MOTORING WORLD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 290, 6 November 1929, Page 5

MOTORING WORLD.

NOTES. ' If » tyre valve “inside” becomes defective on the road and no spare is available, the leak can be stopped by smearing rubber solution ,on the threads of the valve stem and dust cap and then screwing on the cap. Motor coach long distance i,ransportation, although older, of course, than airplane travel, is yet new enough to arouse public interest in the innovations that are constantly appearing. Some of the latest vehicles now turned out are equipped with hot and cold running water, complete dining service, convertible berths, and a hot water heating system for cold weather. One of these buses recently completed cost £7,000. It is panelled in walnut, with upholstery, window curtains, and carpet carried out in an harmonious colour scheme. When one remembers the progress in the design of the motor-car, from the early horseless carriage to the luxurious interior of the closed car of to-day, one can easily realise, the possibilities of adopting measures to ensure the comfort and convenience of passengers who travel by this new means, of transport. In motor vehicles intended for local (delivery work, and particularly in those instances where the calls are practically from house to house, the accelerating power of the vehicle concerned is of infinitely greater moment, so far as the average speed is concerned, than the maximum speed which could be attained in a straight run. The amount of time lost in working up to .a maximum speed is reallv surprising. .There is no doubt that if a vehicle designed specifically to allow the driver or his assistant to mount and dismount with ease and rapidity, and with the gear ratio suitably designed to meet the conditions outlined, yet another iii which the horse is still emEto a considerable extent could } completely motorised. Whilst a party of four officials were ■motoring to vVarrnambooi in connection with the running of the classic Warrjiambool road race, the frequency of motor road accidents was under discussion and brought to light the following interesting facts. The combined motoring experience of the four motorists covered a period of 107 years of driving on Australian roads—three having been driving cars suit* 1899, and the fourth for 18 years. Although all four had taken an active pan; in reliability trials, record drives, etc., and had between them driven over 1,000,LU0 miles, not of the 4our had ever been involved in a serious road accident with a second party. The motorists were Messrs T. lland, W. J. Proctor, H. B. James and A. Terdich. MOTOR TRANSPORT FOR LIVE * STOCK. POSSIBILITIES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. '■ The economic possibilities of motor transport for live stock were recently demonstrated in the carriage of fat cattle by motor-truck in West Australia over a disjiappe ijpf 3j50 miles ,to the railhead and then carried 600 miles by rail to market, aH in three days, and without any depreciation in condition, * and topping the market at the Perth saleyards, averaging £l7 4s a head. This was the result of an experiment which was recently made in West Australia. The home pastures of these cattle were in Northern Australia—the north-western pastoral areas of West Australia. • The Roy Hill Pastoral Coy. conceived the idea of using the mobility of the motor-truck to solve the problem of “oyerlanding’ ’ cattle on long and inhospitable stages. In this instance‘the stock, if travelled on the hoof, would pot only - have lost condition, but would have cost ' more for droving and feeding than their conveyance bv motor. So two motor-trucks, each with a trailer, were procured. Onto these were .fitted specially constructed bodies, each capable of accommodating eight head of cattle. Thus 16 bullocks could be transported at each loading. The initial trip resulted most satisfactorily, the animals being motored 354 miles from the station to the railhead in 38 hours, arriving fresh and well. The result is a demonstration of the fact that fat cattle can be transported by motor-truck, over long distances in the far outback, to the market in the best of condition, however badly off the intervening road may be for feed. ■ - ■ ■ —— WORLD’S RECORDS. The ATpagon track in France is now holding the world’s fastest speeds in motor-cycling, and recently at the annual record attempts the motor-cycle maximum speed record was raised by five miles per hour. British riders were not offered much competition from foreign competitors, but fought keenly between themselves. .-The following new records were established in the various class 350 c.c. A. Denly, took a big slice off the previous figures, establishing a speed of 107.37 m.p.h. and 106.75 m.p.h. in the kilometer and mile resPe soo e i y c.—Again A Denly, riding a 493 c.c. was successful, and besides creating new figures _ for-this class bettered the time for the 600 d 7. sion. For the kilometer and mile his speeds were 118.98 m.p.h. and 118.61 m ‘looo c.c.—A battle royal was waged between H. Le-Vack and J. 8. Wright. 1 Time after time they beatone an other’s time, sometimesi by only hun dredths of a second, until »«er a*peu , for. tuning Le Vack in i the flying kilometer of establishing highest officially recognised speed ever attained by *; motor-cycle. His time « averaged 129.05 m.p.h.

MOTORING- IN BERLIN. . QUALIFICATIONS OF DRIVERS. 1 THOROUGH TEST CARRIED OUT. | Sir Henry Segrave on his return to England from his recent motor-boat success in Germany,. has given his ■ views about motor driving in Berlin, 1 which are of special interest coming • from one who holds the world’s auto- - mobile speed record of 2UL.36 m.p.h. ■ established in his Golden Arrow at l Daytona (U.S.A.). In an article in an l English paper he deals with the quali- ■ fioations required of applicants before 1 they are allowed to drive a car. “The ■ test is thorough,” he says, “the can- ■ didate has to pass a stiff examination 1 in traffic regulations and the rule of ■ the road. The car is provided" by the 1 Government department concerned, > One part of the test is high-speed drivi ing. An official sits by the candi- - date and insists on a burst of high " speed, and watches to see if the dri--1 ver can judge his distances when pull- • ing up. An elementary knowledge of » tire mechanism is also required. The • official puts the car wrong and asks the • driver to put it right. The result is [ that every beginner starts on the yoad i with a reasonable knowledge of how to I drive, road courtesy, and traffic rules. . To sum up, I really think that we have quite a lot to learn from Ger- , many in this matter, and that it would be well worth the while of our traffic [ authorities to send a representative to i Berlin.” ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT ATTEND TO SIMPLE DETAILS. Inattention to simple details con- . nected with the electrical equipment of the car will often cause considerable inconvenience to the owner driver, to say nothing of the cost occasioned by Such negligence. It is quite easy to bfeme the dynamo for the lack of output, when the instrument itself is in perfect order. Sometimes one will continue to exhaust the batteries, which are not receiving .any charge from the dynamo, simply owing to the failure of a lead carrying the current to the switchboard. When a defect of | this kind arises, the most natural ten- ■ dency is to rush the car off to the garage or to a service station where electrioal repairs are carried out, but, as a matter of fact, it is quite a simple matter to trace out the various wires to ascertain whether they are in good condition and thus perhaps discover the cause of the trouble before putting the car in dock for so, simple a reaspn. Sometimes a small length of insulation tape wound round a cable that has become chafed through will save putting the car temporarily out of service, and, therefore, it is desirable to make sure that a simple repair cannot be carried out in the home garage, before having to interview the technical staff of the service depot about details that could be put right in a few minutes by one’s own efforts. OVER PRODUCTION OF PETROL. In an official publication of an oil company hf-America, a continued over- ? .reduction of oil is predicted in U.S.A. t is stated that, after taking care of increased consumption, there will be over-produced this year in the United States an average of 5,000,000 barrels per months. With crude oil in such liberal supply, refiners in all districts disregarded statistics. of the amount of finished products ‘they would be called upon,to supply in their locality, and increased, their returns to a greater extent thai was justified by. the gain -in consumption. Ther esult was that, throughout. the first half of : this year, the ■ primarv problem of overproduction of crude oil was carried forward into the no less embarrassing problem of over-production of petrol. Consequently, .there was accumulated in this period in U.S.A. 8,4D0,000 barrels of petrlo (352,800,000 gallons).- In the first six months of the previous year, the accumulation was 1,600,000 barrels. Over the corresponding period of 1928 the demanud for petrol in the first six months of this year, including exports, showed an increase of 15.38 per cent., but in the same time refinery runs increased 11.28 per cent., resulting in an increase in the total petrol supply of 19.03 per cent. This _ emphasises the fact that the only definite and fixed factor the petroleum industry has to deal with is market demand, and that over-production of either crude or finished products cannot be forced into an increased consumption regardless of price. BAN ON~ HOARDINGS. England is waging a strenuous campaign to eliminate offensive . advertising along its highways. An organisation known as the Countryside and Fbotpaths Preservation National Conference is promoting the crusade, 'and in a letter to the Royal Automobile Club makes the following suggestions which may be- applicable to other countries:- — “Might we "make a suggestion, which, we think, would help to preserve the amenities of the' roadside in which your members are necessarily deeply interested and which are so seriously and increasingly threatened. i If- they (members of the R.A.C.) were invited to make an informal pledge | not to buy petrol (except in absolute j emergency) from any hideously dis- |, figured or disfiguring garage, an lin- 1 1 provement would at once. be effected i without serious and legitimate inter- J ests being jeopardised. Advertisers who offend do so because they feel they ( must —the other fellow is doing it C” i will be doing it. So the vicious circle i revolves. It can be broken by the j simple expedient we suggest senously backed bv you/' {