MOTORING NOTES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 June 1930, Page 7

MOTORING NOTES

HIGH SPEED BIDS ■ ■ ' : ':! ■■..-, ■ .'■ ■ ■ "■'.' ' ' - I'. 'v ; h A- CLOSE/REASON? MOTORISTS AND THE BUDGET (By'Gerald.Ely, London,, for' "The -"■ i Mail?^;. ■■;', v; ■ Mr Kaye Don's de&siph.'not to pursue his attempts'to beat;; the existing' land speed record of 231".nitpJi. occasioned little surprise for the: : '.mechanical and meteorological ill-luck that, dogged him almost from the moment. He arrived at Daytona Beach prepared us for such a course. . : . -

. His failure will probably have the effect of. discouraging /further-attempts to establish new records-for some time. •In! the first place' there-;js no national challenge, to beat .as far-as Great Britain is concerned. : , The record is held by this country and as far' as one can see there are no foreign | competitors in the field at present.- In second place the motor j industry itself is _ not. at all unanimous, as' to the advertising value of these, high-speed bids, j Lastly' the enormous expense asaching l ,to attempts •oil the land speed record is'i deemed by many people to be out of proportion to any gain. The "Golden Al'row" with which Sir Henry ;Segrave | established the existing record cost'over] £II,OOO to build. In addition there was the cost of transportation to America,*, the maintenance of a. staff of mechanics and many other disbursements which probably brought the total cost up to about £20,000. i j : : f Capt. Malcolm Campbell, ojtt Jus own admission, spent a fortune in.]his unsuccessful attempt with, "Blue? Bird" at Verneuk Pan, while Mr Kay* Don, the

latest; aspirant, must have foiind ''the attempt even more expensive than Sir Henry Segrave, for the "Silver. Bullet" was designed to exceed 231 miles per hour. Now that th'ere have been two notable failures, expferiso alono will probably act as a deterrent to further attempts in at any rate the near future.

• AIR SCOOP POSSIBILITIES Although aero, engines do'not strictly come within the purview of a motoring article,., it may be of interest, when dis : cussing high speeds, to give some details relating to the Rolls Schneider ■Trophy engine with which fresh at- 1 tacks;are to'be mado on the world's speed record shortly. ■ '/■ 'I ■ > , In ;its standard form this engine is designed to give 825 b.h.p., but the special Schneider Trophy engine gives 1900 b.h.p. Three 'factors contribute to .this accretion of power—alterations Ito almost everything except the/actual figures for the' bore and stroke;' the fitting of a, supercliarger, the rotor of which does 32,500 r.p.m. at full Jhrottle; and the fitting of, ,a form of air scoop, the effect of which at nearly six air-miles a minute is very, considerable. .

Tip average motorist will probably, be interested most jn the air scoop. The difficulty of such \a device on a car is that the direction' and strength l of the wind, relative to the air intake, is constantly varying. In 'the case of aircraft, however, the wind pressure is; practically' constant in whatever direction one may be flying and speeds are so much higher. Thus an air scoop begins to have an appreciable supercharging effect at ejven 120W.p.h. and the Rolls-Royce engined 5.6 has already accomplished three times that speed.

. BUDGET REFLECTIONS

British motorists are on the whole relieved to'find that as far as ; they are concerned Mr Sn'owden's Budget is a; no-change Budget. For some months in advance there had been talk of a, radical modification in the method of levying the motor tax. Some predicted that it would bo reduced by ten shillings per li.p., others that the £1 per h.p. would be abolished altogether and a tax on petrol made the sole method of raising revenue on cars. A third, somewhat pessimistic class, distrustful of all Chancellors of the Exchequer, predicted that' not only would Mr Snowden retain the present h.p. tax but clap on a substantial addition to the existing tax ton petrol. , , .

All these expectations and fears 'have been falsified by events and we stand where ive did in the matter of the car tax. Perhaps it is just as well that no extension of the petrol tax principle has been made, for while some .car-owners who desire’ to use their cars only for a moderate mileage each year would have gained a little it is doubtful whether the large body of motorists would not have lost on the transaction, for Mr Snowden, in fixing the amount of the petrol tax addition, would probably have taken good care' that the Exchequer and not the motorist benefited most from the change. The decision to retain the McKenna duties was generally foreseen, for it is commonly accepted that their discontinuance would have dealt a severe blow to the motor car industry which would inevitably have had its effect on the cai purchaser. DAZZLE PROBLEM Controversy has again arisen over the

dazzle problemi Some' antlioriii6^ : believe that if definite regulations were laid] down. ; .malting it obligatory on the part of iriotorlsts to dip ol 1 dim then 1 headlights, much of the present.danger would be avoided; Others .'assert' that the problem is" insoluble and that com-' pulsion in this matter would only make things worse. ," '•<:.;;, ' ' ' The position in regard to the dazzle problem is that repeated, attempts have ■been made 'since.,the war; to solve it'ji that a Departmental : Committee of* the Transport' Ministry sat off and on'ifor two years in an attempt to deal with; it and failed• and that more recently the Royal Commission on Transport' also considered it, but would commit; themselves to nothing more than a recom-1 mendation that all cars should, be 'fitted i with headlights; that permit dipping or i swivelling to the' right: • .■■'.''■ ' The majority of this season's cars already possess dipping jdr swivelling devices and older models have many J ingenious dimming and dipping devices fitted. ■:'Yet the : problem is :acute. ■lt | follows therefore that the'solution must I he ■sought, not only in the appliances j themselves 'but in their application. | Personally, T think that dipping, swivel-1 ling and dimming devices go a sub-/;! -stantial way towards''.the removal of the dazzle danger, but the difficulty as L, see it, is l that different drivers have J different ideas as to the appropriate moment to dip, swivel or dim. Some operate their device when they are 'too ' far away from the oncoming' cap, and if the driver of, tiie oncoming car refuses to deprive himself of the benefit of his headlights before he feels it to be necessary, he is often alternatively dimmed and dazzled at closer range by the angry other fellow with the result that danger is increased. ! The worst danger is when a confirmed. i dimmer meets a confirmed non-dimmer,;' for bctyh drivers believe themselves to be in the right' and'make things difficult and dangerous for everybody else, on the road. Perhaps the Highway Code which we are promised by the Transport Minister will let us know exactly what we are supposed to do for j the best.

MUNICIPAL GARAGES

■Forces are arraying themselves for what promises to be an interesting and important legislative battle, namely, whether municipalities are to be permitted to establish and run garages or not. Issue will be joined on the clause in the Bill promoted, by the Corporation of Belfast which seeks power to erect garages in that city. The main contention advanced in favour of the scheme is that such garages will help to reduce congestion by providing parking facilities at low cost. That is as may be, but the motor traders are apprehensive lest the way should be opened for municipal trading to the detriment of those who run garages as a means of livelihood.

.What most car owners fear from the establishment of civic garages is 'that car parking in the streets would soon be prohibited entirely and motorists would require to park their cars in remote and inaccessible corners. Another argument adduced against municipal garages is that they would rarely be self-supporting and would require to bo subsidised from the rates.

It will be interesting to note the decision of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. As far as Great Britain is concerned recent decisions of Select, Committees of the Houses of Parliament have rigorously discouraged any form of municipal trading as affecting molor cars. Cr;o municipality was even denied powers to construct bodies for ils omnibuses while another which desired to impose a charge I'or extinguishing motor car lines outside its boundary was also given a refusal. But the .North of Ireland has its own ideas about legislation.