MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1924, Page 11

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

DEPRECIATION AND RUNNING vOSTS. Very few motorists keep proper accounts showing what the running of their car costs them. They have a vague idea that they spend <so many pounds a month on their hobby, and that is a’bout as far as 'they get. The Motor has been studying the problem, and it arrives at the conclusion that, counting only petrol, oil and tyres, you can run a 14 h;p> car for just over a penny a mile, and a 20 h.p. car for less than lid a mile. If tax and insurance are included it calculates that a 14 h.p. car, doing 5000 miles a year, will cost 2-Jd a mile to run, and a 20 h.p. car just under 3£d a mile. One must remember, however, that in England the tax is £1 per h.p. per year, which is far heavier than oversea.* Repairs are not included, but if one starts with a new car one should not uave any for two years.

Depreciation is also not included in the estimates, though it is probably the largest item affecting cost. But depreciation varies very greatly according to the way .a car is used, and also according to its name and reputation. The Motor thinks that a £5OO car would be worth £4OO at the end of a year’s running, nearly £3OO at the end of three years, and £2OO at the end of five years. The estimates are probably for English cars, but even then they strike one as being too high. On a £4OO or .£5OO car depreciation is in the neighbourhood of £lOO a year for the first three years. It is', however, very difficult to arrive at any estimate on depreciation which can be generally applied. Perhaps the best way of judging depreciation is to study second hand prices eiiosely, adding something to the average figures if your car has been particularly well cared for.

But, of course, the smart Sidesman can talk on running costs best of all. He will probably convince you in no time that if you don’t keep a car' you are actually losing money. And it is extraordinary how many people like to believe him nowadays. Motoring lias obtained a tremendous grip on middleclass England now, and thousands of families are determined to own a car within the next twelve months even if they" have to eat dry bread to do it. TEST AFTER ACCIDENTS. -‘The way to eliminate preventible accidents is to remove from the road the driver who has to etop to think what to do in an emergency, as well as the careless, the callous, and the selfish road-hog,” states a. writer in the American City.

“This can be done almost to perfection, when measured by human standards, within a few years, provided unified effort can be brought to Lear on the subject. It is simplicity itself. “The method to be used is the examining of all drivers of motor-vehicles who are concerned in a motor-vehicle accident, with a proper psychological and practical driving test, which will ascertain their fitness to drive. Prohibit them from driving after such accident, until they have passed this test, and thereby proved to the properly constituted authorities they are, first, mentally and physically fit to be allowed the privilege of driving on the highway, and. secondly, that they were blameless in the accident which preceded the examination.

"By this procedure .sooner or later all who cause accidents will be brought under stricter control, those who were at fault will be eliminated, and even those who cause a series of minor accidents will be located. Thus the driver who is mentally or physically incompetent will have his license taken away and will be forced from the highways. Those who are competent and careful and do not cause accidents will not be disturbed.”

The following paragraph, culled from the Motor Age, seems to provide an explanation for many of the "minor traffic accidents that are increasingly frequent. It serves to show, further, that the Americans are anything but casual in either their powers or methods of observation.

Washington.—The Bureau of Standards finds the delay’ averaging about half a second to occur between the signal to an automobile driver to apply the brake®, and the actual application of them. During the time a ear, having a speed of 30 miles an hour, would travel a distance of 22 feet. Some of this delay, the bureau explains, is accounted for by the reaction time of the driver. This is the time it takes him to get an idea into his head and to act on it. The rest of the time is consumed in the acts of shifting the foot

to the brake pedal and in taking up the slack in the breaking mechanism. The tests were made with a recording decelerometer, the signal to stop being automatically recorded on a moving strip of paper on which wys also recorded the decelerating effect of the brakes.” CONSIDER PEDESTRIANS. A good driver is nothing more than a considerate one, and where is the motorist who would not like himself to be •styled a really good driver? The good driver considers his passengers; iiis *car, and every one else on the road. No passing on blind corners. No dashing through hazardous openings. Pedestrians are usually regarded as, unmitigated nuisances from, the driver’s point of view, on adcount of their idio-' eyncrasies, and failures to see the immediate intentions of the man at the wheel. They Should not be ; unnecessarily honked out of the way and made to run like startled hens'. ’ ’ ' When' soon'e motorists become pedestrians they confess to the ifhpression that evdry driver on the road seems to be wanting to run them down. It is only then thAt they get the pedestrian’s viewpoint. ' *

Perhaps the worst type Of road pest apart from the reckless and ‘drunken person is the 'would-be speed merchant, who endeavours -to race everything on the road.

At the approach of a car he will accelerate until he is just keeping ahead, bis .speed being varied to suit that of thte other ear. fn this way he appears to glory in the sensation of 1 having "mopped up,” ahother car. Quite als annoying, and perlpips more dangerous, is the road hog. who shoots across your bows on corners 'or when you are al/out. to swing right to pass a slower . vehicle. Then there is the man who races for right-of-way past a horsedrawn vehicle, forcing you to pull up to avoid a collision.

On the other hand, there is the midVictorian ty'pe of driver, who firmly believes that 15 miles an hour is. a maximum speed, and holds to it right in the middle of the road.

Incidentally, one notices that inexperienced drivers resolutely claim this position, and take a surprising time to get over to the left of the read when a car essays to pass. With the varying types of cars on the road, it is impossible to lay down hard and fast rules as to what does or does not constitute a “safe”, speed.

THE DANGER OF BLACKING OUT. After much trial I have adopted dipping headlights as the only safe and sensible method, and because I do not switch off when passing other cars I am subjected to curses, shouts, etc. (says a correspondent of the Auto'car). I would point out to these persons that there is no law to compel a motorist to dim Iris lights, that the practice of dimming or blacking out has been turned down ’by the A.A., the R.A.C., and other authorities, and lastly, that a correctly focused lamp gives less glare than a non-adjustable side lamp. If every manufacturer would provide adjustable brackets in place of the* present fixed type, where one lamp is given a tilt upward and the other one shines down, we motorists could make our lights do the way they were intended for, instead of which we have to waste light illuminating the tree tops. Take a walk on any main road after dusk and see hotv many beams are "looking for Zeppelins.” Can you wonder that we dazzle each other?

In the matter of corre'ct focus the 'considerate motorist will be well repaid if he attends tQ this himself. Place the car, say, a hundred yards from a wall after dark, and arrange it so that the headlights shine on to the wall. Slacking the locking arrangement at the rear of the bulb holder, and slide the bulb back a circle of intense light some 6ft or Bft in diameter appears on the wall; the bottom cjt the circle should just touch the ground. But to obtain this, adjustment of the entire lamp or bracket in ft vertical plane will be necessary. Do each lamp independently, add the only dazzle will be to anyone within the circle, or only half theJ width of the e road. With lamps so treated, and used in conjunction with dipping mechanism, a motorist may still feel safe when Out after dusk, and, moreover, a gentleman. MOTOR HIGHWAYS.

When all the world and his wife are motoring, the building of special motor roads in settled districts is only a question of time. Italy is leading the way in Europe at present, and a speed highway from Milan to Lake Varese, a distance of 30J miles, has been opened. It has a cement surface and contains long straight stretches of seven, eight, and even ten miles, while hillocks have been levelled and hills cut -through in order to give an easy gradient. The road is reserved entirely for cars, not even motor cycles being allowed on it. Other similar highways are being built from Milan to the neighbouring lakes, and with a width of 45 feet and a perfect surface they enable very high speed to be maintained. In time other exclusively motoring roads are likely to be constructed in different parts of Europe and America. What is really the cause of so many accidents to-day is the mix-ing-up of different classes of traffic all ■moving at varying speeds. Somebody has seriously suggested tha't horsedrawn vehicles should be excluded from London on the ground that horses caused more accidents than anything else. It is hardly likely special motor roads will be built in the Dominions and India for a long time, as their crush of motor vehicles is nothing like that in Europe and America, but an effort might at least be made to put the great trunk high ways into really first-class order, and .so provide a certain number of national routes. A guarantee of good touring roads would attract oversea visitors, and the essential improvement in the country hotel accommodation would follow.

HINTS AND TIPS. When a nut. screw, or other small part is dropped into the dep.ths of an. engine under-shield, and remains inaccessible to ordinary means of recovering, it, it can often be. retrieval by an improvised pick-up consisting of a, <short length of wood or metal to the . end of which a lump of stiff grease has been applied. Unless the under-shield is very deep in oily refuse, the nut or other part will come a wav at the first touch.

A cracked insulator in the commonest trouble with spark plugs. This condition allows fuel leakage, and gives a very poor spark or none at all. Test the plug by laying it on rhe cylinder head with the plug cable attached. Then when the engine is cranked the spark will show at the gap or not, as the ease may be. ' Cracks may be noted when the engine is operated in the dark. Sparks will be seen on the outside of ■the insulator. It is peculiar, but true, that the motorist who is a careless driver is also careless about his brakes and everything else. He is responsible for the passage of so many laws that annoy careful motorists. Storm curtains should be permitted to dry unfastened. This will- enable them to shrink a little, thus assuring a better fit when they., are fastened on’ again,. Undoing the lower fasteners, will suffice. ;

The accelerator pedal is a delicate piece of mechanism operating a sensi-' tive instrument. It should not be treated a<s <a treadmill. The. weight of the foot, is suflioien-t to operate it for normal running. The rest of its. range as. for hill work, and; for ■ safe, but not unnecessar.v acceleration.

There are many ways of extracting broken .studs, if .the proper tools. are handy, but here is one method that requires oply a screwdriver, a small drill, a .brace, and a' hammer and small chisel. A number of small holes should be drilled close together across the diameter of the stud, and these should be joined with the aid of the hammer and chisel, forming a slot. If the stud is not too tightly in place, it can then be removed with the help of a screw-