MOTORING WORLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 202, 17 July 1936, Page 7

MOTORING WORLD

The motor industry of Great Britain is now 1 the third largest industry of the United Kingdom, and the latest figures to hand show that it is still growing. Many owners during cold weather run off the water when parking their cars for the night, or if they do not intend to u6e the car for some days. This precaution is generally recommended to prevent freezing, but owners should remember that manv makes of cars have a pumping system, and water, still remains in the pump even after draining. In order to obviate the risk of freezing, owners are advised to turn the engine over a few times to drain the surplus water from the pump. SUMP VENTILATION. A SENSIBLE SCHEME. The crankcase in several new models seen on the market is provided with a ventilating system, to prevent harmful dilution of the engine oil by water and fuel. This system utilises the erank- | shaft with its counter weights as _ a blower to force the vapours consisting of fuel and water from the crankcase . . It does not prevent all fuel dilution. A small amount is not harmful, and is really of benefit in cold weathm. It does, however, remove all of the wafer dilution under the average driving conditions. The following suggestions for guarding against harmful dilution of oil in i the crankcase are offered by a leading manufacturer Do not idle engine or drive at extremely slow speeds for long periods of time. Do not flush crankcase with kerosene. Keep the engine in good mechanical condition. See that the compression is good, that the ignition system functions properly, and that the carburetter is correctly adjusted. Ail engine in good condition and in proper adjustment will use an unnpprecinble amount of oil in the crankcase at regular intervals, and maintain level to “full” mark, on oil-level gauge. A DANGEROUS HOUR. There are times when the best driver ia the host of cars must proceed cautiously and exercise redoubled vigilance. The half-light when lamps are becoming necessary is a dangerous hour, particularly when it coincides with the homeward rush from work. Dipped headlamps are best when everything is grey—and beware of cyclists. Dangers abound on wet nights in suburban streets with their irregular lighting. Slow down ; if others overtake, credit them with abnormal eyesight. Wet roads are worst when rain has fallowed a long dry period, when fallen leaves are about, and when stretches of slippery and non-skid surface alternate. Treat tramcars and tramlines with suspicion Tramcars can pull up more quiclfly than most cars, and they sometimes discharge passengers at both ends. Every tram-line is: a potential source of skidding. ACCELERATION AND FUEL CONSUMPTION.

The extravagance, with regard to petrol mileage, of sudden acceleration and driving at full throttle was emphasised by the results announced following carefully observed tests made abroad recently. It was ascertained that the effect, with a car of average liorse-power and weight, of accelerating abruptly from a standing start to 30 ffi.p.li. in second gear was that fuel consumption was excessively increased to a rate of about five'miles per gallon. During sudden acceleration from 30 to 00 m.p.li. in top gear the average rate of fuel consumption was estimated to vary between seven and nine miles per gallon. Such precise experiments might serve to remind motorists who are dissatisfied with the petrol mileages which their cars exhibit, that an undue consumption of fuel is not always attributable to some shortcoming in the design of the engine or to a mechanical fault, and might often be traced to careless driving practices. Harsh or unnecessary acceleration tends to affect fuel consumption adversely. and a skilled driver who uses the accelerator pedal with instinctive skill can often maintain a faster average speed. and at the same time make his car run more mi its to the gallon than the man who drives abruptly and whenever he wishes to increase speed jambs the pedal clown to the floor board. DESIGNING A BODY. MUCH DETAILED WORK. Few motorists know ol the vast amount of detail work that lies behind the beautifully-moulded bodies gracing the latest now ears. (Jar bodies were formerly designed practically on a blackboard, but the importance of body lines has brought about a totally new method of designing in those oversea centres where car body fashions are evolved. . The up-to-date process consists of making a lull-sized plaster model, based frequently on data gained from wind-tunnel tests wiLh small plaster models. The full-sized model is carved or shaped into exactly the form designed, and is mounted on a mime with wheels and plaster dummy bonnet and mudguards, thus making it possible to visualise the whole ear. When the modelling of the plaster of Paris body is complete, it is smoothed, painted, and polished, so that the lustre will bring oul the Thus can the effects of lights and shadows be studied from every angle. When satisfied with the piaster body, the designers make a perfect copy of the body, bonnet and mudguards in soft wood, usually mahogany. This wooden form is subsequently used in sections in the foundry, where easts are made. from each section a pair of dies is cast, so that when they are brought together, in huge hydraulic presses, a fiat sheet of steel is moulded into a perfect reproduction of the plaster model. These sections are subsequently welded together by an electric process, and thus assembled into a complete unit of great strength. It is contended by designers that the body-lines of a car have largely disappeared since the introduction of streamlining, it being claimed that the observer of a modern car does not really see lines, but only the highlights which are reflected from the curved surfaces of the moulded body. If, is the liigh-lights which accentuate and give life and character to the up-to-date car body, and it is stated that the handling of the high-lights is one of the most critical and important features of the creative work associated with the design of new bodies.