MOTORING

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 20 February 1932, Page 13

MOTORING

AMERICAN HOPES WORLD SPEED RECORD. PROBABLE ATTEMPT IN' MARCH. The 'progress of automobile design is ilue for a. forward spurt. The impetus will be two-fold in extent. It will apply both to the passenger car types on the highways and the racing cars that will compete on the speedways thsi year.

On the racing side the 1 word from Indianapolis is that more cars are being prepared for the s(io-mile race than ever before. With these prospects in view, it has been decided to increase the entry fee to 200 dollars and to boost the speed required for qua Intention from 86 to 100 miles an hour. At the same time Harry A. Miller, famous Los Angeles builder of racing power plants, developer of the front drive and other mechanisms, lias announced that lie is building a fourwheel drive racer for 1932 competition on the speedway. Air. Miller, with his manager, Preston Tucker, has been in Detroit this week, and has described the new job, which will be the lirst of its kind Indianapolis has etcr seen. The new Miller racer will have 18 cylinders feeding 300 horse-power direct to all four wheels, which will have the additional new feature of being independently sprung. According to Air. Aliller and Mr. Tucker, this method of whirling a car over the “burning bricks,” heretofore confined to Europe, has advantages superior even to those of the front drive. Front drive, it will be remembered, scored its great victory at Indianapolis in 1930, when Billy Arnold ran away from the Indianapolis field for a spectacular win with the Afiller-Hartz car. Quadruple drive and independent wheel mounting, Air. Aliller believes, will add flexibility and give better traction at high speed than front drive has ever done. Built into the new car as well, there will be a hvdraul'ic clutch, which Afr. Aliller has perfected. Fluid, circulating from one chamber to another through a “by-pass” in this mechanism, is made to cushion clutch operation in such a manner that two spoons only, instead of the three and four speeds now used, become practical, with the lower speed rarely, if ever, requiring use. AYith this clutch. All'. Aliller savs. acceleration from 10 to .JO miles an hour becomes smooth and easv within a block and a half distance. The car for Indianapolis is bein <r built in the Aliller shops for Dr. 0"M McArthur, of Detroit.

! ATTEMPT ON SPEED RECORD. ! The Aliller plans also contemplate

the construction of still another car. ' with the aim of wresting away from Sir Alaloolm' Campbell the world speed championship at Daytona Beach in | February or March. The power plant ! is to duplicate one already built for i Gar Wood when he renews his attempt ! to lower Kaye Don’s world speedboat | record in Florida during the winter j resort season down there. Tins one has 16 cylinders and 1.113 cubic inches 'of displacement, developing 1800 horse power, at 6000 revolutions. Complete | with magnetos, super-chargers ana j everything on it, the engine weighs j 16361 b. This puts it in a new class. because less than one pound cf engine | weight per horse-power is required to , run it. The supercharger, incidentali iy. will be operated at only 620'.' i r'.p.m., as compared with the 40,00. 'that many high-powered racers have* had to use up to now and which has j been responsible for frequent break- J ; age and disaster. 5 | AYith this engine is a chassis built ' specially for it. Air. Aliller hopes that a. rate between 260 and 260 miles an j hour may become a reality, and tlm! • the Campbell mark of 246 miles an. hour will be wiped out to regain tin j land speed championship for America. ( With a community of interest developI ing between the Indianapolis race and the Daytona Beach trials, the New York Automobile Show also will bo a focal point, because high passenger empower and speed will be exemplified in the new models to be revealed for 1932. In the last Indianapolis race there were only two cars of the forty racers facing the line that showed less than 100 miles an hour in qualifying. Raising the rate to 100. the speedway officials believe, should have the effect of automatically eliminating the usual fringe of poorly-huilt, incapable entries which have failed to find places, but which have used up valuable time in futile efforts to get in