MOTORING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16202, 12 April 1916, Page 4

MOTORING.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Any motorist who does much night driving on roads frequented by rtioto::-cars must have noted the growing nuisance and danger arising from the use .of glaring electric headlights. _ To drive into the dazzling rays of such lights on a crowded .thoroughfare is absolutely dangerous. Such lights ate not required ,on city roads, and unless motorists theme-elves use discretion in this direction it will not. be long ere the dimming pi such lights will be made compulsory. In America the electric headlight glare ha 3 already caused much anxiety, adverse legis-* lation, and ill-feeling,' so much so that the Society of Automobile Engineers has officially recognised it 33 demanding immediate attention. A series of tens have been worked out which ms-y be used as a standard definition of ' what constitutes a. dangerous glare, and the ie:ults of such tests will be submitted to manufacturers of headlights with a view to diminishing the glare, which is something quite different from the strength of the light itself, headlights of comparatively low candle-power and shortdistance efficiency being abnormally glaring to the eye of the observer stationed somewhere in front of wo car- Future headlights are to bo constructed according to' scientific formulas, eliminating the glare, bin thoroughly retaining -the far-reaching effects) of a searchlight Upon the road itself. Tho Melbourne-Sydney car record just established adds another to the already long list of overland records standing to the credit of tie Australian-made Dunlop tyres. It is interesting to no to that nearly every important Australian record has been accomplished with the aid of Dunlop tyres-

The manner in which street accidents are caused are many, and in numerous instances collisions have occurred through traffio emerging from side-streets on to main roads or more important thoroughfares at too fast a pace. Theoretically all traffic from minor streets should give way to that on the mam avenue, but legally no cognisance is taken of this precept, though if it wero done warningsigns, instead of Deing placed on the main road, would bo located in tho side-street, and thus would many accidents be avoided, while speed otherwise could be accelerated with safety wero it required with tho minimum of danger. In some cases naturally it would be difficult to dolomite v/hi?li was the mors important thoroughfare, but that point being settled tho rest would be easy. It is a strsnjo thing that, although ths Americans are booming multi-cylinder engines— eights, _ and twelves—they di not use them in their speed tests. In England tho sis and twelve cylinder cars wera used for speed purposes, and although wonderful feats were recorded by tho twelvecylinder Sunbeam it has not yet been marketed. In the United States speed tests most of the American machines _ are fourcylindered, the multi-cylinder engines being left severely alone. Is it that too many working parts involve extra risk of something going wrong in the high speed contests? The Americans are now holding their own in motor speed competitions! an in the recent 350 miles race for the Astor Cup at Lons: Island the first and second cars, both American built, averaged lira miles per hour for the full distance. It is stated that 13,000 Ford cars have been sold in Australasia up to tho end of Augus . 1915. Witt a. view to meeting the demana for special tires* 'or these runabouts, th Dunlop Rubber Company have marketed » sneciaf low-priced Ford cover at £4 The new tyro has been in sue u demand tna>supplies ran out in a fortnight, and now the Australian Company is working day and night to cope with orders for the new Dunlop Ford specialty. Fifty fully equipped mbtor-car ambulinces which were recently subscribed for and presented to the French Government by English sympathisers, have _ all been lost, the vessel which was conveying them to Franco having been torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. The Dunlop Rubber Company has ins' completed tho installation of one of the finest motor tyre-making plants that the world * can produce, embodying all the latestii- f provements essential to turnint out large . quantities of reliable and durable tyres. During the past 12 .months the. call for Dunlop tyres throughout Australasia hps been a *'J heavy one. and there has at times been diffi- = ? culty in filling orders for this mako of tyre, With the completion of the new plant tho i, Dnulop Rubber Company state they can -5,5; now meet all requirements for motor-car and '45- <i motor-cycle tyres. This Australian company >V < has tho largest and'best , equipped rubber mills in the Southern Hemisphere, and em.' { ploy at mills over 1400 hands, a ©