NEW TYPE OF MOTOR CAR.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13982, 19 November 1917, Page 2

NEW TYPE OF MOTOR CAR.

A PETROL ELECTRIC MACHINE.

A motor car of a new type was running in the streets of Wellington- last week. It was a petrol-electric roadster. This six-cylinder, 60 horsepower (American' racing) car ha*s a petrol mo; or coupled to a dynamo, which in turn operates an electric motor. This electric motor drives the car by means of a magnetic dutch. The peculiar advantages claimed for this system, which has attracted a great deal of attention in Britain and America, are great flexibility, complete freedom from jars and sudden, strains, and unusual simplicity 'of operation. An electric self-starler sets the petrol motor running; current fronts the dynamo becomes available at once, and the electric motor which drives the car is controlled by an arrangement as simple as (ho. driving mechanism of an electric tramear. There is no changing cf gears, anil the range of is from five to sixty miles per hour. A simple movement of a lever reverses the driving dynamo, which can he used as a brake. without imposing any strain tirioirihc petrol engine. /