SPEED AND BRAKES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 2 June 1928, Page 14

SPEED AND BRAKES

CARE NECESSARY. MODERN CARS MEET THE DEMANDS. i The development of the modern car is along the lines of speed, acceleration, and rapid deceleration. The light car with the small and highly efficient engine is the natural result of the attempt to combine these desirable leatnres with small operative costs, and the results are seen in the trend, for what we may call the super efficient small car, which will do what only a few years ago could only be attempted by high-powered and heavy vehicles. ' Increasing congestion on the roads has called, and is calling more and more, for this “nippy” class of car, with an engine of good accelerative powers, and with that advantage has arisen, concomitantly, the very serious necessity for brakes which shall be as efficient and as rapid in their decelerative powers as is the engine in the matter of acceleration. Traffic driving on the main arteries has become very largely a matter of taking opportunities for passing rapidly and lor quick retardation when in emergencies—cor emergencies are more numerous and more sudden than they were a lew" yars ago.

This means that the brake gear of the oar should have the same attention given it—both by the designer and the user—which is given to the propulsive mechanism The accelerative properties of the engine may be considered almost as a measure of the decelerative properties necessary in the case of brakes. Four-wheel braking has given us the means of rapidly drawing down the speed without great strain upon the tyres, which —as must, be recognised—are the sole medium between the car and the road, and which have to take the whole of the retarding and the propulsive effort. The distribution of the braking strain over four wheels, instead of only two, has had the effect of greatly increasing our stopping power while not seriously increasing the strain upon the tyres. It lias also, incidentally, increased our safety on greasy and slippery and loose surfaces.

But with this increased efficiency has come the need for more careful use of the brakes and greater attention to be given to their careful adjustment and keeping in fully efficient operating order. The wise motorist who considers his own and other road users’ safety will make a point of seeing that his brake adjustments are properly made and that braking is equal, under all conditions, on the two wheels of a given axle. 'Hie wear of brake linings, in spite of the remarkably good and safe materials now available, must, of necessity, he greater than they were before we had the speeds and the traffic which we have to-day. And town driving imposes a responsibility upon them which is heavy to-day compared with what it was a very few rears ago when the traffic was not so dense.

The. wise motorist will make the brakes his first care. Their correct functioning is of more serious importance than the correct functioning of the power plant, for inefficient brakes mean dancer and perhaps disaster, while an inefficient power plant may only mean speed reduction aful delay.