equilibrium of such a huge undertaking is upset the upheaval must almost inevitably be enormous, and if a crisis is reached commitments must of necessity beona correspondingly big scale. Thus, we find tax demands amounting to £11,000,000, and loans to banks £7,----000,000. For the time being, the world cannot absorb the product of the enormous, factory at Detroit as fast as it can be made, and although the- works have been closed for two months, it is said that there are -£7,000,000 worth of unsold cars in stock. When a factory is organsied on the scale of that at Detroit the wealth represented in the plant, stores, and general organisation have only their maximum value when running at highest pressure, and when the output cari be absorbed as quickly as it is produced. All this will show that Henry Ford can only seek relief on a scale commensurate with the vastnees of his enterprise. SGARCETA 7 SUITABLE. A motorist was having considerable trouble with misfirihg, and at last he traced it to a faulty brush iij the magneto. There was nobody in a small country town who stocked' the necessary spare part, and as a last resort he inquired at a shop the owner of which kept a motor-cycle.; " I want a carbon brush for my-mag-netoi and i thought perhaps, as you had a. motor-cycle, you might have a spar& one in your possession?" The shopkeeper thought for a moment, " No," he said, " I do not stock magneto brushes, and I have"not ?ot a spare one, but I have a small shaving b.rush, if that will be of any use." The Queens-drive from Island Bay to Lyall Bay and vice versa is a favourite run for motorists of an evening, but it has its dangers. A motior cyollst on Sunday night, who had never been round that way before, coming at a great turn of speed from the Island Bay direction, mistook the gateway to the City Council's quarry for the road, and with his companion on the pillion saddle came a bad smash. The nder wag seriously in< jured, striking the chain across the gate-* way with such force that he. burst the padlock open. He was badly cut about the neck and throat. His companion got off more lightly with bruises and abrasions. The machine was wrecked, landing' well inside the gate, i A Lyall Bay resident motoring along behind noticed the . disappearance of the motor cycle, which had passed him at a speed he reckoned at 35 m.p.h. He was able to pick up the injured men and get them home. The place is undoubtedly dangerous, and should'be marked with a light or lamp. A few days ago a Lower Hutt resident had the misfortune to have his motor-garage and all itß contents, including his car—one of the finest in the town—destroyed by fire. The only insurance was £100 on the garage; the car, valued at £2000, and tools and othei" property in the building were uncovered. The owner's net loss was close upon £3000. The fire was an objectlesson to many motorists.