MOTORING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13672, 13 February 1908, Page 9

MOTORING.

At Maidotoao Assizes (England) last November, a diauffeur, agod 20, was convicted of manslaughter of a young cyclist,, and sentenced -.to six months' imprisonment. It. was shown that the cyclist was knocked ' iff his machine add itistantly killed by the ' *ar, whichwas- travelling"at -25 •■ miles anhour. The chauffeur had four previous cotiviotiona against him, and Mr. Juntice Gnintham said that in view of that fact he .would not give effect to a recommendation to mercy made by the jury, ■;.. .. '" I have been driven," said Mr. Day, a recently-returned Victorian, to a press interviewer, "right across London at a pace well over 30 miles an hour, dodging the : traffic in a masterly fashion, pulling up • quickly here, then accelerating to express speed there, and without, running any tin-' • due risk whatever,- yet it is almost an every* day occurrence to read of a driver being "stopped on one of the highways, miles away from anyone or any place, his name being . taken, and ultimately fined for exceeding the maximum limit allowed— miles an

'.. ■ hour." '"'•'•'■■' . • . Following the successful Pekin-Pans motor race, the Matin, which organised : that event, announces for 1900 the organisation of an even greater race, the route to be round the world by land as far as that is practicable. The entire route will lie '. through Boulogne, Folkestone, Liverpool, :Ne«" York, Chicago, Klondyke, - over the frozen ©ipsmss of the Behring Straits, and. • through the wildest northern wastes of Siberia to Irkutsk, Tomsk, Moscow, and Paris. The cars are to be shipped only twice*=namfily, for the Channel arid Atlaru tic cross-ing?. It is hoped that the competitors will leave Paris some time in February. Some exhaustive experiments as to the use of alcohol as a motor fuel (says another paper) have been made by order of the United States Government, and the report of the export is decidedly in favour of the ■pirit. They say, after testa on engines of various powers, that alcohol can be used advantageously without any material change in the construction of the engine, that the motor under such power is _ .noiseless,, its . maximum power is. usually higher than on petrol, and there is no danger of any injurious hammering with alcohol such as occur with petrol. For automobile aircook** engines it is '. especially adapted, line© the temperature of the engine cylinder may rise much higher before anti-ignition takes place than is possible with gasoline fuel. Generally speaking, therefore, the experiments were strongly' favourable to alcohol, and in view of the shortage in the supply of crude oil which seems highly / probable in the not distant future, the conclusions arrived at are very important *o motorists generally.