NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 10 (Supplement)

NOTES.

" I don't regard a motor-car as evidence of means. It. may be evidence of folly.''—Judge Crawford. A concrete road 260 miles long is to be built in Spain from Madrid to Irun to serve as a national highway. Automobile manufacturers in Canada turned out 24,240 cars in April this year, as compared with 2-1,611 cars in April, 1927. Out of 4520 cars counted in (be various parks on the opening day at Ascot, 3060 were British, 692 American, 326 Italian, 210 French and 32 German. " Women are the deciding factor in 00 per cent, of all automobile purchases," says Mr. Alfred Reeves, general manager of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce of America. During Juno 139 new cars were sold in Auckland city and suburbs. Sales at Hamilton in the.month totalled 28; Gisborne, 14; Te Aroha, 12: Pukekohe, 9; Wliangarei, 9; Tauranga, 9; Te Awamutu, 8; and Cambridge,* 7. ■The Waitemata County Council lias cmployed a surfaceman on Atkinson Road during the last two months with a view to'opening the drive from Titirangi to Glen Eden. An eight-foot track is now available over portion'of the route. The closed car trend is well advanced in Northern Ireland. Of 938 new cars registered during the three months, March, April, and May last, no less than 727 were closed body types. At, the end of May there were 29,049 motor vehicles of all classes operating in Northern Ireland. Surveys are to be made on the main north highway between Huapai and Helensville with a view to the preparation of a scheme for permanent construction. It was originally intended that the scheme should embrace the section between Henderson and Huapai only, but there now appears to be some possibility of a scheme for tho full length to the hot springs resort.

DIRT TRACK RACING. SPECTACULAR COMPETITION. Sporting ■ motorists are hoping that there will shortly be a move to introduce dirt, traclo racing to Auckland. It lias nob been settled -whether another meeting will be held on Muriwai Beach. The main Board from the takings at the A.A.A. donated £75 to the Motutara Domain Board from 'the takings at the meeting last February. A loss of £25 was recorded and since the attendance was little over 3000, in spite of ideal weather, it seems that beach events have lost their appeal. An outlay of several thousand pounds would < provide a onemile circuit on the Mangere speedway site.

Dirt track racing has made a start in England and it has caught the public fancy. , . The first meeting organised by the Junior Car Club in June -was conducted on the' Greenford Irotting track and the course was filled to capacity. The circuit was only half a, mile and, in view of the rather narrow track it was considered that four cars at once was the limit of safety. In America where they have been at the dirt track game for many years, racing on an unbanked course of earth or cinders lias been brought to a fine art. This form of car contest provides all the thrills of road racing in the restricted area of an oval or circular track and, provided that grandstands are properly arranged—as they - generally are—the spectators can see every incident of a race. The roar of the super-tuned cars hurtling round and skidding in the dust, the blackened, begoggled faces of the drivers and mechanics, the clouds of dust drifting wifh the wind, provide a spectacle such as can never be witnessed on a cement or board track of the older type. The success of a participant in a race on the-"dirt" depends as much, if not more, on the skill of the driver as on the speed "of the car. On a half-mile circuit the car is in an almost continuous skid and even 50 m.p.h. is exciting. There is no doubt that dirt tracks present thrills at moderate speeds which cannot be found in beach racing at even 90 m.p.h. or 100 m.p.h.

THE ELEVEN AGES OF TYRES. Shakespeare's " seven ages of man" was amusingly brought up-to-date recently in a window of a tyre depot in Birmingham, where eleven different vehicles, each fitted with pneumatic tyres, are ranged in order from the cradle to the grave. They begin with the perambulator for the age of six weeks; next comes the baby's tricycle (at three years old), followed by the fairy cycle (at six); the bicycle (at fifteen); the motor-cycle (at eighteen); a 7 h.p. motor car (at twenty); an aeroplane (at twenty-five) ; a 12 h.p. motor cai (at thirty',; a' 30 h.p. motor car (at fifty); a bath chair (at ninety); and, last of all, a motor hearse for the centenarian. '