MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1924, Page 11

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

SHOW AT OLYMPIA. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. (AH Rights Reserved.)’ - (By H. Massac Buisit.) London, Oct. *23. The Eighteenth International Yearly Motor Car Show is now being held at Olympia, London, under the patronage of the King. The public shows no intention of abstaining froln the exhibition because a general election ie in prolt is interesting to note how evident by far the majority of visitors foreknow'before they enter the building exactly the types of machines which will interest them. In short, by no means everybody wanders along from stand to stand gazing at everything from the largest to the smallest vehicle displayed. On the contrary, by far the majority seem to devote their attention to particular classes of cars. Thus, in regard to the very popular two litre engined class, in which many new schemes are introduced, you will see a type of man who will scarcely have walked half-way down one of the circulating avenues before almost any salesman is able to tell at a glance that that class of machine, and none other, will interest him. The same thing applies to the man who wants a four cylinder engined machine of £lO tax. or less. It is somewhat a new phase in regard to these .shows, and may be due, in part, to the sheer number and variety of the exhibits taken in conjunction with the time factor governing the case of the individual visitor. Of course, since the earliest motor shows, we have been accustomed always to the class of person who would look at none other than the largest types of town carriages, and who passes disdainfully by all other machines as if the stands containing them were devoid of exhibits. But this extension of the process, whereby the 8 h.p. or the 10 h.p. car enthusiast declines to recognise the existence of your 50 h.p. or your 100 h.p. machine, is very interesting to note, indicating, as it does, the trend of what one might call the majority class of motoring. INFLUENCE OF THE KING’S CAR. The day before the private view, the King took delivery of the three remaining 57 h.p. six-cylinder, front wheel '.raked Daimler chassis, one equipped with a saloon, and the other two with shooting-brake bodies, thus completing the order he placed with Messrs Stratton - Instone nearly twelve months ago for four of these' vehicles to supersede Ins thirteen and fourteen-year-old machines, the last of which was in use as recently as Monday week. The influence of this new chassis design is very plain at the exhibition, despite the fact that there arc only available three other chassis exactly'like the King’s in the world Thus.'the £52 tax 45 h.p. front wheel braked ISft. 4in. long, GOin. track Daimler Laundaulette de Luxe at the show at £2OOO complete costs about half the sum of the dearest car in the recent

Paris Exhibition, despite the Daimler being the largest vehicle standardised. It has been designed in the light of experience gained with the King 6 care, and is attracting a deal of attention by reason of the remarkable width of the door, the low entrance, achieved without any sacrifice of head room. The long wheelbox 20 h.p. Austin '‘Carlton ’ type, also has a low entrance, very wide doors, generous head room and uncommonly good interior lights. Likewise, more than the ordinary degree of curiosity is being manifested in connection with the Barker and the Hooper bodies on the long wheelbase, four wheel braked 40/50 h.p. RollsRoyce machine, of which 1 had the earliest experience on the road last week when we found that, when travelling at 35 miles an hour, the car could be brought to a stop in its own length without the occupants of the seats experiencing any tendency to slide out of them. They are the smoothest really efficient front wheel brakes I have experienced, practical points in connection with them including the fact that when the car is turned to take a curve, you can take your hands off the steering wheel and apply the brakes; when it will be brought to a stand promptly while, nevertheless, pursuing the precise course you set it. When you are going down a steep pitch and apply the brakes suddenly, as in an emergency, to bring the vehicle quite to a stand from, say 45 miles an hour, this is done within extraordinarily brief space without any tendency for the rear to rise and the front to dip, as it were, which is very often experienced with four wheel brakes. By reason of the servo being designed, by a patented system, to operate as well when the car is running backwards as when it is travelling forwards, with this six wheel brake system, one has a two-fold insurance of safety. It adds 203 per cent, to the previous brake efficiency of the Rolls-Royce.

MORE QUITE NEW CHASSIS. Front wheel brakes are on evidence all over the show. In addition to the entirely new British-'built chassis types, one finds four other notable new contributions in the two litre engine category. One is the 14/40 valve, aluminium-engined, four bSfil Bea rdmere chassis with Perrot system front wheel brakes and spring modifications' of interest to withstand the twisting strains involved. This chassis is pro- [ vided with clever schemes for dealing with the temperature of the air employed in connection with carburation. Thus, the Zenith carburetter, bolted to the offside of the cylinder block, draws the air supply , from a port adjacent, to the exhaust manifold, which discharges forward, thus the heat away from the driver’s -seat. By means of a valve controllable from the driver’s seat, it is possible to regulate the temperature of the air induced by allowing a certain amount of cold to mix with the hot air supply. By slots provided in the front and back of the sparking plug cover, the carburetter is able to draw warm air through a passage which helps to cool this accessory. Tn this category, there is also introduced the two litre engined 14 h.p. four speed Cluley, with 10in. diameter rear brake drums, the 4/5 seat four door vehicle costing £395 complete. Tn the same category, too. are the £lfi tax nominal 15/45 h.p. six-cylinder engined Calthorpe chassis with Rubery contracting band front wheel brakes at £1315 % and the £l3 tax 12/24 h.p. 1954 e.c. Calcott with front wheel brakes, listed at £320. FRONT WHEEL BRAKE SITUATION. One recognises frankly that this is a year in which much boldness is being manifested in regard to adopting various systems of front wheel brakes. Evidently the public is much irfthem. Nevertheless, orders are not being lost because certain well-known cars lack these accessories. The fact is the public and some manufacturers are more cautious than is the average salesman in regard to approaching this problem. It has engaged the attention of a few firms for a decade or more.

Judging from the many cars introduced with f.w.-b. this year, however, it can scarcely have engaged the attention of some of their sponsors for ten days. There will be trouble on the road during the coming year if these machines are brought into use. there are proper ways of doing the job even on the smallest and cheapest car; instance the expending shoe type of f.wjb. brake standardised on even the 8.3 h.p. Renault, or again, the excellent system standardised on the new fi h.p. four-cylinder overhead valve engined Fiat, which is not ,»hown in this country. for the sufficient reason that the

firm will not be in production with it until the middle of next year. But one notes that the contracting band type of brakes, which had disappeared entirely from Continental and had prac-

tically disappeared from British automobile engineering practice, is being revived in connection with front wheel braking in this country. But more examples in the Mormon and the Studebaker and sundry entirely new American cars—including the Rollin—(brought forward with expanding shoe-type front wheel brakes, proof of the fact that by no means all trans-Atlantic manufacturers even of cars marketed on the principle of providing extraordinary value for money, are equipped with contracting band type of four wheel braking. Studebaker favours hydraulic control, together with the expanding shoe principle. It scarcely needs a prophet to foretell that in a few years the majority of middle scale and of larger car builders in America will be employing the expanding shoe type of four wheel brakes.

No one method of construction is universal, for the sufficient reason that we are but at the. beginning of this proposition. So far. generally the best results have been obtained by very expensive practice, which it is obviously impossible to exploit on the cheapest constructions. Doubtless, the history of this invention will be that of most other mechanical developments; we shall have to do this job in costly fashion to begin with, then, as experience is gained, we shall find out how to do it satisfactorily more economically. Meantime, there is no short cut to really safe and scientific four wheel braking.

The policy of some British automobile manufacturers in this matter is in striking contrast with the principle exploited in France, where nearly all cars have front wheel brakes unless ’ they have quaifer elliptic springing, which is unsuitable to take the strains of such means of deceleration. In America, too, generally a car is standardised with front wheel brakes, or you cannot have them. In this country, we have front wheel brakes standardised now on the 12 h.p. Arrol-Johnston, on the 7 h.p. the 12 h.p. and the 20 h.p. Austin, the new 141/40 h.p. Beardmore, both Lan-dhes-ter types, the 40/50 h.p. Rolls-Royce, the 15/40 h.p. Rover, the 3-litre Bent-

ley, the 23/60 h.p. and the 30/98 Vauxhall, and the 24/55 Ji.p. six-cylinder Wolsley, among many others; whereas, by contract, you can have front wheel brakes at option at extra cost on certain Armstrong-Siddeley. Crossley, Daimler, Morris-Oxford, Standard and other widely popular chassis. COACH WORK OF TO DAY AND TO-MORROW. Something has happened in France that is exercising a pronounced effect on coach-building. Fabric bodies are no longer the only notable cheap forms of construction. Dodge has long exploited successfully the all-steel enclosed body, and the admirable Citreon all-steel saloon shown in section constitutes one of the greatest ar tractions of the show to the average visitor. Hitherto. Italian. Belgian and French car builders have 'been content to produce the chassis only. But the example of America and of this country, where the greater portions of bodies are built by the big chassis makers themselves without any intention that they should in any way supersede bespoke edach-built carriages, is being taken up by several French chassis builders, and apparently lias spread consternation among the rank's of the excellent French coach builders, who have been almost universally accepted as leading the fashions in expensive carriage-work from year to year. Olympia to-day. however, houses cars 'with bespoke British built carriage work by Barker, Thrupp, Hooper, Wendover and others, which is vastly superior to the majority of the exhibits in the Paris Show by the foremost carriage-builders. It is quite obvious that the basis of the change, fe the fact that French carriage-builders in general are striving to produce bodies at prices which they calculate it will not pay the chassis builders to attempt. British coach; builders, who were never represented to better advantage, may be the gainers. Of course, there are shown at Olympia many clever sports type bodies, perhaps the 'most striking being the model streamlined white “Wensum” Vauxhall, type. The new method of upholstery for providing comfortable support as well for the shoulders as for the middle of the back, typified in the smart new ‘‘Red Rover” scheme, and the use of self controlled pneumatic upholstery by Singer, are other coachwork features of note.

Other features of this very interesting exhibition will be dealt with in a review in these columns next week.