THE MOTORIST

Northern Advocate, 13 August 1927, Page 13

THE MOTORIST

WHEN BOGGED OR MIRED,

Sometimes when a heavy car gets bogged considerable difficulty is experienced in getting it out of the soft ground, and all the usual methods of dealing with such an emergency prove abortive. In such a ease an excellent method is to join the spokes of the front and rear wheels by a strong rope in such a way that when the rear wheels turn they pull the front wheels also. Thus the advantages of fourwheel drive are obtained, while, as the

front wheels are seldom in the mire so deeply as those at the rear, they may serve to pull the ear on to firmer ground.

The simplest way, claimed by a motorist, to get a ear. out of a deep rut is to roll a tyre chain into a small ball and place it in the rut under a front wheel. Place another' under a rear wheel. The wheels will then ride up and out of the rut. Tyre chains, when placed on the wheels should not be too tight—there should be a little slackness, as they function better.

AN INTERESTING EVENT,

RACING WITHOUT PETROL,

Interest in petrol substitutes is being fostered on the Continent, and car manufacturers are co operating with chemists to put the new fuels to tost. One of the most interesting events of the year will be a four-hour race to bo hold at Lille on September 17 for ears using experimental fuels. The competing vehicles will include sonic ears with specially designed engines, and much will depend on the showing which these cars will make against vehicles with standard engines adapted for petrol substitutes. While some research experts consider that diminutive crude oil engines will provide the transport of the future, others prefer to concentrate on the development of a fuel for existing typos of internal combustion engines. Among the fuels which will, be eligible for use in the Lille competitions are paraffin, gas oil, alcohol, heavy mineral and vegetable oils, acetylene, coal and charcoal gas. After the four-hour race a programme of economy and power tests will be followed, and awards will be made for easy starting and simplicity. Some expensive but very efficient fuels will no doubt make their appearance, but nothing will be barred if there is a possibility of w r ide commercial application bringing cost to a competitive level.

QUANTITY PRODUCTION.

INEXPENSIVE BRITISH OARS,

Now that British makers of inexpensive cars have taken wisely to quantity production, vehicles vary little in quality when they leave the factory. Engines may differ slightly in the matter of power output, but the actual road performance of, say 100 motor cars from the same works should vary only slightly. But after six months’ service what difference in these 100 motor cars.

The life of modern low-powered family cars differ to an extraordinary extent. Some are finished after 4.0,000 miles service, others still going .strong after ' 7.000 miles

Neglect is often the cause of rapid decay, especially neglect of lubrication. But the most frequent cause of deterioration in the small car is over-driving. It is the constant driving at or near maximum speed that shortens the life of a, small engine. With a high-powered ear it is impossible, except on rare occasions, to drive on full throttle; consequently the engine is rarely stressed. If small-ear owners were content to drive well within the maximum speed of their engines, 40 when the maximum is 50, and 35 when the maximum is 4.5, they would find that their ear would have very nearly as long a life as the more expensive vehicle.

COMPETITION WORK

HOW A TOURING CAR IS “HOTTED UP.”

Many a touring car owner must obtain a little slioek of surprise when he reads in a motor journal that a replica of his own model has put up a' sporting performance on both hills and the level that is quite impossible, according to his own experience. If he inquires amongst the sporting ear fraternity, he will bo informed that a chassis of the same type as his own has actually been used, but that it has been “hotted up” for the occasion. A certain amount of mystery surrounds this “hotting up” process, but the reality is comparatively simple. The average moderate priced touring ear of any nationality is fitted with engine parts which gain their strength by solidity, and which are not balanced. The entire chassis usually suffers from somewhat hasty fitting and an overplus of unsprung weight. Such a car is priced moderately, simply because workmanship and fine material have been to a certain extent economised. One cannot obtain more than the value ofi one’s money in ears, any more than one can in shoos or ships.

To render this chassis suitable for the pace and strain of competition work, the engine is taken down and the standard reciprocating parts are replaced by parts manufactured in costly alloys and steels, thus adding infinite lightness and strength at the actual points of combustion and engine revolution. The saving of power is immense, and can easily be calculated by multiplying the number of ounces gained on the working parts of but one cylinder by the thousands of engine revolutions made per minute.

These engine parts are then individually balanced to an absolutely sweet running perfection upon the latest scientific principles—a process Involving many hours of skilled and highlypaid labour. The refitting of the engine is accomplished with a care and exactitude that goes to the thousandth part of a millimetre, a higher compression is worked out and heavier valve springs arc inserted to deal with it. Then steel stampings and expensive alloys of heat-treated material replace the malleable cast iron and standard steels of the ordinary chassis, thus reducing unsprung weight and adding strength, and the whole is ready for the extensive tests which -precede the public apparanee.

Both in specification and appearance, this re-eonstrueted chassis tallies with the ordinary touring model chassis, but the performance naturally differs to an extraordinary degree as regards speed, freedom from friction and vibration, and endurance of various stresses. The chassis has been “hotted up”—aud a

very expensive it-is, if properly accomplished.

Of .course, there are upon the market touring cars which are of super-excel-lent quality and which in their stan dard condition are, already “hotted up. 7 But the price of such ears usually puts them out of the reach of the average motorist, though one or two of the older British firms still adhere to methods of production which include this process at relatively low prices.

Small boys with toy pistols caused consternation among motorists on a main road in Surrey recently. A pistol would be discharged from the footpath, and passing drivers would pull up short and examine their tyres without finding a reason for the explosion. The annoyance caused by a few hundred pistol shots on a busy traffic day can be imagined.

CARS OF TODAY,

CHEAPER AND BETTER

GOOD EOR 100,000 MILES,

Given reasonable careful attention how long should a modern car last? The question is easy enough to ask, but not so easy to answer, because it is rarely that a ear remains in one ownership sufficiently long to provide really accurate data (says The Autocar). It may be said that, like old soldiers, old cars never actually die, but it will not be unfair to take ns equivalent to their demise the period when reaTTv frequent renewals of vital components are required, and when the necessary annual .overhaul costs so much that, rather than face it, the owner finds it more economical to buy n neve vehicle and sacrifice the old one for a song. The car has, in fact, become of scrap metal value.

But wo may safely assume that any modern car, even the least expensive, is good for a minimum one hundred thousand miles. During this mileage small and inexpensive items w r ould probably have to be jeplaeed; valve

springs, universal joint parts, and perhaps a ball-bearing or two in the wheels may be cited as likely examples, but the engine, in the main, the gear box. the back axle, and the coach work, as regards its actual structure, should easily be good for such a mileage, always provided reasonable attention Las been given to them.

Not long ago we saw a letter from a would-be purchaser of a comparatively now ismall car of excellent make in which he expressed the view that the seller’s statement that the car had run between three and four thousand miles rendered it unattractive to iiim. He considered this an excessive mileage for a second-hand ear. Actually car, properly handled should at such a period be at its very best, and the only parks likely to have suffered would be the tyres, though, with modern covers, such a mileage should represent but a small fraction of their total LL’. All this is a tribute to modern manufacturing processes, for, so comparatively recently as just prior to the, war, a- car with ah authenticated mileage of a hun dred thousand would justly Lave been considered something of a marvel. Not only does the motorist get cheaper ears today, but he gets infinitely better ones.

That “'the brake is mightier than the horn” is the contention of the police traffic chief of Seattle, IJ.S.A.