CARE OF NEW CARS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 10 September 1927, Page 14

CARE OF NEW CARS

KEEP THE SPEED DOWN. One of the worst things that can be done to a new ,ear is to make premature tests of its utmost speed and power. New car parts, and particularly engine parts, require working in by reason of their very newness. Fresh from the factory, "they are ,necessarily tightly adjusted, and only constant work of the bearings against one another will bind them Together with the perfection of the sweetly running machine that has done upwards of 1000 miles. With every mile of its running the car will improve until it is in the pink of condition at the end of 500 to .1000 miles of .careful driving. Maximum -speed should be about 20 m.p.h. on tho level, or 25 m.p.li. on a down grade. It is not much use travelling at a moderate speed over level roads if one opens the throttle fully on a hill in order to maintain the same speed. Some expensive cars are fully “run in ” by being driven a considerable mileage in road tests before delivery. But in the case of moderate-priced cars this is not usual, owing to the fact that expense involved would immediately si ml up the price. It is therefore necessary to resist the temptation ‘to drive the* car all out for the first few ‘hundred miles, otherwise the engine will be likelv to suffer.

Advice to this effect is often printed on strips of paper and stuck to the wind-screen as a gentle reminder. On a popular British car, instead of leaving it - to the judgment of the purchaser, a washer is -placed in the induction pipe., which restricts its available diameter. - Thus, if the accelerator pedal be pressed down as far as possible, the effect is onlv that of a half-open throttle.

As well as keeping down the maximum speed, this limits the hill-climb-ing powers of the car, and makes an early change necessary. If the driver learns in consequence to change down early when climbing hills, it does good in this way also. After a certain number of miles the washer can be removed, and the car will .be in first-rate condition.

The temptation to see “what a car will do” is often too great for the new owner, who while- recognising the advisability of going slow can seldom resist “stepping on it.” That demonstrators should travel at a fast pace in new cars appears to be inexcusable, but many motorists in this district have remarked on the speed at- which salesmen travel. The other day “Magneto” was passed on the road by a new car, bearing the warning notice on the windshield urging that a' speed of 25 miles an hour be not exceeded, the salesman driver travelling at a speed considerably in excess of 40 miles an hour, and which from information obtained later, must have been maintained for a distance bf nearly 20 miles.