MOTORING WORLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 123, 24 April 1936, Page 7

MOTORING WORLD

Motorists take a grave risk in smoking beside their ears while the tanks are being replenished at filling stations. When petrol pumps were first introduced, more care was taken in this regard, but familiarity has reduced the sense of danger. Bulk distribution through kerbside 'pumps is probably the least dangerous method of handling motor spirit, but proper caution is essential.

When lubricating the car always include, all locks. A few drops of light oil on each lock may prevent having to break a lock that has become so badly rusted that it.cannot be opened. Keep a barrel or pail of soil or sand in the garage to be used as an extinguisher in case of fire.

Hundreds of applications by women for driving licenses were returned from the lowa Registration Department because they had refused to state their ages on the forms. When a radiator cap leaks consistently, and the washer appears to in in good order, examine the overflow pipe. This may be blocked, with tlie result that the water is forced up past the cap washer. Traffic police at Zagreb, Yugoslavia, intend to deal with offending motorists by deflating their tyres, which the owner must then blow up again in the street. (This is included in the new set of traffic regulations which are being prepared, and any driver who does not obey the police may have one or more tyres let down, according to the degree of his faults. If he does not blow them up himself he must pay a fine to have them inflated for him.

A length of insulating tape fastened along the bottom edges of the bonnet effectively prevents the wings from being soratched when the bonnet is opened or shut. Treacle or syrup is sticky, apd is also insoluble in petrol. An effective temporary cure for a leaking tank seam or pipe, therefore, is to cover a piece of thick cloth or felt with treacle and then bind if over the leak. This is much more effective than the old dodge of applying chewing gum. The übiquitous plasticine is not applicable in this case, as petrol causes it to break up. When a fast car with a loud exhaust note is appfoaohing the musical pitch of the sound produced is several tones higher than when the same car is receding from the observer. This phenomenon is so common that lew people pause to consider why it should be so. Scientifinllv, it is known as the Doppler effect and arises from the fact that sound waves emanating from a source which is approaching at speed, become crowded up, so enhancing the apparent frequency and raising the musical note.

CARS' LOSS OF WEIGHT

SPREAD OVER YEARS

The difference in weight of the mechanical parts of a car when it is new, and when it is worn out, or has become too expensive to operate economically is amazing. In other words, what weight of metal stands between a car on the showroom floor and a car on the scrap-heap? The answer may cause motorists to study more closely the cost ot neglecting maintenance work that may seem trivial. Tests carried out by a New York bureau of science have proved that the difference in weight of the averago 25 h.p. new car and the same car in a worn-out condition is a shade less than sll>.

The tests assess wear at £BO a 11> in the “writing off” value of a £4OO car, thus every ounce of worn metal lost by negligence costs a car owner £5. WATCH OTHER CARS. Knowledge of liow other cars handle is one of the many things the modern car driver must aim at in his efforts to avoid accidents. If he assumes that all cars can start,, stop, or turn as easily as his lie is likely to be surprised by a realisation that this is not a fact. Flake it a rule to move up ns far as possible when stopping after noting through the rear view mirror that some car with not such good brakes is following. Avoid assuming you can get ahead when the Oar competing with yours is known to be one of a lively ancestry, Cars of different makes and years have varying general characteristics. Some of them have, such powerful brakes it is well to avoid following them too closely. Not all of them have as good visibility as they should. Like physical hazards in the roadway itself the shortcomings of the car are there to be watched and avoided, even thoiigh the driver may succeed ip decreasing or increasing this hazard through his own skill or lack of it.