MOTORING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 49, 3 April 1914, Page 5

MOTORING.

A new "baby" motor-cycle is being built by all the leading English motor manufacturing companies at present, and should arrive on the New Zealand market soon. All motorists are looking forward to the arrival of this new two-stroke lightweight machine, and they will probably be interested to know that a sample machine of the Triumph firm's manufacture is expected to arrive in Ghristchurch in a few weeks. This miniature machine is much simpler in its mechanism than the ordinary-. pattern, and its weight, fully equipped, is only 1251b5. The probabilities are that it will have a big run in this country. ' The Hawke's Bay Motor Cycle Club is holding a motor-cycle race meeting on the Hastings racecourse at Easter, and has arranged a large and varied programme in which motor-cyclists from all parts of the Dominion /will be competing. Hawke's Bay country being similar to Canterbury, and its roads being excellent, it is not surprising that motoring and motor-cycling has developed there almost to the same extent as in Canterbury, in fact, in regard to the number of motor-cycles in the district, Hawke's Bay now ranks second to Canterbury. Three Triumph racing motor-cycles which have just been landed will be competing i,a the Beach races at New Brighton to-morrow. These cycles fitted with a. semi-automatic carburetter, a new departure of the Triumph Company, which in trial runs has so far great success. Many motorists who go about in dfead of their car catching fire owing to petrol drippings in the tray becoming ignited will be interested to learn that the London police authorities now compel all the motor omnibus companies to fit a small sheet-metal chute under the carburetter to carry away all petrol drippings and thus prevent their falling into the oil tray. This provision has proved a great success, and no doubt the practice of the omnibus companies as regards this little detail will be generally adopted on private cars. The small outlay entailed i§ a good insurance ' against fire, anyway. The Blue Book issued recently by the Board of Trade, portion of which deals with the traffic of contains many significant comparative tables. Prom the figures quoted, the police authorities are impelled to admit that. instead of the traffic being slowed down at congested places there is urgent need of the speed being accelerated. It appears also that slowmoving traffic is highly dangerous, for* in the city proper, where the traffic is controlled by an enormous force of police, and proceeds practically at a walking pace, more accidents occur than in any other part of the kingdom. In all probability, the reason why slowmoving traffic is so dangerous is that pedestrians take liberties that they would not do were the pace faster. Perhaps the most interesting fact that can be gathered from the report, from a motorist's point of view, is that the 30-mile speed limit has been proved to be utterly useless as a protection to the public, for, of the fatalities caused by petrol-driven vehicles of all kinds, no less than 81 per cent, has occurred where the speed "of the vehicles concerned was less than 10 miles an hour. The French Grand Prix motor race, to be decided on July 4, will be one of the most hotly contested of the series; Among the 38 entrants are most'of the best drivers in tlie world, while the cars represented make it truly international in character. France will have 12 cars Vunning, England 6, Germany 8, Italy 9, Belgium and Switzerland 2, each. The cars representing Great Britain are Sunbeams and Vauxhalls. The entry list may be added to by later nominations taken at double rates. The length of this year's race will be about 470 miles, the circuit, near Lyons, being 23$ miles, which will be covered twenty times. After an. absence of six years from the racing arena, the Mercedes (German)' cars will participate, as the publicity gained in such an event is too valuable to be neglected. Other German cars are three Opels. Among the French cars will be the redoubtable Peugeots and Delages, while Italy will have F.I.A.T. and Nazzaro cars competing, among others. . The popularity of the self-starter in American motor-cars may be judged from the fact that" of all the cars listed in the United States for 1914, no less than 87 per cent, are fitted with electric self-starters as a standard equipment. Only 5 per cent, of the cars made have no provision for enginestarters. Another interesting fact in connection with the American automobile trade is the increasing output of six-cylinder car's. For 1914 the fourcylinder cars listed show a decline from 62.7 per cent to 55 per cent., whilst the six-cylinder variety has advanced from 35.4 to 44r per cent, of the cars catalogued. A remarkable bench test of a motorcar engine was recently carried out under the auspices of the Automobile Club of America. A four-cylinder engine (4in bore x 6in stroke), of the Silent Kpight type, was run for 337 consecutive hours, without a stop, at a speed of over 1100 revolutions per j minute. During the whole test the engine developed 38 h.p., and in the last hour's run developed 53 h.p. at 1678 revolutions. Upon dismantling the engine at the end of its fourteen days' continuous run -there was not the slightest shake or wear in bearings, and the working parts were practically in the same position as when the test was started. This is the greatest bench test to which any automobile engine has yet been subjected.