Motors and Motoring.

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11423, 20 January 1923, Page 14

Motors and Motoring.

Trade and Other Jottings.

(By

“Torque-Rod.”)

NOISY MOTOR-CYCLES POLICE CAMPAIGN. The police, in many parts of England, have for some time past been conducting a campaign against noisy motor-vehicles. This oampaign has been productive of a steady stream of convictions by local magistrates, and the fines inflicted in some cases have been unjust and in others quite unnecessarily severe. Many of the motorists fined were using standard machines as turned out by reputable manufacturers, and they have naturally felt rather aggrieved that the police authorities had failed, in the first case, to take action against the real offenders, the manufacturers. In the main, however, the campaign has been all to the good. Anything tending towards the better silencing of motors generally is desirable, not only from the point of view ot the general public, but also from that of motorists. SELF-LUBRICATING TUBE A Manchester man has invented a very remarkable inner tube. In the process of manufacturing the tube there is incorporated, by mastication in the rubber compound, prepared onica which< has the effect of rendering the rubber heat, grease, and acid resisting. The proportion of powdered mica is small. The inventor claims that his tube carries out the ideal of friction reduction. From an examination of a sample of tlie tube it is dear that it really is self-lubricating. EASY STEERING OVERHAUL THE PARTS. Make the steering of your cars as easy as possible. A car that is hard to handle, especially over a long journey,’takes all the pep out of the trip. It is a delight a car with ''the steering working properly as it should do ; and at the end of a day’s tour the driver is not’ worn out. In remedying a hard steering, perhaps the first tiling to look at is the alignment of the wheels; if they are wro.ng it is an easy matter to put them right. If tlie road is dished the car will have a steady pull to that side if the wheels are not m line. AVhen the steering is right it should! be no effort to keep the car exactly where you want it. • -

AVith anything wrong with your steering it is not safe to speed up under any condition. If anything goes wrong with your engine or differential, the car just stops, but when, the steering plays up while you are bowling along at 30 miles an hour, it is only natural to expect to wake up in Eternity. The tyres make steering hard, and if the tyre is of tlie cylinder type it is possible to pull it off the rim quite easily when turning a sharp corner. A short piece of . .an inner.-heavy boot or liner also has a tendency to make the steering hard, and causes a heavy bump at every revolution of the wheel. Backlash, usually caused through wear, is the fault of most hard steering. Worn pins, hushes, and knuckles will give too much play to the steering, and at times it is even difficult to keep the car on the road with such a fault. With too much backlash, the driver feels every jar of the road, and such a firm grip of the wheel is necessary that in a very few hours the driver has had enough. Most of the pins only require new bushes, arid the steering box is usually fitted with an adjustment for the worm. SPEED RECORD OVER 100 MILES AN HOUR. With the 2-litre six-cylinder Fiat racing car which won both the French and the Italian Grand Prix races, Pietro Bordino has established a record of 1081 miles an hour on th© new Monza track, near Milan. This record, which is a wonderful high speed for a oar of such .small piston displacement, was established over on© lap of what is known as the track portion .of the Italian speedway, and was officially timed by representatives of the Automobile Club of Italy. It is interesting to note that at Indianapolis, wheTe conditions are approximately the same as at Monza, the highest speed ever attained for one lap is 103 miles an hour by Thomas on a Ballot of 4-litre 900. For the full 10 kilometres of the Monza speedway, including both track and circuit, Sordino’s time was 3min sQsec, compared with his previous record of 4min 4sec, established during the Italian Grand Prix race. The speed is equivalent to 97.25 miles an hour.

Sixty-seven competitiors, comprising Auatro-Daimler, Benz, Buick, Cadillac, Cole, Durant, Fiat, Ford, Hudson, Hupmobile, Mercedes, Minerva, Packard, Panhard, Steyr, Stoower, Stutz, Sunbeam, Wanderer, Willys_, and other cars, took part in the 1J mile wild and difficult hill climb up the Groghersaotoren, organised by the Automobile Club of Norway. REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE LIGHT CAR ATTAINMENT A remarkable performance has just been recorded in England by an “A.G.” light car with a four cylinder engine under the 11 litres class (1500 c.c.). There has been considerable rivalry amongst European builders of light cars as to which oar would be the first to negotiate 100 miles in the hour, and the honour haß been won by the English built “A.C.” , The drive was accomplished on Brooklands track by A. J. Joyce, the full distance covered in' the 60 minutes being slightly over 101 l-3rd miles from a standing start. The fastest mile during the ran wag just under 105 m.p.h. It is interesting to note that the “A.C.” is the lightest of all light cars in its class. ACROSS SAHARA AN ADVENTUROUS ATTEMPT. Some details have been published of a contemplated attempt to cross 'the Sahara Desert in Africa. It promisee to be one of the most_adventuroim attempts at exploration bv motor-ear ever undertaken. Four 10 h.p. CitGpen cars will drive across the Sahara to Tinihuctoo. Tugiust, the terminus of the South African RaiL | way, to their destination is a matter I of some 2000 miles of thirsty desert ■ At the end of the first 500’ miles >s I on oasis called Ir Salah, which has *L

ready been visited by Citroen cai\ which placed a depot there of petrol and stores. For the last 150 miles the rout® lies on the banks of the Niger; for the rest of the journey the expedition will be dependent on halt a dozen oases with wells. In one sec tion they trill have to traverse ove« three hundred miles between t>\o wells. , It will be a strenuous test for the little Citroen; shifting sands and rug ged mountains, arid wastes and rocky ravines, scorching heat by day, bittei cold by night—if the cars come through successfully It will he a tremendous testimony to the mechanical efficiency of this popular French machine. Standard touring car engines will be used, but special gearboxes have been fitted, and the cars are rigged with caterpillars of a type which have already been successfully tested on loose sand. There aie al9o special water and petrol tanks. Throughout the whole route there are only four “ports,” which we take to mean places inhabited by small military or commercial garrisons. For the rest the entire journey will be out of touch with civilisation or assistance. TRAVEL BY CAR LESS EXPENSIVE THAN RAILWAY. The days when motoring was looked upon as a rich man’s hobby are lett well behind. The myth that an auto mobile is a luxury is as dead as the Dodo. Motoring to-day is emphatically less expensive than is travelling bj train, even if one disregards contributory factors, such as its health-giving properties, its value as a recreative tneans for a tired mind ? and the saving it effects by reason of its convenience. It was at one time customary to argue that the automobile was ultimately less expensive than any other form of travel, by reason of the fact that when one travelled by car one started from home complete .with hags and baggage, and there were no intermediary steps, like taxis to a railway station, or other expenses. This was very true, and when such details were brought to weigh down the balance, motoring on even quite expensive cars was not very much more costly than was first-class railway travelling.; but to-day, without making any mention of what might he termed the equivocal side-lines, the possession of one of the modern small cars by the average man results in his effecting a substantial saving in £ s. d. compared with what would be the case he deprived of its use.