Cycling & Motor Notes

Otago Witness, Issue 3808, 8 March 1927, Page 70

Cycling & Motor Notes

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“DEMON.”

A scathing criticism was levelled at all ri'ortorists by Cr D. M’Gregor at the Bruce County Council’s meeting on Tuesday. Cr ATGregor recalled the fact that lie had once been reproved for calling motorists highway men. This term, he explained, was used figuratively, and not offensively, “but," he added, “I am convinced that anyone who has the temerity to stand on the side of the road and watch these O.M.C. juggernauts fly past, will admit that they have the cheek of Ned Kelly.’’ The Mount Cargill road to Waitati is already showing signs of wear, and there are at present about 50 workmen and several large plants engaged at work on the road, completing the tar sealing of the surface and repairing the worn portions. With such a contingent of workers to consider it behoves motorists using this road to keep their speed within reasonable bounds. Murmurs have been heard among the workmen to the effect that some motorists are a little careless in the matter of passing road gangs It is hardly a fair thing to ask men to work under circumstances that demand a hasty dropping of tools and a hastier leap off the road every now and then, simply because a few users of the road will not case up a little at corners around which the unsuspecting gangs are at work. Motorists, therefore, are asked to exercise a little care and moderation on this road while these operations are being carried out. Side curtains soon become shabby through the celluloid panels becoming scratched or broken. Discoloration ■&£ the celluloid renders it difficult to see through, but its anpearancc can be cleared off by using a good liquid metal polish. If soap is used to clean celluloid it will suuse it to turn yellow. The motorist can

patch a cracked panel of celluloid with the use of amyl acetate, a solvent which should be only lightly used—sufficient to make the material tacky. The patch should be smeared with amyl acetate, and it will adhere in a few minutes. The broken panel can be cut out of the curtdin. leaving, say, a quarter of an inch of edging to which the new panel of celluloid can be stuck. Slot ris Motors expect this year to tirrn out about 60,000 cars. Clyno are expected to manufacture 30,000, the Standard hope to sell 25,000, Austin 20,000, Bean 6000. Armstrong-Siddeley 6000, and Humber 6000. Roughly, this onlv leaves 50,000 cars to be made by the remaining 36. firms, providing that these estimates of production are correct. Naturally, the expensive high-class British factories, such as Daimlers, Rolls-Royce,-Bentley, Vauxhall, Lancaster, Sunbeam, and Crossley, do not expect to make very large quantities each year. They can pa.y dividends without any mass production, but (says an exchange) the figures seem to give point to the suggestion that it would be better if some of those smaller makers combined forces and produced a car that could be sold as well abroad as at Home, and so help the export business, at the same time lowering their own costs and benefiting the British public by offering them cheaper cars. MOTOR CYCLE BOOM IN GERMANY. Never in its 25 years of existence has the manufacture of motor cycles seen better days in Germany than during the past year. In 1913, only 20,000 motor cycles were in use in Germany, as compared with 200,000 to-day. All plants making motor cycles are working at capacity. Exports are only 2 per cent, of their output, while 98 per cent goes to domestic trade. These motor cycle plants employ 12,000 workers, and can produce 65,000 machines in a ’'car. Motor cycle imports in August total 450,000 marks. The boom in the motor cycle trade in Germany is ascribed to the small variety of standard models, permitting mass production at comparatively low cost. NOISY MOTOR CYCLES. Despite frequent protests, the obnoxious din so characteristic of motor cycles continues everywhere. The matter was mentioned ( by a member of the executive of

the laranaki Automobile Association at the last meeting of that body, and a resolution was passed that the secretary should bring the subject up at the next meeting with a view to making the use of “cut-cuts' illegal. Considering the ease with which offenders in regard to noisy motor cycles can be traced, there are astonishingly tew persecutions. A little police activity ought to go a long way, but possibly complete abolition of the "cut-out’’ is necessary. The “cut-out,” liowei er, is not the only cause of noise, lew of the so-called “silencers” are anything like silent. Thousands and thousands of motor-cars run constantly about the streets with only a purr, but one or two cycles are enough at one time to rouse a whole city. LIFE OF BUSES. Evidence given at the Supreme Court last week regarding the life of omnibuses provided some interesting opinions, says the Auckland Herald. The vehicles had been running services between the city and Onehunga. A local motor engineer said that buses which were reconditioned carefully might last 10 years. Under proper service conditions they might last 600.000 miles. Witness examined a bus which had done 150.000 miles in its 27 months on the road. He valued it at £351 as against the new cost of £790. Another expert said the average life of a car in New Zealand was seven years. He thought that a reconditioned bus last 10 years. When evidence was called for the City Council a different complexion was put on the durability of the motor vehicle. One expert set the life of a bus at 175.000 miles. He said that the engine cylinders would require reboring every 50,000 miles. Counsel for the Royal Bus Company remarked that some of the buses in the service had done 120.000 miles without reboring. Witness said that he could not believe that the engine was not in urgent need of this renovation. Council referred to a similar bus which had covered 319,000 miles in America without reboring of the cylinders. Witness said it was absurd to suggest that the engine was not in a parlous state after such a performance. Mr A. E. Ford, manager of the City Corporation tramways, said 600,000 miles was a preposterous clainffor anv omnibus A motor car might run 20,000 miles a year, and it would certainly do it with

less depreciation than the omnibus. At this rate a car would run for 30 years before it had covered 600.000 miles. A total of 40,000 miles a year was creditable tor an omnibus, and at this rate the bus would have finished its economical life ni less than four years. The expensive fleet ot corporation buses was to be written off in five years. ‘•Demon” would just liue to add that an important factor in estimating the life ot a bus, or a motor car for that matter, is the route it has to traverse. Travelling on hills and travelling on the level are two different things. round the world TtAIR. From the latest letter to hand (dated December 22) it is learnt that the B.S.A. round-the-world riders reached Haifa (1 .destine) safely, and that their mounts nacl not caused them one moment’s anxietv. r e m pit i e t - ha y in -, encountered tremendous difficulties in tne shape of indescribably .bad road conditions. The riders expected to reach Cairo on January 5, crossing the Sinai desert en route from h - t0 , Cal, °’ via Suez - T l * crosso ot this desert is a very hazardous enterprise m itself, since this trackless uaste has not previously been crossed bv motor cycles. The following remarks extracted from Af e ibo erS ' a -! t Rive some idea ot the magnitude of the task which thev An\Vr nd 7 take n~ ° Ur J ’ ourne - V through Anatolia from Constantinople to Alepno was very rough, and at the last-mentioned place the weather broke and we were held up |pr several days. During the latter stages through Anatolia we stuck several times in the mud, and laboured fiercely sometimes unaided, at others assisted by‘ our ’‘nmchines.”' ° V b ° rSeS ’ to free

BRITISH CAR REGISTRATIONS. Official registration figures for the voir ended August 31. 192(f, have just been thli- IS< i d b> 1 “ C Krit ' s!l Government and they show an exceedingly healthy growth of ’™ mber 1.690000. This is an".increase^r^O,ooo o\er the previous 12 montlis. Of the total. 630,000 are motor cvcles Even Great Brit 7 lotor , cvc,e registrations, neat biitain for the first time has Si ics ‘'fv, 1 ’ 000 ’ 000 niark in automotive hw H;. I ?V' e Vi’ e consider the enormous taxcb that Englishmen must nay on their incomes, the growth is extremeiy good. AN AMERICAN STORY. tl,c captions. “Gotta Be Good to Get License, "'lhev’re Pretty Strict in New Zealand,” the following interesting comment on the issue of motor drivers 5 licenses in the Dominion appeared in a »' *• 8* a intro foimality. as is the case in more mpulous communities, according to a dealer r ffi ei A ed H y ?"' C ” ? rC ‘ ls ’<cr from a h A ' l c k, -and According to the ettei, in that- art of the Antipodes there is one. automobile to every family of five cannot'd- iJ 1 ' 1 ' *’ e " lan , ol \ woman who graceful CiU ’ concea,s tl,e fact as dis- “ The authorities who grant driving licenses generally set a high standard I he sort of test imposed is left to the examiner, who, m many places, and alis’the’H* routable’* 6 C ° Unt ’’ y districts ’ “The dealer points out that at one village in Canterbury'the constable has incurred the enmity of several business men who own cars. He takes them and their cars into a small back yard dotted with tall cans, and orders them to steer an irregular course amid these . obstacles, t hose who succeed in crossing iLj lot are greeted with a somewhat spiteful smile and ordered to repeat the trip in reverse gear. Failure results in a denial of the

driver's license, which is necessary to legdlij pilot uii Hiitomobile. Kaw enforcement officers in New Zealand spend a considerable part of their time arresting respected and venerable farmers who have been refused drivers’ licenses and who retuse to give up their cars.” THE STRAIGHT EIGHT. Ar*. Tl r e^ ht ;;^, indcr principle,” declares ♦ -I 1"’ '* ’• an American distributor, “is becoming more and more widely recognised as the ultimate in motordom.” He cites what he terms four fundamental reasons why eight cylinder cars are bound to dominate among all cars L.lhng above 1500 dollars. These reasons he points out, are the inexorable law of human choice, the continual desire ot people for something better, the history ot the automobile industry, and the fact that the eight cylinder principle comlnncs a smoothness unknown to anv other type Plus greater power and remarkable general cihciency. "The law of human choice—the everlasting search for the most efficient—sooner or later puts every product into its proper place, assigns it to the market it belongs, fixes a the price at which it An be sold, and establishes its social status beyond hope of change,” he says: ’Manufacturers do not arbitrarilv make markets. They cannot. People make them by their everlasting hunt for that which meets their needs and comes " 1 .9| 1 .! tl the reach of their pocketbooks. lhe motor car has been divided into market classes and social distinctions bv this inexorable law which is at one anil * , ,i?i aln ?. f ln, e human and economic. ’the finest car, years ago, was of four cylinders. I hen came the six, supplantin'' the tour because of its more continuous torque and greater smoothness. To-dav we see the eight, combining still greater smootnness with greater efficiency,, sol id I entrenched as the topmost principle. e see three great motor car markets—those of the lowest price, those of the mcdiuin priced ears, and everything above that hue—now quite definitely established v OO (i ” ,lars up—given over to tise eights. **

LONDON TO SYDNEY. LONDON, March 2. Messrs Ellis, Dirties, and Knowles left Sofia on Sunday for Constantinople. All are well. A message from London which was published on February 10 stated:—Practically unnoticed in the midst of London’s throng, Messrs Ellis, Dirties, and Knowles left the Automobile Association’s headquarters in Leicester square in an Imperial six-cylinder car for a journoy which it is hoped will end at Martin place, Sydney. The three travellers are attired in leather coats and fur-lined aviator caps. The car was loaded down with the maximum of spare parts and provisions, under the supervision of Mr Dirties, whose lifetime experience produced a workmanlike effect. The car is a busi-ness-like machine of the sturdiest construction, and when fully loaded weighs two and a-half tons. After a few handclasps- from friends and supporters, including Sir Charles Wakefield, and a final examination of the 47 documents which are necessary for the various countries through which they will be passing, the. expedition turned the car into Coventry street and disappeared into the heart of London’s traffic.

ACCURATE ALIGNMENT. Accurate alignment of the four wheels of i). ear is necessary to effective and .safe operation. Mal-alignment may have serious results in several 'directions. It makes for much increased tyre wear, and it adds very considerably to the risk of skidding, while if the loss of alignment is in respect of the front wheel particu-

larly, steering is affected, especially at speeds. This trouble may be caused in a variety of ways. Often under settling of one of the springs and not the other will cause the alignment to suffer. Another cause is the shifting of the avle along the spring. This is not a very frequent cause, but in some ears it is known to occur. In modern cars everything is ..done to maintain alignment without the necessity for adjustment by the owner. In some cases .he makers erect the chassis so that the two front wheels face in to each other slightly when the car is quite new. The first wear, which takes place in the articulation of the steering, has the effect of correcting this, and, when the bearing surfaces of connecting links has settled in, the wheels attain correct alignment. Settling of the springs unequally may often be ■caused by driving the car with a single occupant, or the constant use of it unevenly loaded. Designers canvassed the various types of springing relative to this liability to assume inaccuracy of alignment, and it is a lault rarely seen except in old cars. But the driver who finds his control becoming eccentric would do well'to have the vehicle tracked up and any deficiency in this respect eliminated.

CANADA’S MOTOR OUTPUT. While United States automobile manufacturers produced during 1926 a number of cars that, in addition to being the largest in history, has well nigh gratified the most optimistic, the Canadian industry (states the Toronto Gazette) has also progressed, in spite of unsettled conditions caused by the Budget. Complete figures for the year are not yet available, but the total number of vehicles turned out

by the factories in Canada may be estimater at over 200,000. This figure represents a considerable increase over the previous high record, which was the 161,970 total of 1925. The value of the products of the industry may be placed at about £26,000.000, as compared with £22,000,000 in 1925. The increase in production during 1926 was occasioned almost entirely by demands of the home market, for exports, as compared with 1925, remained almost stationary; the total for the 10 mouths ending October 31 being 60,118 vehicles, as compared with 58,007 vehicles for the same period of 1925. A complete survey of the home market in 1926 shows that it absorbed approximately 166,000 motor vehicles, of which 136,000 were made in Canada, and 30,000 imported. The increase in home market consumption (adds the Gazette) has been due to a larger number of cars withdrawn from use than in previous years. This number is much greater than the 1925 estimated total of 26,059. The replacement market from now on is undoubtedly going tc prove an increasingly important factor in stabilising sales volume. More and more Canadians are getting the habit of turning their ears in at the end of a year r two and buying new models. This has been made feasible by the increasing stabilisation of the used car market. Automobiles are coming to have a definite resale value, based on the length of use, and the knowledge of this resale value very definitely aids the sale of new cars.

experiments with tyres. An official in the office of the Ministry of Transport (London) has organised a test to determine road impact with wheels

shod with new solid tyres, old solid tyres worn down to lin, and pneumatic tyres. A special instrument was used to record the impact of the wheels making a 2in drop in a hole mad in the road. The impacts were first ascertained at a speed of five miles per hour; at 14 miles per hour the impact was increased by 200 per cent, with the new solids, 250 per cent, with the old, and only 17 per cent with pneumatics. As road depreciation depends on the impact caused bj r the degree of smoothness of the road surface, and the fact that Australian roads are usually in a potholey condition, the low impact blow of the pneumatic tyres is worth noting.

WHAT WELL YOUR BRAKES DO? More figures as to distances witinn which a motor car travelling at a given speed should be able to stop have been compiled by Mr Fred. J. Gumm, engineer to the Californian State Highway Department. “A definite relation,” says Mr Gumm, “can be stated between the speed of a car and the stopping distance under certain given conditions. Experiments conducted by automotive engineers supply reliable data. In applying these to average conditions of vehicle and road we are compelled in the interests of safety to accept for consideration as a standard the stopping distance required by the most poorly-braked car. Studies conducted by the United States Bureau of Standards indicate that perhaps the highest standard we may expect to enforce is a stopping distance of 50 feet from a speed of 20 miles an hour.”, - In the table below are shown the Tate of speed in miles per hour and feet per

second, the stopping distances for twowheel and four-wheel brakes published by the Thermoid Rubber Company, the stopping distances from an actual test by Sir Gumm of a two-wheel brake car, and those derived from studies by the United States Bureau of Standards as to the highest standard likely to be enforceable. The -stopping distances are from the time the brakes are applied until the ear comes to a full stop. The prescribed conditions are a dry, level road and. a uniform deceleration from a known to a zero velocity. The figures are as under:- —- Kate. Stopping.distance (feetl. ttt t t

It is interesting to note that the Thermoid Rubber Company’s figures are identical with those embodied by the New Zealand Department of 'lnternal Affairs in its draft motor regulations issued iu 1925. The Department proposed to make it an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding £2O to drive a vehicle with brakes not conforming to this standard. Air Gumm points out that with a wet road, a downhill grade, or inadequate brakes the stopping distance will be greatly increased above the figures given. With a wet and slippery road about double the distance will be required. In order to arrive at the total distance required for stopping a car travelling at a given rate of speed, the reaction time of the driver has to be added. Official experiments conducted by an engineer - and a psychologist in Washington gave an average reaction time of one-half second between the sighting of a dangerous situation and the application of' the brakes. From the figures in column 2 of the table above it will be seen that a car travelling at 30 m.p.h. will cover 22 feet in half a second, arid this distance has thus to be added to that required to bring it to a standstill after the brakes are applied to a car travelling at that speed.

c c w o o ci o <•+ Miles per hour. 2? S d c-E -1 a Cl ci * to to to M ee c*. co h* »* o co to >* Ecet per woa>wocswoo w o o w o a w c c; sec. • *•* T* Wrf ft -? u s o IO M )-* M to CO * H co ci w to H -] 00 to w 00 *4 c p to co to 2-wheeI brakes. ■c rF 8 £• ci to to Cl to to M ►f*. >u co ci ci co to e 4-wheel • *i brakes. p C c. o L& co 5 J y to Actual E £ Q Cl *• CJ O o test. s r CO to to H« M H Cl O ci w -1 Cl to M U.S.A. to to c to to oo o to to standards ci Bureau.