MOTORING NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 58, 7 February 1925, Page 10

MOTORING NOTES

There are cities in America where there are more registered motor-cars than listed telephones.

[t is getting increasingly common for families in America to have more than one motor-car.

Seventy new members were elected at th s week's meeting of the Wanginui Auto nobile Association.

The British Government is introducing legislation to abolish a motoring speed liiiit, and to throw on the driver the onus of safeguarding the public.

When a car will not hold the road, even at moderate speed, and requires constant juo-gling of the steering wheel to keep it tr ivelling in a straight line,, it is general y due to looseness in the steering gear.

Motorists would do well in hot weather te test the air pressure of their tyresevery few days to see that tho leakage oT air hi s not reduced the pressure to a point wiere the tyre will suffer.

Never put* anything in tho water to cl eck a leak in the radiator. When leaks aio small an emergency repair can be n: ade by applying cement around the core on the outside.

When driving the car out of the garage, a >ply the brakes a few times, especially wmen the car has bee.i washed. This test will not only assure the condition of the b akes, but will squeezt and dry out the w iter from the linings.

The petrol consumption of twenty American States for the six months eided June 30 last was 946,110,715 gallons, as compared with £779,449,667 gallons for the similar period in 1923. This is a gain of 21.4 per cent.

Wiping the dusty car with a rag has tho s.me effect as sanding it with fine sandpiper. A few such treatments kills lustre, li aving instead a high polish with deep siratches. Better wash the car properly c r send it to a place that makoa a business ci cleaning cars.

The actual number of motor cars now in (Tiina, according to the latest census, is £3OB, in addition to which there are also 1130 trucks and 'buses and 1100 motor e poles. Of all towns, Shanghui has the 1 u-gest number of cars—4ooo o«: more.

"I think there are too maiy motor-car ovners round this council table for the I ealth of pedestrians," said a councillor II a meeting of the Christchurch City (tour.cil, when tho question of the cont rol of motor traffic in that city was bei lg discussed.

The American who goes to England or tho first time is surprised to find >etrol tanks attached to the running loards of motor-cars. These, of course, ire for emergency purposes. They are lot to bo seen in America because ,here is a. filling station almost on ivery corner.

A suggestion was made by the South faranaki Automobile Associalion • that live ledges at dangerous corners should be cut lown and wire fences substituted at the ixpense of the local bodies, tho fences hereafter to be maintained by the ownem if the land. It was stated that this was leing done in some parts of tho South island.

The danger of proceeding io cross a road without first having a full view of the traffic upon it was demonstrated in Wansranui one afternoon this week, when a man was knocked down by a car in Ridgway street. Ho caino out from behind the stationary lino of taxis, and, his view of the road being obscured, an oncoming car was upon him before he had time to avert an accident. Fortunately, the car was travelling at a moderate rate of speed, and the man escaped with a few minor abrasions.

Mr J. Lee. an English motorist with a record of 158,043 miles of motoring to his credit, after making a tour of New Zealand, has expressed Iho opinion that NewZealand's roads are very much better than in one part of Spain, for instance, where lie and his chauffeur had had to take quarter-hour spells at the wheel owing to the terrible strain of driving. Nor are New Zealand roads, at ..heir worsl, as bad as a desert stretch, over which Mr Lee's rate of progress had been nine miles in two hours.

An Eltham farmer (it is recorded) engaged an immigrant who, supposedly, had exceptional motor driving experience in the vivid war davs in France, and a theoretical knowledge rivalling a motor annual. One day recently, tho farmer said to the man of experience. "Give the car an oil and grease up. I'll be wanting lo go to town in a few days." The farmer did not know anything till ho was out driving and found that ha could notchange the gears, the oil pressure-gauge was not working, and that the engine was out _ of sorts. The garage mechanics knew. The smell was bad onough. The lubrication was Stockholm tar. After cold kerosene and warm kerosene had been tried, hours of hard work with methylated spirits made the car move.

At tho meeting of the No. 8 Highways Council in Wanganui, the Taihape-Napier road was stated to be in serviceable condition for traffic. The completion of the bridge over tho Rangitikei river had done away with the one obstacle that precluded the highway offering facility for traffic. Members of tho council were of the opinion that the Government should supply a subsidy for the maintenance of the road, and so enable tho engagement of another man for maintenance purposes." The chairman (Mr T. Ball) remarked that opportunities would bo offered in a, few months' time. Tho highway certainly did call for some additional asislanco in view of the fact that it will become very shortly an essential thoroughfare. However, it would bo best for the council to await further information. AUTOMOBILE'S FUTURE. "What will become of the automobile when the world supply of gasolene is exhausted?" was a query put to Mr Ford, in New York. "We do not n»jed to. worry about that," he replied. "I know 'that everyone- is talking about our diminishing oil resources, and while I do not know how much of the talk is based on solid fact, I do know that wo have a substitute for gasolene which we could begin using tomorrow —alcohol. Alcohol can be made almost from , almost anything; that grows. Enough alcohol can be obtained from an acre of potatoes to plough an acre of land with a tractor for 100 years." DRIVING AND TYRE TROUBLE. Should sledge-hammer blows' be rained on a heavily inflated tyre it is quite possible that not even a mark or indentation would be left on the outside of the casing. An inspection of the inside of the casing, however, would reveal broken inside fabric, and that is exactly the kind of trying experience many tyres are subjected to unknowingly by their users. Reckless driving of a car over rough or stony roads .has the same effect on the tyres, every time they meet an obstruction, as the pounding of a tyre with a heavy hammer. Imagine the force of shock on the tyro when a big, heavy car is driven over country roads at 40 to 60 miles an hour and one of the wheels suddenly encounters a stone ; or road break about four or five inches in diameter. The tread of the tyre is rubber and therefore resilient, and although the fabric is pliable, it does not respond to the shock with the elasticity of rubber; hence a greater strain is placed upon it, and obviously it often breaks.