MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 November 1926, Page 13

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

NEW FEATURES INTRODUCES. PLENTY OF SCOPE IN ENGLAND. PLANS AND CHECKS. (By H. Massac Buist. —Copyright.) London, Sept. 16. Every day that passes witnesses one, or more, announcements on the part of motor manufacturers and traders concerning wares introduced for the new season. Therefore it is already possible to form a fairly accurate idea of the general trend of development, though it is plain that many novelties have yet to be revealed. Many new car types that would normally have been introduced will not make their appearance for an indefinite period—probably not until this time next year. This is owing to the illeffect of the coal strike, which has been very widespread in spite of the fact that the number of cars sold this year is unprecedented. In the United States of America it is realised that the industry has attained practically as large proportions as can be looked for white the present systems of construction are exploited. Therefore from year to year trans-Atlantic manufacturers do not look for a greater number of cars to be sold, though the larger builders are continuing to expand in measure as they are able to reduce costs and improve their products through the sheer scale of their operations. The lesser builders are falling out. By contrast, in this country we are not yet within sight of what the Americans call the saturation point. There is plenty of scope for all our manufacturers to increase their outputs to figures that, will eclipse anything accomplished by them in the past. The conditions governing the individual anxious to enjoy big trade, are design, price, durability and performance. The majority of car builders in this country, as in America, will do less and less business as the year unfolds a small minority only will do more and more. THE MIGHT BE AND THE REAL. Among car characteristics to be noted it the forthcoming show that can be iiscerned already is the fact that a large lumber of chassis types will be presentid in a new dress, as distinct from what ire actually new designs. This is inevitable when the set-back experienced n large sections of the industry last Desember was followed by the disaster of the coal strike on the very threshold of that quarter of the year when twothirds, if not three-quarters, of the total number of passenger cars bought annually are disposed of. Much of that trade will never be recovered. Meantime manufacturers who have been hit in this way are committed for raw materials. Consequently they have to adopt various devices to sell their stocks. The most obvious is cutting prices. But this year, as formerly, those whose goods are not drugs on the market do not resort to price cutting unless

their success in the past has been so great that they are enabled to increase their productions to scales which reduce cost and enable them to offer the public cheaper propositions, instance, notably, Austin! The majority of the price reductions announced come under the former head, the minority only are found on analysis to come under the latter. But price reduction is not the only method that is being adopted for disposing of goods of the types for which manufacturers are committed on more or less a large scale. Another and even more successful means is to present a well-known chassis, or familiar body type, in a new dress. Luckily in this connection the introduction of guncotton finishes, generally called cellulose paint, offers a vast opportunity, especially in the lower powered, cheaper priced categories, wherein most machines pass direct to the hands of owner-drivers with not too practical facilities for maintaining them. It must not be imagined, however, that all these new finishes are immune from scratching, staining by oil, splashing by tar, and so forth. Some too, chip badly; a few only resist chipping and scratching. Of course, the old device of altering the shape of the radiator slope is also being resorted to. NOT ALL “SIXES” HAVE EQUAL MERIT. Nevertheless the general trend of the car types that are actually new is working out according to programme. By far the majority will have six-cylin-der engined power units, especially as offered by the European industry. But, as most motorists are aware, because a given manufacturer makes a four cylinder engine successfully it by no means follows that he can design and standardise a six-cylinder type. This cannot bo done merely by copying successful examples, though much may be learnt that way. Some of the best advised of those making changes of this sort are 'buying their power units from engine builders, though, of course, the most famous makes of engines are not available for any other than the chassis of I the firms that design and build them. I Again, there are ;J~es of firms fitting ! a six-cylinder engine to a chassis that i has formerly had a four-cylinder one, or I which is of the same type as a former four-cylinder chassis but slightly longer. I Because a company builds a six-cylin-j der engined chassis it is not necessarily of equal merit with that produced by another firm. There is an even more ■ pronounced difference of performaneec in 1 this type than there is among fourcylinder propositions. I have driven some of the six-cylinder engined chassis introduced during the last twelve months, including some of this autumn’s types, and find them slugs, whereas the object of using six cylinders should be to provide a pronounced degree of acceleration. As for sizes, these six-cyl-inder engines are chiefly in the middle class, though there are exceptions of the highest quality in the 1,500 e.c. category. Austria makes a very notable contribution in this connection which should interest the student of design. , Two British firms that will enter the six-cylinder - field are Brocklebank, a | newcomer, and Villiers. Astor, Bean, j Delage, Humber, Sunbeam, Talbot and ■ Woiseley have each already announced one or more quite new six-cylinder engined types, and there are more to come. 1

CHANGING BODY FASHIONS, Undoubtedly body fashions are being changed. Whereas a few yeras ago one could not get a sufficiently low waistline, as it is called, and, in the case of covered cars, a sufficient depth of glass to please most buyers, for 1927 the exact opposite will be the case. Coachwork will have the waistline on a level with the top of the bonnet. The tendency is to design radiators that necessitate the use of a higher bonnet. But, as cars are not built to a total greater height, it follows that the depth of glass panelling is reduced. This does not affect the vision, nor the ventilation. In short, the change of fashion is commonsensible. While the European industry continues to devote at least as much attention to chassis evolution as to coachwork development, it is remarkable that, with relatively few exceptions, members of the American industry are leaving their chassis design where it was, and are concentrating practically the whole of their attention and resources on developing coachwork. Their covered bodies, especially, are now practically on European lines, and bear evidence that experts have been entrusted with providing colour schemes which are artistic and achieve a happy mean between the too light and the too sombre. The leaders of the trans-Atlantic industry, operating on scales that justify the use of dies for producing bodies by pressing, are able to stamp one-piece side-panels complete with mouldings from floor line to roof. They thereby solve perhaps the greatest problem in connection with guncotton, otherwise cellulose, finishes, -which crack in constructions wherein the mouldings are superposed. tions are in India, is a powerful player, and he overwhelmed his opponent in the game. MOTORS FOR MILLIONS. CARS AND POPULATION. DOMINION’S HIGH AVERAGE. Opinions may differ as to whether it is a sign of prosperity or a sign of extravagance, but the fact remains that New Zealand now ranks second in the ownership of automobiles when the number of them is calculated per head of the population. The latest figures available put the United States of America easily at the top of the poll, the number of people per motor vehicle (including cars, trucks, and buses, but not motor-cycles, working out at 5-6) This is accounted for by the number of car factories in the states and across the border in Canada. In the States ears are cheap, but the fact that at least one person in six can afford a car must reflect the prosperity of the populace. Then, too, the fact that in the States the instalment system of payment is very prevalent and is applied to automobiles as well as to sewing machines, gramophones, and kindred articles, must be taken into ac- ■ count. The Dominion comes second on the list, equal with Canada, the two countries each having one motor vehicle to just over twelve persons. These figures do not differentiate betwen pleasure and business motor

vehicles; certainly in a young country like New Zealand the automobile is in many cases indispensable—the Dominion’s mighty fleet of well over one hundred thousand cars is not all used to carry golfers to the links. The rate of increase in the Dominion’s population and the annual importation of cars seems more or less to be balancing each other, and for the present the average is likely to remain much the same. Our neighbours, tho Australian Commonwealth, come fourth on the list, almost one person in 20 owning an automobile. The more thickly populated European countries show a smaller average of car owners. Leaving out fractions, Switzerland and Denmark occupy the next two places with an average of 41 people per car; then comes France, with which is coupled Argentina, with 54; the United Kingdom coming next with 59. The order in which other principal countries come in is as follows: Sweden 76, Belgium 81, South Africa 110, Holland 128, Ireland 141, India 325 Italy 340, Mexico 350, Brazil 4«7. Japan has but one car for every 2477 of the population, and Russia one for every 5567. The figures for China, which, of course, cannot be compared with any fairness, work out at about 30,000 of population for each motor vehicle. DRIVURSELF. The latest American motor-car notion is what is called a Drivurself Corporation. It is establishing depots at wliich motor-cars can be hired for as long as they are needed. You take a ear to drive yourself, and use it as long as you like to go where you like, and when you have finished you return it, and pay so much a mile, as indicated by the taximeter. You need not take the hired car to th© depot from which you took it. You can drive from Philadelphia to Washington, and leave it at the Washington depot. The charge covers insurance as well as petrol, and is quite inclusive, so that one has not, like the owner-driver, to bother about garage, repairs, cleaning, and so forth. NEWS AND NOTES. An engine which is prone to oil-up the sparking plugs is frequently a cause of annoyance. Tho best precaution to take, is to replenish the oil in the sump “a little and often,” keeping the level as low as is compatible with safety. When a plug is known to be oiled up the high-tension wire should be detached and held a short distance from the terminal, when the engine is running, allowing the spark to jump the gap. This is nearly always successful, but in case of failure the plug should be removed and washed out with petrol, if necessary being dismantled and cleaned with a rag. On some ears the use of external spark gaps, sometimes called “intensifiers,” will prevent plugs from being oiled up. A radiator that neither leaks nor discharges freely through the overflow pipe should be drained off more frequently than one that requires frequent addi--1 tions of water. If the cooling system has a habit of discharging water through the radiator overflow pipe when the engine first warms up, the system will keep exceptionally clean because sediment is likely to be forced

upward as the water bubbles upward to overflow. Whether an exhaust is an annoyance depends largely on the shape and size of the exhaust pipe, particularly at the end. A large pipe round to the end, makes tho exhaust like a Gatling gun. Equally unpleasant is the exhaust pipe that is pinched at the end. It gives a boat effect, and a sound of rushing gases. The best arrangement is obtained by pinching the end of the exhaust pipe just a little. Try listening to exhausts and noting the sound resulting from different shapes. On some old cars the teeth on the run of the flywheel become so worn that the starter pinion is unable to “swing” the engine. It is an expensive job either to have new teeth cut in the wheel or to have a new toothed ring fitted to the wheel. So it is advisable when “looking over* ’a second-hand car previous to purchase to examine the starter pinions thoroughly. If this is not done, the buyer may precipitate himself into premature expense.