MOTORS AND MOTORING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12609, 25 June 1904, Page 7

MOTORS AND MOTORING.

The great automobile event of the- year, the Gordon Bennett road race, open to all countries, is over, and has been won by M. Thery (France), who drove an 80 h.p. "Richard Brazier" car, and completed the distance, between 3*o and 350 mile*, in sh. 50m. 35., which means an average speed throughout of close on ft mile a minute. Last year's winner, M. Jenatzy (Germany), finished second in 6h. lm., and was evidently driving his 90 h.p. Mercedes car at a much higher speed than he was able to attain on the Irish course, where his average worked out at about 49 miles per hour. The cost entailed in conducting the Gordon Bennett race runs into nearly a quarter of a million sterling, and the cup is held for one year by the country .winning it, which has th 9 privilege of deciding the locale of the following year's competition. 8. F. Edge, one of the English representatives in the Gordon Bennett road race, decided at Homburg, Germany, on Friday of last week, had to retire after covering three-parts of the distance owing to tire troubles. Edge, who is one of the most skilful and daring of drivers, won the race on a Napier car m 1902, when the contest was on the Paris-Vienna route (337 miles). There has been a tendency on the part of manufacturers to replace the chain drive with a driving shaft, and it will be some satisfaction to those advocating the chain .drive to learn that the three first placed cars in the Gordon Bennett road race were chaindriven. There is to be a meeting of the Christchurch Automobile Association shortly, to decide on the advisability of holding an automobile carnival in Christohureh during the coming spring. Such a carnival was recently hold in Melbourne, and was an immense success. A question not infrequently asked in regard to motors is: What is the cost per mile of the engine ? This is a very open question, however, and varies indefinitely. The query is generally put to the users of motor cycles by those who have a fancy for this class of machine, and are desirous of first counting the cost. No two machines will give the same result in regard to speed and distance, oil consumption, etc., but what constitutes a record in cheap travelling is where an English motor cyclist covered 300 miles at the rate of 16 miles per hour at the cost of 8s sd. This, of course, does not include wear and tear of the machine.