LONDON'S BRIDGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19388, 24 July 1926, Page 12 (Supplement)

LONDON'S BRIDGES.

TRAFFIC DENSITIES. > : Westminster Bridge is one of the busiest traffic points in London. It carries five lines of traffic and is 58£ ft. wide. A tally revealed that over 24,500 vehicles passed over, the bridge in 12 hours, an average of 34 vehicles per minute. London Bridge, which has space for four lines of traffic, carried 17,000 vehicles during the heaviest 12 hours, or less than 24 vehicles per minute. The peak period on London Bridge is between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., when the average is 29 vehicles per minute. London Bridge carries exceptional omnibus traffic, and the total pumber of buses using the bridge in 12 hours was 5250, or 35 per cent, of the bus traffic carried by the eight bridges across the Thames. Blackfriars is the widest of the London bridges, and six lines of traffic can be accommodated in its 73ft. carriageway. Traffic is, however, comparatively hg.it and averages only 18 vehicles per minute. When road widths fire taken into Co J}' si deration, Auckland has points where the traffic density exceeds any of the above figures.

CONTINENTAL EAGERS. There aro indications that horizontal supercharged two-stroke engines will make their appearance at an early date in international races. It has been well-known in the industry for the past year or so that Fiat was working on an engine of this type, but the Italian firm declined to make any statement. It may now be stated that the new Fiats are horizontal straight-eights with two pistons per cylinder and two crankshafts connected together. Quite recently the first of the cars "was driven on Monza track by Bordino, and although wonderfully good results were obtained, it is still felt that they are not quite ready for competitive racing. There is every possibility of the cars making their first appearance in the Italian Grand Prix on September 6. Two other horizontal two-stroke flat twins have been built and are being prepared for racing. One of these has been produced to the designs of M. Cauzan, a French engineer, and is being tried out in a motor boat. The engine is a four-cylin-der two-cycle of 1500 c.c., with the cylinders placed horizontally and having two crankshafts and two crank cases; A Bootes blower is used. After tests on the water, other engines will be built for racing cars. The Sima-Viole two-stroke engines differ from the Fiat and the Cauzan in having one crankshaft and one crank case. Cylinders 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 are opposed, there is crank case compression, a blower eventually will be used, and the mixture is delivered to the cylinders through a rotary distributor.

LUXURY EQUIPMENT. An American car in the high-price class, which has just made its, appearance in Auckland, carries many novel fittings. In addition to an air cleaner and an oil filter, the -engine is fitted with an electric device for warming the carburetter to facilitate starting in cold weather. A tell-tale light on the instrument board gives warning when the accumulator needs water. A control on the steering column regulates the headlights, giving a full or a dim beam or a horizontal or dipped beam. When the reverse gear is engaged, a. white light is automatically on throw ing a beam rearwards. There is an-e'.ec trie petrol gauge and an electricallyoperated clock which...risill-automatically wound up at one-minute intervals.

BRITISH GR£ND PRIX. Entries for the British ' Grand Prix, which is to be run at" Brooklands on Saturday, August 7, have new closed, numbering thirteen in all, and are as follow:—Thomas Special (2), Aston Martin Special (1), Halford Special (1), Talbot (4), Delage (3), Eldridge Special (1), Alvis (1). The actual course to be used for the race is at present under consideration by the competitions committee of the R.A.C., and it has been decided that a number of acute bends will be incorporated. If possible, the course will be so arranged that the competing cars will be kept within view of the spectators throughout the race", the distance of which will be approximaetly 300 milesi

HUDGE-WHITWORTH CUP. The race for the Rudge-Whitworth Cup, better known as the Grand Prix d'Endurance, run at Le Mans on June 12, proved a spectacular exhibition. The LorraineDietrich team captured the first three places, with respective mileages of 1585, 1574 and 1493 for the ; 24 hours. The fourth and fifth places went, to O.M. cars, wjth 1446 and 1405 miles,fwhile a Bentley was sixth with 1284 miles. Fortune did not favour the British cars, one Bentley dropping out atfer running among the firstfour for 12 hours. Another Bentley failed after 18 hours with a broken rocker arm. Only 16 cars ran for the 24 hours out of the 41 starters. All carsi were touring models with full equipment.

Seventy-five per cent, of the motorcars purchased in the United States are sold on the deferred payment plan. Standard terms are 12 equal monthly payments with one-third cash down on new cars and forty per cent, cash down en used cars. Time payment losses on motor-car sales are less than- one-fifth of one per cent.