LATEST IN MOTORS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12042, 21 January 1925, Page 3

LATEST IN MOTORS

INGENUITY OF STUDENTS INEXPENSIVE, BUT DISTINCTIVE!. Under the shadow of the one famous Harvard ‘University "gold coast” stand to-day someiof the most woe-begon© automobiles that over reached '-vibrations point” at 15 miles air hour. They belong to -well-to-do Harvard; undergraduates, purchased from home; 1 allowances, and they stand! under the classic shade of Harvard buildings ' because there is nothing else for therp to- stand under. . 1 Their .owners are college students. and their garatfb will be the street all. winter long; According to those who have watchdd'i these chugchugging this season abhut,Cambridge, marvels ,of ingenuity have been upon them by their owners, but : the chief thing, that keeps : them going is their, code of paint.' . The third,- fourth und fifth-band oars the ' Haryard students . are buying this year are nearly all painted. They ? are painted because the . undergraduates' can do \ it. themselves. If paipting _ -cost money they would! go y without. Paint is about the only furbishing bestowed upon them. The colours preferred are strong, simple rones* such as. Harvard ''crimson* or other primary pigment, with a dash of ! henna or cerulean on-the spokes, just, to give variety. ‘ % Most of the cars do not have covers. Instead there are the so-called "no-man - tops.”i -Some of them do have : wind-, shields, and a few even 'boast mudguards, but this-is considered;-a "trifle ostentatious.” As for lights, brakes and horns, these "accessories” frt 1 © fairly common. Otherwise, the cars are as nearly stripped of adornments- and refinements as ears can be and still keep running. THE "ROAD-BUG” SPECIES. The cars are of two general types. The firsts like the Michigan car, is of the socalled i "road bug” class. ' It has . the chassis, generally, of. a . Ford, cut.down to*'the water-line and then built .up by hpme • labour and the light of native ingenuity to a machine that oomes to a tin point'both front and roar. , \ <•. This kind of machine generally seats two. -Its "mudguards” are often wide strips of canvas. To get into the "hold” the driver climbs to fihe seat and then wriggles into the interior. * This car generally gets the brightest paint. There -are a great many of them around Cambridge/ to-day. . . The other'kind of car is iless noticeable: It is simply an automobile 1005..ihg so; badly that no one but a student would* admit ownership. According to reports, its engine needs all a student's Siam to keep it going. The garages the university do a regular trade selling these cars before the football season. Students are said to buy them for the outside games' instead of paying train faye. • They can be purchased as. cheap-' ly 'as 35 dollars. A salesman. said that a certain Ford, sold at this price by the. garage last wear, reached the Pacific Coast under its own power. . What keeps these cars going is a mystery that troubles the pedestrian professors at the university.* ’Even teachers •in the engineering, department admit there is-not much left in mechanics to telch the owners 1 by the time the latter reach their courses. .... "If you only saw the condition inside and the kind of 'copper wire repairs\ that are holding some of the motors together,” said a garage repair man to the writer, "you would see why those bpys practically nefor bring their cars to us! "There's no mechanical substitute for the. real thing that they haveirt already discovered. ; The whole outfit- wouldn't be worth four hours' repairs, at union Wages. . It's cheaper to scrap than overhaul them. MARVELS OP INw&NUITT. "But all that,” he continued, "those cars do I have known some of them to climb mountains. It didn't hurt the cars any and apparently it didn't hurt the mountains/ One car had a two-gallon milk can in the rear, carrying reserve water to keep, the leaky radiator filled* : • Most of the ( Harvard students who buy cheap cars, dp so. it is explained, out of 'their allowances, from home, "chipping in” with room mates to defray expenses. For 100 dollars a fairly serviceable Ford .can be purchased. Such a price, however, is generally considered too high. The surprising thing is, it is said, thatmany of the st/udeni buyers at home

, " i. ~ ■ drive good machines, and frequently have their own sport models. You can tee a group of well-dressed students—of tfhe “best families” at home—setting forth any day, clad.- -in the-regulations tweeds'and loose clothes, in a car so ramshackle that even Henry Ford himself -wouldn’t recognise as one of his. . And later on in the season, in the snow and ice of Cambridge winter, you can see the same, cars-parked out conveniently somewhere in a snowdrift, waiting for the warm weather to come for 'them to ho' chopped out) for another, season in man’s service.