MOTORING WORLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 254, 23 September 1933, Page 9

MOTORING WORLD

NOTES. There are now 2,130,043 motor vehicles licensed and in use on the roads in Great Britain. A small police car stolen in England on October 19 Last year was fished out of Southampton Dock recently, sadly damaged owing to several liners having rested on it. A team of racing cars entered foi a race at Brooklands recently was equipped with wireless receivers' with which to keep in touch with the pits, where a transmitter was installed. “In addition to the driver," said the coroner for mid-Warwickshire, “the pedestrians must be taught to co-operate with all other users of the road to ensure safety. Traffic signals are designed to control all traffic, whether vehicular or pedestrian.” One hundred years ago, Joseph Aloysius Hansom invented his patent safety cab, possibly the most popular means of locomotion ever offered to the public. To-day some of the latest London taxis have the entry, and exit arranged on much the same lines as Hansom employed. A motorist driving on a busy road in England last month in an open touring car had the disconcerting experience of suddenly finding a length of rope entangled in his steering wheel. He lost control of the car, which knocked over a bicycle and then ran into a telegraph post. The rope had been blown from the top of a nearby telegraph pole, where a man was working. WHEN WHEELS WON’T GRIP. A mistake that is often made is that of allowing one or both of the driving wheels of the car to continue spinning in mud or sand in the hope that suddenly the car may pull out of a loose patch of road without further, trouble. Unless there is merely a thin layer of soft substance and a hard foundation beneath it, such a course intensifies the motorist’s embarrassment, for the slipping wheel will churn its way deeply into the ground and it will become more and more difficult to extricate the ear. As a rule, the most prudent course is to stop the engine as soon as it is obvious that the wheels will not grip, and then to jack up one or both rear wheels and pack stones, sticks or brushwood underneath to provide a solid foundation. Occasionally it may be necessary only to lay down a plank or a piece of matting hard against the wheel so that it will he drawn under as the wheel revolves, but usually the best and ultimately less irksome method is to jack up the wheels as described. WIRELESS AND THE CAR. Sir Malcolm Campbell is tlie latest famous driver to follow the new fashion of installing a wireless set in his car. He has ordered a Rolls-Royce limousine, which, incidentally, is to be painted the same colour as his famous record-breaking Blue Bird, and the wireless “set will be so fitted that when he feels like listening to the programme, all he has to do is switch on. Wireless sets in cars are extremely popular in the United States, but it is interesting to note that in some small European countries they are banned, because it is feared that the programmes might distract the attention of tlie driver. RACING FATALITIES. FAMOUS DRIVERS KILLED. Motor-racing enthusiasts throughout tlie world will have learned with regret of the deaths of three famous drivers, Campari, Borzacchini and Czaykowski, as a result of crashes in the Italian Grand Prix, says the Auckland Herald. By their deaths, Continental iiiotor racing has suffered a great loss, and in Italy particularly, where Campari and Borzacchini were almost national idols, they will be sincerely mourned. One of the veterans of racing in Italy, Guiseppe Campari was famous as a driver of Alfa-Romeos over ten years ago, being team-mate in many events to the unfortunate Ascari, who also lost liis life in a race. He was a giant of a man, so bulky that he could barely squeeze himself into the slim, single-seater racingcars which he drove to victory on so many occasions. Campari competed in most British and Continental road and track races of importance, his most recent victory being in the Erench Grand Prix last June, which he won with a straight-eight Maserati at the record speed of 81.48 miles ail hour. In addition to his fame in motor racing Campari was also a highly-qualified musician, being an operatic baritone of renown. B. Borzacchini, another noted Italian racing man, had for some years been closely associated with the AlfaRomeo concern, and drove their cars with remarkable skill. He displayed a discretion not usually shown by his fiery team-mates, and was extremely popular with other competitors of all nationalities. In tlie Monaco Grand Prix held last April, he finished second in spite of trouble with his car, and he also led for a considerable distance in the difficult Mille Miglia,

the Italian Thousand Miles Race, held in April this year. The third victim of the Italian Grand Prix, Count S. Czaykowski, was a Polish nobleman who became a Frenchman by naturalisation. He had taken a prominent part in Continental racing for some years, and astounded the motoring world by setting up a new one-hour record last May on the Avus track, Berlin, which r is not generally considered suitable t for such work. Driving a “four-] nine” Bugatti, Czaykowski covered 132.88 miles in the hour, and was later presented with the Golden Sporting Medal of the Automobile Club of Germany in recognition of his achievement. He was second to Varzi in a big race at the Avus track in the same month, and in July he brought his big blue Bugatti to England and won the Empire Trophy at Brooklands. The Countess Czaykowski', who made it a practice to preside at her husband’s “pit” and time him each lap, was a horrified spectator of his fatal crash. Motor-racing has lost many fine exponents during tlie current season, including Sir Henry Birkin, Merz, a German ace. and tie Viscnya.