THE MOTOR

Grey River Argus, 18 June 1927, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE MOTOR

(By

”Sparkies Plug.”)

A LIVE SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION. As a result of the enthusiastic work of its travelling organiser, Mr T. H. Torrens, the membership of the Otag) Motor Club has been raised in seven months from 1400 to 2300. The club is very active. It has undertaken and is carrying rapidly into effect a routecolouring programme, and has liberally sign-posted the whole district in the scope of its control. At Whare Flat, some miles from Dunedin, it recently erected a bridge over a stream that has been a bugbear to motorists for years. SPOT FINES. The practice of imposing fines on the spot for offences against the traffic laws, which causes so much annoyance in Switzerland, is now being adopted in France.

A story is told of an American who fell foul of a law of this kind in Germany (where the practice has been n vogue for many years), which illustrates the contempt in which such laws and penalties are usually held. The American was riding a horse in one of the public parks and allowed it to

jump a fence which was verboten. A policeman who witnessed the offence

promptly demanded the appropriate fine, but the horseman had not the re-

quisite loose coin sufficient to cover two offences. The policeman had ao change, so, to meet the difficulty, the American said: ‘‘Never mind, I’ll have another jump for it.” GRADIENT*METERS. A very interesting and novel accessory has recently made its appearance in the motor world in the shape of a gradient meter, a useful dashboard fixture instrument, by means of which it is possible to tell at a glance the steepness of any road which is being passed over. The works of this in-

strument are rather interesting. It is flush-fitting, with a moving scale, which shows the figures through a small window in the dial itself. A small lamp is enclosed at the rear portion so that the instrument may be sufficiently illuminated for night driving. Black figures show a rising gradient, and red ones are used to indicate a descent. The mechanism itself is on the pendulum principle, and the method in which this has been applied is very clever. The main controlling pendulum is suspended so that it is free to take up a vertical position. It is obvious that such a pendulus would sway about, if uncontrolled, and give inaccurate readings, but this has been prevented by fitting a unique damping device.

A PUNCTURE HINT. Have you ever had a flat tire and then found that because of irregularities in the road, you were unable to get the jack under the axle to rais-3 the wheel? It certainly is aggravating. You don’t like to run the flat tire up on a rock or board for fear of injuring the slack rubber. The next time you are in such a predicament, try this: Take the spare tyre off the carrier and place it in front of the punctured tyre. Then run the ear slightly forward so that the wheel bearing the flat is on top of the spare. Thon you will have plenty of room for your jack. WHAT IS THE LIFE OF A CAR? Some interesting figures regarding big mileages have been supplied to “The Motor” by the Armstrong Siddeley Co. regarding cars of their make. One car had completed 50,000 miles in two consecutive years’ running. Another ;nan used the same six-cylinder car for eight years and claimed a mile-

age of 96,000. A third covered over 100,000 miles on a 14 h.p. saloon, but the record was held by a car purchased in 1921 by a Scottish education authority which actually covered 165,000 six years and had a total mileage of miles before being sold in 1926. Another veteran was used by a lady for 132,000. Few motorists exceed 5000 miles in a year, and even is the distance is 10,000 it would appear that the Ifie of a car is at least 10 years, subject, of course, to the way it is looked after and to the substantial construction of the vehicle.

WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS. Proceeding along a country road the other day, says an English journal, a motor had to follow a light car for several miles. The following motorist noticed during this period that the leading car was smoking very badly, and was gradually getting worse. Five miles were covered like this, when the driver of the second car decided that it would be better to warn the leading car about the smoke, intense something was amiss, so he speeded up and signalled to the other driver to stop. Despite the indignation of the occupant of No. 1 car, an investigation was made, and the cause found to be due to binding brakes. A glance at the hand lever gave the key to the situation. WHAT IS VITAL? There are ten vital features which the buyer should demand when purchasing a car. They arc:— 1. Beauty. 2. Dependability. 3. Economy. 4. Power. 5. Riding comfort. 6. Handling ease. 7. Fine materials. 8. Precision in workmanship. 9. Convenience. 10. Widespread service facilities. Although these factors are not necessarily placed in the order of importance, they arc all essential to motoring satisfaction.

CLEANING PETROL TANKS. A very small quantity of water in a petrol tank may cause a stoppage. The following is an effective way of cleaning the tank. If convenient it is a simple matter to remove the tank and swill it out with methylated spirit. The commercial brand will suit admirably, as water, which will not mix with petrol,-mixes with the methylated spirit, and is therefore carried out or evaporated when the tank is emptied. Any grit will, of course, ba removed at the same time. In the fnajority of cases where the tank cannot be removed the process is more difficult, but a certain measure of success may result from tying a small chamois leather to the end of a stick or a length of stiff wire. This can then be inserted through the filler and wiped round the lowest point in the tank where the water has collected. The chamois should be withdrawn and thoroughly rinsed in clean water, the process being repeated until the tank is dry.

A TIP FOR THE HORN. When the horn of his car goes dumb the average motorist usually starts to pull it to pieces, or takes it along to the garage man. Next time you strike trouble of this sort try this action first: Get someone, to hold the button down while you lightly tap the horn with a spanner. More often than not this slight shock will give the horn its lost voice. Often, too, the armature spindle may need a little oil.

WHERE OUR CARS COME FROM. In the decreased demand for cars in the past quarter all classes of motors share except the Italian. These figures for the quarter show the number and origin of the cars and chassis imported:—

1927 1926 United States . 1528 2135 Canada . 1110 3892 United Kingdom 764 805 Italy 184 87 France 90 33 Belgium 0 2