MOTOR NOTES

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 13904, 11 July 1938, Page 3

MOTOR NOTES

£5,000,<300 ORDER. During the past two or three months, much has been written and spoken about British industry being faced with tin* prospect of a business slump. There is little doubt that those who take this somewhat pessimistic outiook have. to some extent, been influenced by the unsettled situation abroad. The general viewpoint is that talk of a business “recession” is without foundation, and support for this view can be found in the bold production programme policies of leading manufacturers. For example, Morris Motors Ltd. have, recently placed orders for mo-tor-car raw materials to the value of £5.000,000, and this sum has been definitely allocated for cars to be built in the next few months. Only a month or so ago. Morris Motors placed an additional £2,000,000 materials order in connection with the production of their popular 8 h.p. model alone. WATERPROOF CARS. Every day, torrential rain falls at the Morris factory at Cowley. Fortunately this does not cover the whole of it, but is confined to a section where a new artificial rain plant has been installed. The object is to teat thoroughly the waterproof qualities of the cars before they leave the factory, a point of importance in view of the fact that of a total number of saloon models made, 86 per cent. possess sliding heads. To prove the efficiency of the head joint, a special storm test booth has been evolved, in which heavy rainfall conditions are. faithfully" reproduced. The water output in this test is standardised to 15in. per hour. As each car enters the booth, 15,000 jets of water are cascaded over it from all angles at the rate of 100 gallons per minute. Such intensity immediately discovers any weak snpts in the roof, and tests also the watertightness of the windscreen and windows, the efficiency of the drip moulding and the effectiveness of the bonnet sealing. For special experimental purposes the pressure of the water can be increased tenfold. Cars which survive such a concentrated downpour are certainly weatherproof. FOR THE POLICE. The number of County police authorities in England who are adopting Wolselev cars for their mobile sections increases every year. There are now over 400 Wol.seleys in the en'ploymont of the police. Fiftythree cities,.' boroughs and counties —including the famous Scotland Yard—have bought Wolselev. while several other authorities are oonisderin ■ following- their example. These police cars are in the' main employed- for. special duties, and for the use of higher officials. HEADLAMP ADJUSTMENT. Anti-dazzle-regulations are now "in ‘ force in most countries, and it is interesting to nbto.-,-therefore, that ! Moi •ris Motors Ltd. take particular j care to test the headlamps of all cars before leaving the factory. To ersure absolute correctness of their focus, special types of screens, primarily. invented to improve the projection of films in cinemas, have been installed. Each of these screens, which an i of the type known as “glass beaded,” has been approved as the ideal one for obtaining the best distribution and refraction of light according to the known strength of the headlamp s beam. Two silver discs are mounted at a predetermined distance on these screens, and the beam from each light is focussed on the corresponding disc until it is accurately centied from a distance of 25ft. Furthermore, headlamps are adjusted with the car placed on a slight ramp, so that the centre of gravity Is towards the back of the car. The cinema, screens are, of course, correspondingly raised. The value of this method is that when the ear is on the level ground and the centre of gravity restored, the actual beam from the headlamps tends to bo in an even more slightly downward dire*ction. Great care is exercised in carrying out each operation of focussing lamps, and, once adjusted, owners should never push or lean on the lamps themselves, or allow garage attendants to do so, as undue pressure may have the effect of distorting the beam. QUIETER MOTORING. To reduce noise by achieving greater smoothness of i tinning is one of the leading aims of motor engineers and designers. Undoubtedly one method of securing sweeter running is by improving the quality of the component parts ol cars themselves, end at one big factory at least—\\ olseley Motors Ltd., of Birmingham—-new types of machines are constantly being tried and introduced into the shops. On.* of the latest. Wolselev innovations is known as the Fitchberg maefi I lie. belt ved to be tile onl\ one of its kind in England. This machine grinds the face and top angles of crown wheels for Wolselev back axles at the rate of about 80 to 150 in an hour according to their size. By grinding the , wheels to extreme limits of accuracy, it greatly improves their quality and hence their Although the operations necessary are highly complicated, they only take about half a minute to perform. This wonderful machine is electrically and hydraulically controlled, and with a complete system of interlocking controls that holds the finished sizes bo limits of plus or minus half-a-thousandth of an inch. “SPR ING C' LEANTNG ’ ‘ MOT(>RCARS. Every husband—and most housewives—are thankful that the good old custom of “spring cleaning” the house is only an annual event. What wc uld they think, therefore, of a place where such a process goes on every day throughout the working year? This is what happens at the Morris factory at C'owley, where the

interior of every car, before it is despatched, is “spring cleaned.’’ In order to ensure the perfect cleanliness of all cars, a special battery of high-powered vacuum cleaners lias just teen installed Some idea of the strength of this vacuum plant can be gauged from the fact that the motor operating it is exactly one hundred times as powerful as the motor of the average domestic cleaner. The suction force generated is so strong that a bunch of keys can be swept fro in the car into the container in a matter of seconds, and without interfering with the progress of the \vork. It.A.C. RALLY. Morris. Wolselev and M.G. cars gave excellent performances in the recent R.A.C. Blackpool ltallv. in wl ieh competitors had to cover over 1(H)(> miles to schedule. Mr B. W. Fursdon, driving a three-vea r-md Wolselev Ton, won Group 11-for the second year in succession, and with the identical car used for 1937. In the Coachwork Competition an M.G. Two-Litre folding head foursome was awarded first prize in its class. It was shown by Mrs D'etre and Mrs Jennings. The same Morris Ten which distinguisned itself in the last Monte Carlo Rally was entered by M<*i.srs L. H. Cade and Dixon Cade, father and son, and, although not winning any particular prize, rail faultlessly throughout and did very well in the braking test