MOTORS AND MOTORING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12818, 18 March 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

MOTORS AND MOTORING.

Mr. P. M. Hansen's fine 17-horse power Brush oar has been on the roads for some days, and has been running smoothly, and satisfactorily, and without a hitch of any kind. 1 received a telegram from Mr. E. Bockaert, a well-known member of the Auckland Automobile Club, a day or two ago, in which he advises me that lie had made the run between Dunedin and Oamaru in 4 hours 45 minutes on an 8-horsc power car. The run from Balelutha to Dunedin was done in two hours. The Rover Company (England) arc putting on the market a reliable 6-horso power motor car of the Voituretfce type, to be sold for £100. The car is driven by a single cylinder engine, and has all the same change of gearing, etc., as a swagger vehicle. Now that small motor cars can bo had at a reasonable price some prominent Home writers hold that the future as far as motor cycles are concerned is anything but bright. The one-mile motor record has been beaten by Mr. 11. L. Bowden, who covered the distance on the Onnond-Dayton, a beach track, in America, at the astonishing speed of 105.263 miles an hour. His time was 34m. l-ss. A. M'acdonald. on the six-cylinder Napier, did 34 2-ss. Bowden drove a Mercedes. Mr. A. E. Macdonald, on the same track, broke the five-mile world's record, completing the distance in 3m. 175., which beats by 14s. the record hitherto held by Mr. W. K. Vandorbilt, and obtained last year on the same track with a 90-horse power 'Mercedes. Mi. Macdonald's time gives an average speed of 91.37 miles per hour. The committee of the Automobile Club de France last month dealt with the protest of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland in regard to the running of the Gordon Bennett Cup and Grand Prix International races. It was unanimously resolved to adhere to the original proposal to run the two races concurrently. The rules of the Grand Prix International were afterwards submitted and passed. The number of machines assigned to each country is as follows:—France, 15; Germany, 6; England, 6; Italy, 3; Switzerland, 3; Austria, 3; America, 3; Belgium, 3: total. 4?. The race will be run in the Hist week of July concurrently with the Gordon Bennett Cup race. The vehicles competing for the Gordon Bennett Cup will start first, ill the order prescribed by the rules. The other vehicles will start in an order to bo decided by the drawing of lots, without distinction of nationality.