MOTOR NOTES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17227, 5 April 1930, Page 9

MOTOR NOTES

WORLD ON EVE OF GREAT AUTO WAR. ODDS FAVOR BRITAIN TO GALN SUPREMACY OVER £.B. INDUSTRY. LONDON", Fob. 22. The world is on the eve of a battle for supremacy in the automobile industry, according to exports here. The chief contenders are Britain and the United ■States, but Germany. Italy and France are taking part, The war will be waged by designers, manufacturers, capitalists and racing men. There will be battles in the private sanctums of designers, in the research departments and on tho race tracks.

At the moment, according to these experts, the odds favor Great Britain. The United States, it is said, has built near to absorption in her home markets and trade overseas is now essential. On the other hand, the homo market still presents vast possibilities to Britain.

From the point of view of the'general public the most spectacular side of the war will be thai th the international races.

The first gun will he fired at Daytona, Florida, by the English racing motorist Kayo Don towards flic end of March. His automobile, the Silver Bullet, with a theoretical speed of something like 260 miles an hour, Wjas designed so that Britain could offer effective resistance to challenges which wore declared by America after !Sir Henry Segrave had sprinted into the world's record on the Gulden Arrow at 231 miles an hour. PETROL STATIONS. ft is estimated that there is more than £200,000,000 invested in 320,000 petrol service stations in the United States. It is officially stated that there are <i 10,000 of ope make of petrol pumps therfli making one for every 43 automobile/; on the road. Each vehicle uses on an average 472 gallons of petrol a year, making tho annual output for each pump 20,449 gallons a year or only 303 gallons a week. As petrol in the United States sells at about half the price charged in Australia, it is not surprising that much of the capital invested in petrol pumps 1n tho country is earning no protit. Based on the consumption of 240,000,000 gallons of petrol by automobiles in Australia, it seems clear that there is an excessive number of petrol pumps here, as the average quantity of spirit used by each motorist is approximately only 350 gallons a year, as compared with 470 gallons in America. BRAKES. Whilst touring car speeds are on the increase and cars travel quite fast in safety, the owner should not be unmindful of the bes* method of reducing speed at cross-roads, on approaching bends, and on other occasions, for an enormous amount of wear and tear can be avoided if the" necessary reductions in road speed are effected by the aid of engine deceleration alone, leaving the brakes to serve as ihe final retarding effect and for use in sudden emergencies. Considered in the light of design and construction, it might bo held that the braking system should bo constructed in such a manner that no undue stresses should fall upon any part of the chassis or transmission, however violently the brakes may be applied; but, as every practical experienced motorist knows, numerous exumples of twisted axle-shafts, strained splines and badly worn universal points have been due to perputually harsh treatment <3n the part of car drivers with regard to brake manipulation Brake design has improved consid-

erab'ly in recent years, but occasionally one encounters exumples of touring cars in which the actual adjustment of tiic brakes varies with the load carried in the car, so that if the brakes pre regulated to work properly with one or two passengers "up," they may be foupd to drag when the car is tilled to capacity.

A. car possessing this defect is a source of anxiety, because if adjusted for full load operation the brakes may not come fully into action when the car is light and, on the other hand additional stresses 'may be imposed upon the engine and transmission by dragging brakes when the car is fully loaded, should the adjustment be regulated for the maximum braking effect for light loads. This may entail frequent adjustment of the brakes for varying loads, which, though incon vonieril, is the only safe plan to follow with an imperfectly designed brake lay-out. MOBILE FORTS. ARMY SIX-WHEELERS. 10 M.P.11. BACKWARDS. Cars built specially for. the British Army have |o undergo severe tests before being passed into the service. Recently a batch of .six-wheeler armored cars was manufactured by the Lanchestor Motor Company for mechanical cavalry units. The vehicles are h'tted with -Ml li.p., six cylinder engines, and have to maintain, a speed, of JO miles an hour over rough country either forward or in reverse. The steel turret carries three Vickers guns, and each car carries its own portable trench bridges, as the running boards are made specially heavy, and may be detached for the purpose. LINDSAY WRITES OF AMORS AND SMALL-TOWN LIFE. ' LONDON, March 32. Mr. Norman Lindsay's full length novel "Rodheap" is to be published by Faber and Faber on March 25. Redheap is apparently a Victorian mining town. The hook describes the amatory and other adventures of a youth of 19, also his two sisters. It is described as "a remorseless, but brilliant study of small town life," and the publishers expect it will "cause a stir in Australia." NOVEL SCENES. "A Painted Cloth." By City Chapman. (Cassell.) Mr. Guy Chapman's novel, "A Painted Cloth," deals with the fortunes of a family engaged in publishing, before, during, and after the war. There is some vigorous writing about front-line experiences, and a ready excellent account of an action for libel by a bogus explorer, but on the whole the author's grip on his characters is so slight that we find ourselves earing loss than we ought whether Michael will take his erring wife back or not. or whether Martin will rescue Deborah from her most unpleasant husband. Some of the minor characters, particularly the publisher's reader, who bars all books dealing with Sussex and Cornwall, and has a prejudice in favor of grammatical construction, are delightful, and it can bo no bad thing for novel-readers to be taken behind the scenes in a publishing office by someone who really knows something about that life, but there are passages the slightness of which cannot justly be attributed so much to an ingenious outlook as to careless or too hurried craftsmanship. The whole book gives the impression that Mr. Chapman could do much better, and doubtless will: