NOTES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6811, 15 January 1929, Page 4

NOTES

(On the gas): Fools' press hard where angels lightly tread.

The Melbourne Motor Show will be held from May 2 to May 11.

British motor exports during 1928 did not maintain the level reached in 1927 and for the first ten months a decline of £1,363,532 wa3 revealed.

“Had a breakdown?” “No. Playing hide and seek.” “What horse power?” ‘ ‘ Forty. ’ ’ “What’s wrong with it?” “Oh, 39 have bolted and the other is too sick to answer questions.”

A british firm is offering a cellulose spraying device for £ls which utilises engine compression and dispenses with the usual compressed air outfit. Two sparking plugs are removed and the engine is allowed to idle on the remaining cylinders. A filter device removes all oil from the air.

Few points of the Australian continent now remain to be conquered by the automobile. Word is to hand that for the first time a motor-car has been driven into Cooktown, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Queensland. Curing the past 20 years the only vehicle to reach Cooktown by the overland route was a bullock waggon in 1924, and then only after months. of hard travelling. The honour of being the first car to reach this northern town under its own power has been won by a British 7 h.p. model, the occupants of which were .accorded a civic reception.

One voxv important factor in connection with' tho wear on tyres—which many motorists probably do not realise—is the quick acceleration of the modern car. Car manufacturers are equipping automobiles with engines of higher speed capacity, and some advertise as a talking point, the “quiclc-get-away.” It is becoming the tendency of motorists to “step on the gas” and to accelerate the speed, of the car as quickly as possible, particularly after being held up at street intersections by the traffic. Quick acceleration of a car is one of tho major factors in increased tread wear. Under the high speed of the motor the . tyre pulls on the Toad before the car is in motion, and often spins. Tho effect is the same as if tho tread were to be sand-papered.