EARLY TRIALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20235, 20 April 1929, Page 12 (Supplement)

EARLY TRIALS.

PIONEERS IN FRANCE.

Thii'tV years ago before -the great motoring public kuew the luro of concrete roads', filling stations, country clubs and camp sites, French automobile enthusiasts had already organised long-distance races under ordinary road conditions, to prove the fitnoss of motor-cars tor touring. Causing great excitement in' France, and only a few ripples in other parts of the world, one of the first of these contests was run , from Paris' to Bordeaux and back, in June, 1895.7 There were two American participant, Mr. Gordon Bennet, and Mr. The race was won by Levassor (of Panhard and Levassor, the famous French motor-car builders), who made the round trip of 758 miles in 48 hours 48 minutes. "He supervised the machine himself constantly except when ascending an occasional incline, when the rate of speed was comparatively slow and when he had entrusted the lever to his mechanic. _ Yet he did not" appear to' be overfatigued ; he gave the final signal to the registering clerk with a firm hand and took with great relish a cup of bouillon, two poached eggs and two glasses of champagne" no, cording to an account of .early road tests in France written in 1899 by the Marquis de 'Chasseloup-Laubat. The winning "carriage" was a "petroleum vehicle and tlio outstanding feature of the race was the triumph of petrol over steam. Uf the fifteen petrol cars which made the start, eight got back to Paris, while only one of the six steam-driven "carriages" managed to stick out to the finish. The Marquis, who was a steam enthusiast, continued to be an adherent of steam, however.' In the second big race, from Paris to Marseilles and back, in September 1895, he and his brother drove a steam prope'lled car, but they never got further than Lyons (about 316 miles from Paris), and were 85 hours in covering that distance. "We spent 47 hours on repairs oil the open road," he confessed, "part of that time in drenching rain. Almost every part of the mechanism was out of order," and we had every breakdown conceivable except an absolute explosion of the boiler. We ran down a dog, overturned two carts (whose drivers, frightened at the sight of our enormous machine, turn-id to the left at the last moment), upset a cow and finally broke down u fence h trying to make a turn on soft and heavy soil. Among other recorded misfortunes, one car in the ParisMarseilles race was defeated in consequence of a rupture in its large pneumatic tyres, which a manufacturer had fitted to it without having studied and perfected them sufficiently." As to speed, the "mean velocity ' of the winners in these two contests was about 15 miles an hour, with a maximum of 18 to 19 maintained through .. several hours in a level region. Carried' away bv what lie saw coming in the future, 'the Marquis prophesied the expansion of suburbs, with the possibility of a man living ten to fifteen miles from his- office. It was in 1899 that he published these opinions, but the average person could scarcely have understood them. A year later the Secretary of Agriculture in America, in discussing the problem of good roads, never so much as mentioned the automobile; yet to-day, the Lnited States has 24.750.000 automobiles, and an output of something like 4,000,000 motor vehicles, annually. MOTORISING THE WORLD. In seven years the number of cars in New/Zealand has increased 238 per cent. Australia has enjoyed double this increase in the same period. Following arc statistics showing the position regarding ordinary dars at the beginning of 1922 and 1929: — Increase / 1922 19-9 p.c. United States . . 10.505.GG0 24.494,580 133 Canada .. 4(5:1.448 1.001.828 12? Great Britain .. 41)7,582 1,372.109 175 France .. 287,188 1,108.900 280 Germany .. 91,384 545.100 490 Australia . . SO.lOl 510.85 l 4/S Argentine .. 75,000 299.839 300 Spain . . 37,500 ]0b,501 310 p ra7 ;i . . 25.000 100,000 020 Italy .. 53.000 172.000 224 India .. 45.983 131.500 186 South \frica . . 20.468 125.850 376 New Zealand .. 37,500 125.690 238 Denmark .. 22,200 oOO Holland . . 13.500 80.500 532 Of'the 15 countries detailed Holland shows the greatest percentage increase. Of the countries of the world the greatest .increase has been shown by Czecho Slovakia, which has now 49.151 motors, an increase of 1090 per cent, in ,seven years. The striking thing is the increase in the colonies as compared with that in producing countries'. In America, Canada, and Great Britain the ratio is small compared \fitli other instances. THE GOLDEN ARROW. Few expert. I .' anticipated that Major H. O. D. Segrave would place the flying mile record as high a- 2311-3 m.p.h. Before the car left England, thore was the usual crop of rumours regarding the safety of the,' vehicle, it being darkly hinted that lorjies would be brought into play, which would overturn the car at perhaps, 220 m.p.n. Now that Segrave has driven this' fine car so 'magnificently it is of interest to refer to an incident before the car. was shipped to Daytona. A certain driver communicated with those responsible for Segrave's car and in a tone of righteous indignation reproached f hem for being partip.s to such an extremely dangerous affair, suggesting that they ought to have known better, since they must know that Segrave had not driven at all for some time, and could not, therefore, tackle the problem. / ■ Thus far- the matter might just be impertinence, but fhe driver in question went a stage further and pointed out that the correct thing to do was to tell . Segrave that the people concerned could not let him have the car, let him sue them foi damages, and, as it were, fade out of the picture. Tlie ingenious gentleman in question would 'lien indemnify them for the damages and—this is the beautiful part —buy the car off them for his own use!

MOTOR TRADE ITEMS. The Hillman straight eight, (he lowest pricfed produced in Great Britain, vill/ be on exhibition in Auckland in a fortnight; iJjii accounts of S.T.D. Motors, Ltd., for the' year ended September 30 last, show a net profit of £163,482. The company owns the Sunbeam, Talbot and Darlitcq concerns, and controls several accessory, factories. • The report of Guy Motors for the yearended September 30, 1928, shows a net profit of £60,263. to which is added £47.835 brought in A dividend of 15 percent was recommended, the dividend in tho previous year being 10 per cent. A-new front-wheel drive car with in(lcpaJidaatly sprung wheels hus_ been produced iu France. The clutch is in front of the engine, tho gear box being ahead of the ,front axle. Six-cylinder IlispanoSuiza engines ' are being fitted under license. ■ ' ; The manufacturers of the well-known 'A.J.S. motor-cycle have entered tho commercial vehiclo field with a six-cylinder Lus chassis. It is designed particularly for,; a 26 passenger body, and the overhead valve engine develops 54 li.p. at 2000 revolutions. There is a four-speed gearbox ftnMoHtr.wh.eel vacuum serve brakes.