THE MOTOR

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 144, 21 June 1922, Page 17

THE MOTOR

(By "Autos.'-')

Lately iShore was raised in the press tiie question oi petrol prices, with, the suggestion that further reductions should be made to the consumer. The argument for lower prices is based generally upon the fact that at the moment petrol in America, is selling below the standard price of petrol as supplied by the chief distributing companies here. An alternative reason put forward is that in certain localities, small, independent importers a.re selling petrol below the general market price, and it is argued that, if a, profit can be made by such people, the standard price is too high. "As this is a. subject -which interests a very large section of the community, it is -worth -while to consider the question from the point of view of tli© industry," -writes "An Expert" "To dp this it is necessary to make at. brief review of the service performed by the distributor, as upon this service, subject to the ordinary law of supply and demand, the price of petrol is fixed. Practically all the petrol sold in this country has to be brought from America or the- East, and is discharged into large warehouses belonging to the distributing companies situated at tho chief ports. These warehouses- (which, in order to ensure that there- shall always bo an adequate supply of petrol available, are on a big scale) represent a heavy capital expenditure, and interest upon this must be added to the freight charge for transporting the petrol, while both oi these expenses are additional to the cost of the refined petrol in America. In computing costs in this country, the big distributors have to take into account losses by leakage and evaporation, which are inseparable from the handling on so vast a scale of such a. highly volatile article as petrol. There is a problem facing the small dealer—namely, the necessity of standardising his petrol to satisfy the requirements of the. motoring public. As it is to-day, both the garage owner who desires to build up goodwill, and the general public who-want dependable petrol, naturally favour one of the brands supplied by the big distributors, knowing that they can' count on such petrol giving satisfactory running and a high mileage to the gallon. The reputatation of the big companies is behind their brand names, and unless Jhey supplied good petrol all their extensive advertising would not bring business. With the job distributor, the petrol would probably vary with each lot imported, nor is it at all likely that he could get a. particularly high-class petrol at. any time. Thus the saving to the motorist in first cost by using this petrol. would probably be dearly bought by a greater expenditure of fuel, or the necessity of frequent cleaning and overhauling of j cylinders, valves, and sparking plugs. "There is a further point ignored when comparisons.are made of'the respective prices of American and New Zealand petrol, though it ia a point of great importance to the motorist here. It is the fact of which the motorist & not ( generally aware, that the quality o£ the petrol being supplied to home consumers in America has been reduced below that for export, so that the.'New Zealand j motorist gets a. better and more' dependable petrol when buying through the companies than does the American car owner. ,A further important consideration should be borne in mind regarding quotations of petrol in America. The American gallon is one-sixth less than the Imperial gallon, and the hulk petrol price is invariably quoted. To meet the needs of the New Zealand consumer, petrol must be packed'l in suitable, containers, tho high coat of which must be added to suph American prices. The loss due to exchange rates is also a big factor to consider.. It should be borne in mind, too, that petrol supplies in this country are scarcely likely ever to become a drug on the market that they sorfetimes are in a producing country like the United States. It is a very*different position—when, as here, every gallon of petrol must 'be transported by ships?— from that of the United States, which is the world's greatest producing area, and where the flush production of new wells, economically distributed by „ pipe-line, operates to reduce the* market price for home consumption. In the case of New Zealand companies, there is normally a market for all the petrol available in the country. It, no doubt, is fully recognised by big distributors that high prices defeat their own ends by discouraging demand, and therefore the conclusion seems obvious that the present price is found to be the economic one, giving a normal profit to the companies, yet low enough to encourage a constantly increasing demand from the motoring public."

British motor-cycle journals ar» be■wailing the fact that although the prices for motor-cycles have fallen appreciably during1 the past year, there has been no tendency to reduce the prices of replacement parts for present day models, recognising, however, that old standing spares must perhaps naturally retain their original value. In these days, when the front rank machines are almost of equal value and quality, and when performances and reliability are on a general level of excellence, the. prospective buyer as apt to look towards some of the more ■extraneous characteristics of a machine for deciding factors in his final choice. Obviously, if a rider wavers between two machines of very similar specification and capabilities) and he learns that the ■service given by the makers of the one is better, or the spares cheaper, than the other, his selection is bound to be influenced by the consideration of the fact. British motor manufacturers seem never to have looked upon the spares side of their businesses in the same way as, for •example, the producers of low-priced care in America. In some instances the cars are sold at a small profit, and a, great part of the valua of the sale lies in the potentiality of the machine as a consumer of epaie parts. Motor-cycle manufacturers seem to regard the ■ supply of spares as a necessary evil, and. although they may produce copiously illustrated spares lists, they frequently give the impression that the sale of parts is a •nuisance and a drain on their energy and resources, which can only be earned by the imposition of exceedingly high prices for the individual components of their respective machines./ This should not be so. Any firm producing machines which ! are not needlessly changed in design from year to year should be able to run a spares service department as a profitable trading concern, without demanding fictitiously high prices. It is stated that one large concern has made a ste^ _in that direction. As motor-cycle-design crystallises into hard and fast lines (a •very slow process, by the way), this extraneous matter of prompt and cheap spares supply will have more and more weight jn thil. guidance of the public's choice. In many instances an artificially high price is placed on many of the spares, so that it will not pay an assembler toi purchase them piecemeal and builft a machine cheaper than the listed price. Again, a fairly high profit must be mado on spares because they may lie unwanted on the shelves for months, even years, when there should be some return for the capital outlay. But, so .hiqli are the prices of the spai'os generally, that a leading motorist found by costing all of the parts necessary, plus ■building and finishing the machine, that a'7h.p. V-lwin-cylincle« motor-cycle would not come lower than £300. .It. cannot be denied that the Science and •praetica of laminated spring manufacture have made great strides in recent years. Without invoking the aid of any mystcrioufljorttftMx?Mie.hip, feut fcspssgjeataatt.

ecientifio methods, coupled always with painstaking attention to detail, spring makers can now produce springs ol minimum weight which will give very satisfactory service under severe conditions. If there is one direction in which t improvement in suspension is to be I sought it is in the investigation of , tho nature and extent of the damping forces desirable to control the movement of the vehicle on its springs. While it must be admitted that with well-designed leaf springs of adequate deflection a very fair degree of comfort can be secured under most conditions, there are still circumstances under which such a suspension falls far short of perfection, just as at other times any supplementary damping device would seem superfluous. Very stiff front wheel springs are provided on the average car, becaufie a, difference in the front and rear periodicity is neces* sary to stop cumulative "pitching" of the vehicle. For this reason it happens ifchat what is, after all, a secondary effect, dominates the whole design of the suspension. Research into the effect of various means of damping on paesenger comfort and vehicle oscillation may enable cans to be built in which both axles 'will be fitted -with springs of equally large deflection. .In that way it should be possible to secure a greater degree of insulation from what may be called the primary effects of road' shocks on tho front a.xle, without the plunging and ipitching hitherto associated with flexibility at front, and rear. In this age of. change and progress, in which no inidustry, and least of all any that are associated with, automobile manufacture, can afford to rest on their lauTels; hut it is not out of place to record satisfaction with the splendid results, achieved in the matter of motor springing during the ipast decade.

The "Indianapolis 500"—blue ribbon of the motor track Tacing world—was won this year by Jimmy Murphy, but the cable,does not state with what car. Probably it was the Miller-Duesenbey special with which he did so well at the Californian speedways previously this year. Murphy covered the 500 miles in Shi's 17min, which shows an average speed of 94.48 mvp.h., and is a world's record for the distance. The previous record was made by Ralph de Pa-lma, when hs averaged 83.62 m.p.h. in 1915.

Th« "Indianapolis 500" is one of the classic automobile races of the world, and holds tho same position in America as does the Grand Prix Race in France,' which latter contest, by the way, was in 1921 secured hy Murphy. Ths American ■race was last year won by T. Milton, with an average speed of 85.20'm.p.h. The prize for the'©vent this year was worth 28,000 dollars (normally £5600), and with subsidiary prizes Murphy's winnings totalled £7000. It is worthy of note that Murphy led the field throughout—a feat unique in the history of the race. The purs© offered for the winner is 50,000 dollars, with special prizes bringing tip the total amount to 100,000 dollars.