THE MOTOR WORLD

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 29 November 1924, Page 14

THE MOTOR WORLD

An All-British motor expedition ( < across unknown-Australia will be under- l i taken next May and June, by Mr. j 1 Michael Terry. Last year Mr. Terry n took a motoring expedition across 3000' miles of Northern Australia wilds. Next year’s journey will be considerably more difficult. It will involve crossing what is known as the Great ■ Sandy Desert, which includes 500 miles of entirely unknown territory. The expedition will be equipped with a wireless installation by which nightly wirless bulletins of progress will be transmitted. The personnel will consist of j six men, each a specialist in his own; line, including a surveyor and a. geologist. T-he party will travel in three caterpillar-track motor vehicles of a new type, each of one ton capacity. Judging by some of the times registered in trial spins by Victorian motor cyclists on the new motor track at the Melbourne Amateur Sports Ground, exceedingly fast times may be anticipated in the near future. During practice runs last Saturday speeds of over 70 miles per hour were attained, and there is little doubt that when the speed men get thoroughly used to. the banking of this basin shaped cement, one-third mile circuit, that exceptionally fast times will be registered. Five crack American motor cyclists, via., J. Seymour, R. Hepburn, J. Davis, P. Anderson and P. Remaloy, have already arrived in Melbourne, and will be an additional draw when racing starts on the new track. With such a line speedway now, available, motor-paced cycle racing should boom, and incidentally new Australian records are sure to be registered. It would be interesting to see what, some of our crack longdistance road riders cap do in the hour behind motor-cycle pace, after proper training. It is worthy of note that the world’s bicycle record for the hour now stands to the credit of the ex-wnrid’s champion rider (motor paced) A. Vanderstuyft (Belgium)he haying recently ridden 67 miles in 60 minutes on the new motordrome at Montlhory, near Paris. This irider .attained'the" remarkable speed of 79b miles an hour for a short distance behind motor cycle juice. One of the finest* motor-cycle i’P eers in Europe, Mario Antenucei, lias been engaged by the track management to coach Australian 'riders and cycling enthusiasts can 100-k forward with interest to some particularly ? fast riding dui ing . the. forthcoming Melbourne racing teason.

SOUTH TARANAKI ASSOCIATION

Very great and satisfactory progress has been made in’ South Taranaki in the Association which was resuscitated a few months, ago. This body was incorporated in 1914', and did capital work until the stress of war condition's obliged its suspension. ; Since its revival branches have been formed .in Opunake, Manaia, Elthani, and Pa,tea, and in each centre a local committee has taken in ■ hand the enrolling of members, till already over 159 have been put on the register, and there are probably over a hundred still to eome. With that backing South Taranaki can do good work and will be a very integral part of the New Zea : land Union.,

They ivere wise in deciding to remain a separate body and not to amalgamate with the North. There was the utmost friendliness in making this decision. There was absolutely no trace of a parochial spirit, and the executive expressed their utmost wish to co-operate where possible with their friends in the North. They realised that the interests of the two bodies' lie along the same lines, but also do they believe that the interests of the South can, best be conserved by a body with headquarters here and with a special knowledge of the needs of the district. The Association— executive and delegates from branches —are all keen to forward the interests of motorists, and are embarking on a very live campaign. They are fortunate, too, in securing the services of Mr Walkley as secretary, ope who is directly interested as a motorist himself. The prospects' are for a good useful campaign. CLUB COMPETITIONS. ' English motorists are very fond of club hill climbs, speed tests, and so on, and little competitions of this sort go oo all over the country. They are divided into a large number of classes, so that nearly every club member can compete in an. event in which his car lias a chance, hut a few unlimited and open classes are put in to draw the cracks from a distance. The English motorists seem keener on this form of sport than his prototype overseas, where in my experience is often difficult to T,et a decent entry for club events. Many of the amateur drivers in England are very keen, and here club committees do not have to look for the trade alone to fill competitions, as is sometimes the case in the Dominions. j • ; l MOTOR CYCLING ON WEST 1 COAST. j Says a correspondent in an exchange: “I have traveled in most countries cf the world, and one of the most interesting tours, was through China from Tsingtan to the Shantou Province to Tientsin—hut that trip has undoubtedly been excelled and crowned by my tour through beautiful Westland down to the Franz Josef Glacier: If I described the scenery in full, it would sound like fairyland. Never, in all iny travels have I seen such lovely F orests! The roads were rough, a-cry rough in places, but the machine managed to go everywhere, including the many reasonable deep creeks as far as Dry Creek which is about 30 miles form the Waviho. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have managed Dry Creek easily, only I struck it in a flood, and floods in South "Westland have to be seen to be believed. Indeed, the only time in my life when I had the wind put up me completely was when I struck McCullock’s Creek in flood and attempted to negotiate it on horseback. Like a greenhorn. 1 started across the creek on a veiy ‘wonkey’ steed and >soon found myself in deep water. My horse was shouldering the torrent nobly when all of a sudden the water appeared over the saddle. The next moment my horse was swept sideways and I was swept out of the saddle and we were both whirled down the creek.. As luck would have it. I was swept up against the side and managed to clamber out. At the same time, I saw my horse about 25 yards away scrambling up the side of the hank. The creature seemed none the worse for the experience, as I found later that he made no demur about crossing many other swollen creeks we had to ford on our homeward wav. I have the, greatest respect fo r the Westland horses. But just a. tip to the motor-cyclist. I think he will gain much by following this advice. Before attempting to negotiate a creek of any

depth, it is wise to grease up all the joints of your magneto and magneto dynamo, and tie a greasy rag over your carburettor. You will find that you will then be able to negotiate most of the water-ways in South Westland. But I don’t want the motor-cyclist to think it is all rough. The greater parts of the roads down there are as good as many of the roads around Christchurch. IN BRITISH ISLES.

“We motored practically through all England right to the north of Scotland,” said Mr. C. H. Harrison, who has just returned from a. visit to England and the Continent of Europe, when giving a representative of The Press some of his impressions of travel. “And what one can advise others to do is to motor through England and Scotland if they want to see the country properly—it is really pretty.' And the roads —one can go almost from the South of England to the North of Scotland on roads as good as any of our city streets. There are no loose roads, and no dust: we never came upon a stony road anywhere we went.” When Mr. Harrison’s party decided to see England, Wales and Scotland by motor they bought a car between them. Transportation costs —petrol and so forth —for the four weeks that the tour occupied amounted to £6 —a sum that would not have taken the party far by rail.

/Mr Harrison spoke enthusiastically of the w r ork of the Automobile Association, which had patrols on the roads—men on motor-cycles ready to provide spares to the motorist ■who has had a breakdown, or to give information when such was wanted. ‘ ‘The sign-posting of the roads,’- said Mr. Harrison “is all that can be desired. It is almost impossible for one to loose his way if he has a road man and with the aid of the sign posts. All the roads are numbered, and the numbers on the sign posts correspond to the numbers on the road map. If one wants to go, say, from London to Liverpool, all lie needs to do is to pick out the roads ou the road map, note the numbers and look out for them on the sign posts. 3 ’ The party took a month to cover the South of England, Wales and Scotland, returning to London via the East Coast and the Midlands.

MOTOR HIGHWAYS. When all the world and his wife are motoring, the building of special motor roads in settled districts is only a question of time. Italy is leading the way in Europe at present, and a speed highway from Milan to Lake Varese, a distance of 30j miles has been opened. It has a cement surface and Contains long straight stretches of seven, eight, and even ten miles, while hillocks have been levelled and hills cut through in order to give an esay gradient. The road is reserved entirely for cars, not even motor-cycles being allowed on it. Other similar highivays are being built from Milan, to the neighbouring lakes, and with' a width of 45 feet and a perfect surface they enable very high speed to be maintained. In time other exclusively motoring roads are likely to he constructed in different parts of Europe and America. What is really the cause of so many accidents to-dav is the mixing-uo of different classes of. trafic all moving

jat varying speeds. Somebody seriousiiy suggested this week tha t horseurawn vehicles should be excluded ii om -iiondon on - the ground 'that, horses caused more accidents than, anything else.

It is hardly likely special motor roads will be built in the Dominions and India for a long time, as their crush of motor vehicles is nothing like that in Europe 1 and America, but an effort mightat least be made to put the great irr link highways into ready first class order, and so provide a certain number of national routes. A guarantee of good touring roads would attract oversea visitors, and the essential improvement in the country hotel accommodation I would follow.

“KEEPING ONE’S HEAD. 3 .’ I Quite a number of motorists in Eng- 1 land still seem to think that low pres- j i sure tyres may burst, or come oit, atD speed and cause accidents. As a mat- 1 ter of fact, the actual cases of trouble j of rthis kind are extremely few, and then the driver is usually found to be < at fault. The risk associated with 1 bursting tyres is a reality very small indeed, as long as the driver keeps liis head. Recently in Denmark a motorist was driving a very powerful car at a speed of 150 miles an hour when a front tyre came off the rim. It dashed away fromtlie car, killed a boy, wrecked the timekeepers’ box arid ran for a.' mile, hut the driver completed the course on the rim. The danger lies in the driver losing his head when a skid follows a burst, and jamming on the brakes. The proper thing to do, of course, is to correct the skid by careful steering and let the car go< on, and then stop gradually. Unless one‘is compelled to do so to avoid a collision, never apply the brakes hard and suddenly. That alone is enough to cause an accident. A fearful skid generally' follow’s, or the car . may turn a. soipfersault. Years ago ope of the finest '"racing drivers in France was killed by jamming on the brakes when travelling at high speed to avoid a cyclist, who ] shot out of a cross road. The racing j car turned three complete somersaults, 1 and was totally wrecked. The ordinary skid on a greasy road is generally harmless s if you slip the clutch out and let the can run ahead, naturally corrects ing. the skid with the steering.. It is the driver who gets a fright and jams on his foot-break as hard as he can who finishes up in all sorts of queer ; places, , ' . SPEED ON HUTT ROAD. Ou the motion of Mr. F., Goldberg it was decided at the last meeting of the Wellington Automobile Association to 1 ask the Hutt road hoard to raise the speed limit through Ngahauranga and ■ Kaiwarra from 12 miles per hour to 1 15.

It was pointed out that 15 miles per hour ruled in tlie city of Wellington, and it was also stated that the slowing down of a car to 12 miles per hour was more dangerous tjjan the slowing down to 15. In fact, some members pointed out that they had a. difficulty iu doing it at all. ' .

HOTEL SCHEME WELL SUPPORTED.

The hotel concession scheme which is now being perfected by the Council of the Auckland Automobile Association is meeting with very wide support. An official list of the houses which have elected to come under the scheme is now in course of preparation, and will shortly he printed and furnished to members of the Associa-

tion arid other associations connected with the North Island Motor Union. The. scheme is one of the many useful and valuable services the 'Auckland Automobile Association is performing for its members

BEST TYPE OF ROAD. , With .a view to discovering the least costly type of road that will meet New Zealand requirements the Wellington Automobile Club has decided to ask the Highways Board to maintain an experimental stretch of road; to test out, under typical New Zealand main road conditions, the types of construction and methods of maintenance considered most suitable for the conditions of this country. . The club suggested test stretches of hot-mix of different thicknesses, | penetration, a tar-sealed stretch, and | also a test of the improved gravel aind macadam maintenance as described by Mr. A. T. Tyndall, of the Public Works Department.

It was also decided to ask that frill explanatofy notice hoards be erected beside the various-test stretches.

MODERN MOTORING

VALUE OF TOURIST TRAFFIC

Canada has spent £38,000,000 ini building good roads in the pash five , years, according to John B. Harkin, Dominion Commissioner of Parks, i*i an address before the, Ottawa Rotoary Club. .. v; “The Dominion has received £23,000,000 in revenue from foreign tourist traffic in the same period,’> said Mr Harkin. “This represented a large yield on the capital expenditure ou roads. Automobile tourist .traffic from the United States lias trebled in the last tlurie years. Iu 1921 American cats entering Canada.numbered 617,387; in 1922 they totalled 966,329, and in 1923 they numbered 1,942,387. , ■ : ‘lmprovement of highways has been a big factor in the development of Canaria’s tourist trade. The Dominion ] knows that it is not spending money .1 on. roads, hut merely, investing it. It lis an investment that wiil -euirn a dollar for every cent, put iirio it. Under plans adopted by the provinces in cooperation .with the Federal Government, Canada will soon have a system of trans-continental highways second la none.

“Road building activity has been especially pronounced in tae prairie- pi Or vinces of Western Canada, where land settlement has been heavy in recent * yeai’s. Farmers know tliat with good roads the market channels for crops will always be open. Good roads mean general prosperity.” A. MOTOR TRAINS. IN AUSTRALIA. The Railway Commissioners stated recently that there would be import-art t alterations in the arrangement of the. services to the far north-west, beyond ~ Narrabri, with the object of reducing the inconvenience to travellers to arid from those districts. By the use of rail motors to serve the Burren JunctionPokatoroo, arid Burren Junption-Wal-gett lines, together with the. provision of an extra steam train between Narrabri and Burren Junction, it:was intended to cut mpr© than three hours off the • journey. Hitherto there had been, a " wait of 53 minutes at Narrabri for passengers travelling beyond that point. The new service, which would come into operation from December- 1, would reduce this waiting time at Narrabri to 13 'minutes. From that point a new ■steam- passenger train would be substituted for the (present mixed train to

Burren Junction, while from that point to Pokataroo and rail motor services would run on each line three days a week. The rail motor would run ieuand from Burren Junction and Pokataroo on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and to and from Burren Junction and Walgett on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, allowing for approximately two hours between the arrival and departure from the two far western terminal stations. The hew time-table would be so arranged as to allow passengei's to make use of the up-to-date refreshment room at Burren Junction for breakfast on the down journey and for .the midday meal on the up journey to Sidney. The time saved on the joUrhey to Sydney would amount to 2 hours 45 minutes from Walgett, and 3 hours 25 minutes from Pokataroo. The comfort of these long-distance travellers would he further assisted by the fact that the train would not stop at stations south of Quirindi (other than Waratah, Broadmeadow, and Hornsby), except 4o set down passengers.

MOTOR BREAKS ON ICEBOUND ROADS.

In a description of a recent test the new 21 h.p. Lanchester car .on frost-bound roads, given the “Autocar,” a statement is made -which, if, as no doubt it is, fully justified by the facts, will do more hasten the. adoption of four-wheel brakes than all their other advantages combined. It is that wheh a. portion of road downhill "was struck that had become a sheet of ice, the independent rear wheel: brakes were first applied, to check speed. The car immediately began to slew round. The four-wheel brakes were then tried, and . immediately steadied the car, stopped the rear swing, and brought the car to a halt in a few feet. Then the performance, which had been unexpected, was repeated with the same result. As. we have said, if that be a characteristic of all four-wheel brakes, no further demonstration of their value can he desired, for we know of nothing that could he half so convincing. No motorist -vvho has once experienced the hopelessness of being in charge of a car over which he has no steering control ever will risk. a repetition, and any fitting which robs such a situa- •" n of terrors which will be welcomed, whatever may be the trouble involved m maintaining efficiency—and we cannot be any party to minimising this, because unless such trouble be accepted as part and parcel of the device it may render' worse than illusory all the safeguard implied ift it. SPEED LAWS. -POINTS FROM OVERSEAS. AMERICAN EXAMPLE. In the following terms a. circular has been issued to the motorists of California: -7 The average motorist should be better acquainted with the State speed laws than he appears to be from the frequency of his introduction to the city traffic bureaux and the police courts. /

Bo you know that you can travel hiiles an hoiir within the limits of a certain conditions? Bo you know that you . may he gaoled foir feckless driving even though you may be proceeding at a rate of speed less than 15 miles an hour ?

The following outcome of the State law has been prepared by the Safety Bureau of the National Automobile Club fof the information of motorists :

1. The speed of the car must at all times he such as not to endanger the i . or P r bperty of any person. The driver must have-, due regard for the amount of traffic and the surface and width of the highway. This is the most important of all the speed laws, and. it is the most often overlooked or disregarded.

2. Fifteen miles an. hour, is the limit m the following cases : (a) Crossing where the view is obstructed.

(h) Intersections:where the view is obstructed.

(c) On curves where the view is obstructed.

(d) Passing schools when persons are entering or leaving grounds. ' (<5) In a business district, thht-is, where th 4 buildings on the highway mamly used Tor business purposes. (t) Grounds of a state county or city institution.

miles an hour is the limit allowed .in a district which is classed as residential,” where for not less than a quater of a mile the dwellings and business Structures average less than a hundred feet apart. ejLi miles an hour is the speed iinnt at all times, exceot as provided above. '

SIGNALS WHICH MOTORISTS SHOULD GIVE.

\ All drivers of vehicles, and cyclists, are strongly recommended to familiarize themselves with aind .to use the following signals:— No. 1. — “lam going to stop.” Hold the right forearm and hand (or dummy arm) vertical, palm turned to the front. No. 2.—“1 am going to turn to the right,” Extend the right arm and hand (or dummy arm) horizontally straight : out from the off side of the vehicle, plain turned to the front. No. 3'—“l .am going to turn to the left.” Extend the right arm and hand horizontally, straight out from the off side of- the vehicle, and then carry them forward and towards the near side with a circular sweep on a level with the shoulder.

. No. 4.—“1 am going to slow down. - '" Extend the right arm .and hand horiz ontally as in Nos. 2 and 3, but with the palm turned downwards, and move the aim slowly up and down. No.jp. —“Come past me on the right/’ Extend the right arm and hand f clew the leyel of the shoulder, and move them 1 backwards hnd forward-;. In the case of horse-drawri vehicVs. if the driver carries a whip, these “stop” and “turning” signals should be given.

No. 6.—“1 am going to turn.” Rotate the whip above the head ; then incline the whip to; the right, or left to show the direction of the turn. In addition to giving the above signals a driver, when approaching a corner, should point as clearly as possible with the hand or whip so that the police and otlier drivers may understand in which direction he intends to proceed. notes. li4 a recent Sydney paper is a fine nhotograph of the premises to be erected for the Automobile Association at the r-orner of MacOuarie and Albert Streets. The new building will have a frontage to Circular Quay, and will cost £IOO,000. There will be eight stories, but the btiilding will lie so constructed that it may be extended to the full height allowed bv the citv building regulations as the elub develops. It is expected

that the club will be ready for occupation in two years. The plans provide for 40 bedrooms, from most of which it will he possible to secure an unobstructed view of the harbour and government House grounds. The architects, who are acting in an honorary capacity, are Messrs. Ross and Rowe.

One of the sights at Flemington off Melbourne Cup Day is the fine collection of motor ears, totalling in value probably £1,250,000. Naturally at a social gathering like the “Cup” * the aggregation of motors embraces the finest makes in the world, the better class of car being mostly in evidence. “I can’t get any speed out of the motor-car you sold me. You'told me you had been summoned six times while driving it.” “So I was, old chap—for obstructing the highway!”