GARAGE GOSSIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 492, 23 October 1928, Page 6

GARAGE GOSSIP

Traffic in Shanghai, China, is the most diverse in the world, ranging from rickshaws and wheelbarrows to the latest models of motor-trucks and limousines. Coloured tyres recently announced as a fashion about to be launched in U.S.A. may come as a matter of economy. It has been found that there is less deterioration of rubber if it is coloured with some pigment than if it is in the natural shade. * * * Free driving lessons to all judges and State attorneys are being offered by the North German Automobile Club _ so as to enable them to judge the nature and severity of traffic offences committed by car drivers brought before them. A hundred have signed up. Just, how far the hand throttle should be opened to aid the starting process seems quite a problem to many drivers. Some err on the side of penury, others on the side of generosity. Either is wrong, for in the first case the engine does not start, in the second it runs too rapidly when it does turn over. The throttle should be set at that point where, operating in connection with the accelerator it depresses the latter slightly. This specification fits virtually every case. Lower Car Prices The steady and consistent reduction in the prices of British motoring products, accompanied by an improvement in the standard of design, performance and equipment has been one of the most remarkable features of the British motoring industry during the past ten years. On a gold basis the current prices of private and commercial vehicles are 47 per cent., and 37.6 per cent., respectively below those of 1914. At the same time a far better product is offered and the equipment is in every way more complete. • * *