MOTOR & CYCLING

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

MOTOR & CYCLING

THE HOME GARAGE

PLAN IT FOR EASY WORK

TAKING A PRIDE IN THE CAR. POINTS THAT NEED ATTIC NITON.

i Ry

"Autcoeribe.")

i How many motorists genuinely enjoy •spending a wet week-end running over ! their ear with grease gun, oil-can and spanner:;? Not very many, and there | are two main reason.; why this is so. i The first is that motoring has become • so widespread, and ears so efficient, that i there is less need for mechanical knowI ledge and care than with earlier cars, and the second is that the home garage i its so inconvenient and so badly lightIcd that working there is a tiresome | business. The owners of cars in the early days of motoring had to be keen : on their care or they would find themeelves in trouble. It was essential .to spend nearly as much time running over them as was spent in running on the roads. The mechanical features have been so improved that a brief run-over every few weeks is all that is needed to keep the car functioning perfectly. The unfortunate part of it is that too often even that is neglected. PLANNING YOUR GARAGE. If you are one of those fortunate people who are about to build, you have an excellent opportunity to plan your <»arage in such a way that working there will be easy and pleasant. The diTerence in first cost between a handy garage and the reverse is only a few pounds —money which cau easily be saved later in caring for your car, if you are at all mechanically-minded. Fortunate indeed is the motorist who becomes really fond of his car, and \vho looks on it as something more than a machine which will run miles for him at a cost of so many pence per mile. Greasing and oiling are looked on as boring jobs by the great majority of motorists who regard them as .being the lesser of two evils, greasing, or damage in the long run through lack of lubricant.

A well-equipped and well-planned garage is the first step towards becoming keener on the ear itself, and thus getting greater efficiency from your car in the long run. - Most garages are badly lit, there being perhaps one small window at the far end. When working away at the engine, gay at grinding the valves, nothing makes the job more difficult than lack of light. When a new garage is being built it is just as easy to have a window at each side as well as at the end, unless of course the garage is being built into a hillside. Blinds or sacking can be used if the light is too mudi in your eyes for any particular piece of work. If it is at all possible, electric light should be laid on to the garage, having a lamp which can be pulled down for closer inspection of the engine.

A GOOD WORK BENCH. The garage is an excellent place for carrying into effect those hundred, and one odcls and ends that need doing round any house, and if a good work bench is included, complete with a vice, all sorts of woodwork can be accomplished. The provision of electric light in the garage makes it possible to utilise any spare moments in the evening for carrying out this work. If you can manage it, a few extra feet at the end of the garage, allowing for a good wide bench, and making some provision for storing odds and ends underneath, will be well worth while. The bench should, of course, be made of very stout timber, to stand years of hard work. Having all your tools arranged prominently in front of you, above the bench, is a time-saving plan. This can be easily done by anyone, merely by nailing up a long board, along which are tacked strips of leather so arranged that the tools slip easily into openings. Bolte, nuts, split pins, valve insides and other odds and ends can be kept in separate tins —cigarette tins, being uniform in size, are excellent —and stacked away so that they will not be littering up the bench.

USEFUL FITTINGS. The ordinary style of garage door, opening outwards in two halves, has certain 5 disadvantages. It is liable to catch the wind, for instance, and doors are often blown off their hinges because they were not fastened back. Then, too, unless they are made of specially stout timber they are inclined to warp, making it difficult later to close and lock them. Strongly made quadruplesectioned doors opening inwards are probably better, where space allows them to be opened without getting in the way of the car, but hero the hinges often give way' a little, allowing the doors to drag along the ground. Probably the most satisfactory doors, although of course they are dearer to instal, are those which run along an overhead rail, and open down the side of the garage.* They can be made as heavy as is desirable without any fear of their being difficult to open later, and the solid fittings make it absolutely impossible for them ever to sag. In England metal flex doors, opening upwards (which throws the door along the top of the garage under the roof) are popular, but the writer has never seen these in use in New Zealand. In any case, if ordinary doors are fitted, jt is very dcsira,ble that chocks be provided to hold them back in place. Only too often a motorist opens the doors and runs his car back without knowing that while he was getting into the car the door was shutting.

It is very useful indeed to have a supply of soft water handy to the ear, and it is usually quite an easy matter to trap this from the roof. A forty gallon oil drum is ideal for the purpose. and it is easy to get one of fh«se fitted with a tap. Ordinary water is inclined to leave a furry deposit on the inside of the radiator, but tank water obviates this difficulty. Naturally a concrete floor is most satisfactory in every way, but a wooden floor can be kept in good order if tins are placed underneath the car

into which the'oil may drip. One very good system I have seen used is for two benzine tins to be cut in halves, lengthwise, and the four pieces soldered together. This makes a big square bath, into which any oil from engine or gear box will drip. A similar device on a smaller scale can be placed to go under the back axle, taking any oil drips from there. These can be. held firmly in position by pieces of timber, and the car, being driven into the garage in the same place always, will never drip oil on to the floor. Another way, more simple, but not so effective, is to strew sand or sawdust on the floor, allowing the oil to collect there for a time, and then sweeping the sand out and replacing. Oil does much damage to tyies, and should never be allowed to collect on the garage floor. ' Another thing which should be fitted to every garage, which costs practically nothing, and which often saves o-reat damage, is a heavy chock on the floor, to prevent the ear going further forward than is desirable. Very often the car Is brought in a little too fast, and before it is pulled up damage hasbeen done to both the bench and the car. Sometimes indeed the damage extends to the front of the garage itself. A chock will stop any danger of damage in this direction, and 1 for one would never build a garage without one. j

An hour or two spent in planning the marage and arranging tool bench, etc., will save many an hour when working at the car, and will provide you with such good facilities for work that you will become keen on keeping up your car in ivery way, thus gaining extra, mileage, cheaper motoring and lessened, depreciation.

IRISH GRAND PRIX

GERMAN DRIVER’S WIN. The Irish International Grand Prix, which was run recently at Dublin over a distance of 315 miles on a road course in Phoenix Park, was won by the German driver, Herr Carricola, with a Mercedes car, at an average speed of nearly 85 m.p.h. The same driver and make of car last year carried off the classic English Tourist Trophy race from 65 contestants, covering 410 miles at 72 4-5 m.p.h. The Grand Prix race is spread over two days, the first day of which is for cars with engines of 1500 c.c. Both sections of the contest are decided on a handicap basis, the actual winner of the Grand Prix being the contestant who records the best performance in either division. The handicapping of the race, held around a circuit of 4 miles 500 yards, is according to horsepower, the largest powered cars in the contest having to negotiate the full distance of 315 miles, whilst

the smaller the power the more laps starfare conceded. Supercharged cars were also additionally penalised in their respective classes. The long markers received over 50 miles start and had to cover only about 240 miles. Owing to the limit of speed carrying capacity of the circuit, the big powered cars were set a particularly severe task. Gold cups are given for each division of the contest. The winner of the 1500 c.c. event receives the Saorstat Cup and £l,OOO and the successful competitor in the larger powered section also receives £l.OOO and the Fireann Trophy.

COMMERCIAL MOTORING.

GIANT LORRY PROD!-('ED. It is doubtful if many people realise how much the world owes to the commercial vehicle. Both on the goods side and the passenger-carrying typo, an enormous amount of good has been done by the expansion and improvement in the types of vehicles used. Road transport is almost as old as civilisatioji itself, but it Is only in the last 30 or ■lO years that it has gone ahead in an unprecedented manner. Land transport was first greatly improved not so much by the perfection of vehicles used as by the improvement of the surfaces over which these vehicles had to wvork. Though the steam locomotive has played a large part in the development of transport through the railways, it was the very rails themselves wliicn were probably the most important factor in the ultimate success of mechanical transport. The use of steel rails made it possible to draw loads with tar lees power than was formerly the case on the rough roads that then existed. Today, on a smooth road surface, tne power absorbed by friction on the surface is infinitely less, though in this respect the advantage still lies with the railway. On the other hand, the railways suffered iron, the difficulty that they could never take loads or passengers close enough to their destination. With road transport it is possible to take an article from the door of the factory where it is made right up to the place where it is going to be used without its being necessary to change transport, and it was not until the commercial road vehicle began to improve beyond all measure that this difficulty was finally conquered. Undoubtedly the improvements in road surfaces were largely brought about for the convenience of the private car, and it is only a few years ago that transport companies never iinagined the enormous development which would take place with the carrying of large numbers of passengers and heavy goods on the roads. Recently in England a lorry was produced, designed to carry a load of no less than 100 tons. It is operating in the north of England on special haulage work, including transport of locomotives, bridge girders, etc. All over the world there has been a steady increase in the demand for commercial vehicles within the last few years; notably so since the development of the ‘'giant” pneumatic tyre.

THE SPEED “COP.” NEW FACTOR IN MOTORING. (Emid.jn Motor Correspondent.) A new factor is about to make its influence felt in motoring in Great Britain. It in the provision of means of swift transport, for police officers charged with the duty of making the roads safe for all users, whether pedestrians, equestrians or drivers of mechanical transport. It is true that the mechanically-mounted policeman is no novelty in some towns —in London some of the police were equipped with motor-cycles and side-cars, and the practice' did not prove a success, for it was dropped after a while —but the new “Speed Cop’’ will differ from his predecessors in this important respect, that he will patrol the country roads instead of the town streets. The advent of the speed cop became inevitable with the decision of Parliament to abolish the speed limit, for private motor vehicles, and the raising of the limit for motor coaches and large industrial vehicles. So long as there was a speed limit, even a generally discredited one, the police could employ traps to catch individuals who might be driving to the danger of the public. As it happens, the traps caught, and still catch, the harmless as welT as the dangerous driver, but it was obvious, when the knell of the speed limit was sounded, that other means would require to be found to deal with the dangerous driver. Instead of the speed limit we arc to have heavy penalties for dangerous driving. But it is one thing to lay down penalties and another to impose them on the individuals who deserve them. As the old saw has it, “First you must catch your hare.’- and it ie manifestly absurd to expect a policeman on foot to catch a fleet mechanical hare.

INCIDENT WITH A MORAL. In town the other night I saw a large motor car dashing past a road junction on the wrong side of a shelter. The speed, as far as I could gauge, was about 40 miles per hour. I narrowly escaped annihilation, and the point duty constable could only swing round his head after the manner of a wellknown petrol advertisement before the car was out of eight round a bend. I saw the officer trying to identify the car’s numbers before it disappeared, but as tho rear plate was in any. event badly illuminated the attempt was unsuccessful.

Here was a flagrant case of dangerous driving, but the representative of law and order was powerless to deal with it owing to lack of means of pursuit. If, however, the officer had been astride a powerful motor-cycle or patrolling the road, in a car, the offender might have been caught, or at anv rate his number would have been taken. This incident illustrates at once the need and the utility of the speed cop. Like other innovations concerning the control of road, traffic, the speed cop is an American institution. AU film fans must, be familiar with the efficientlooking American policeman mounted on a low-to-ground, speed-suggesting motor-cycle, who outsrips the fastest cars, especially when the cars have on •board a load of criminals or abductors, and brings them to boot. In his less romantic moments the American speed cop deals with the more venial offences of dangerous driving or excessive speeding, and imposes fines on the spot. This is not film/but fact.

I gather that our own speed cops are not to be given similar license to collect fines on ttie spot.- We still believe in the old-fashioned method of segregating the duties of a magistrate and of a pciiceman, and though the system seems to work fairly enough in the United States, our own speed cops are still to act merely as feeders to the magistrates. Most car-owners will prefer that it should be so, especially now when so many magistrates have overcome then* prejudices against car owners by becoming motorists themselves, and have ceased to believe that the motorist must always be in the wrong.

FINANCIAL ASPECTS. Personally I welcome the advent of the speed cop, and I would commend to his special attention (a) the motor coach that travels at the speed of an express • train on a narrow road -and lurches towards you as you come on; (b) the motor-car driver who hoots his horn at cross roads and steps hard on his accelerator pedal without waiting to see if there is any crossing traffic; and (c) the man (or woman) who breaks any of the other rules about to be embodied in the promised Code of the Road.

It ought perhaps to be made clear, for the benefit of those who imagine that the road fund is to be raided again to any substantial extent, that the intention is not to give local authorities large cheques on the road fund with instruction to enlist special road police and equip them with de-luxe motor cycles and sports cars. All that the local authorities are to receive are grants in aid of motor equipment —a totally different matter. A fairly well-to-do'municipality will be expected to j>ay for its own machines, and less .opulent local authorities will receive grants-hi-aid of about 20 per cent, to 50 per cent, of the cost of mechanising a.portion of their police force. Sparsely populated districts will receive higher grants, just as they do in the case of roads, but obviously there wilt be little need for speed cops in areas traversed by only a dozen cars a day, or less. It is to be hoped that tho Transport Ministry will make it a condition of the grant that the cars or motor-cycles to be placed at the disposal of the speed cops are only used for the purpose intended. Any attempt to use motor-cycles or cars for pur-

poses unconnected with the maintenance of conditions of safety on the road would amount to a broach of faith with those who contribute to the road fund, from which part of the money for the machines is to be taken.

TOURIST TROPHY RACE. NEW CONDITIONS THIS YEAR. The Tourist Trophy race, the greatest race for all types of “sports touting cars, held in Great Britain, will be run to-day on the Ards circuit at Ulster, near 'Belfast, Ireland, and as usual has attracted the world’s greatest drivers ami some of the finest cars of the six leading motor manufactuiing countries. This great motor contest, which is organised by the Royal Automobile Club of Great Britain, is conducted on a handicap basis, the handicaps being worked out so that the smallest car stands as good a chance of winning as its bigger rivals. Last year G 5 cars competed and after a desperate struggle over the 410 miles course of a tricky 13 2-3 miles circuit, including IS bends and three bad turns, victory went to R. Caracciola (this year's winner of the Irish Grand Prix) at an average speed of 72.8 miles per hour. Certain alterations to the rules have been made for this year’s race, in which the entries are limited to 70 cars, this being considered the maximum number of. cars that can safely be allowed on the course. Instead of all starting at the same time, as in previous Tourist Trophy races in Ulster, the rules this year provide a time allowance as well as a distance handicap. Cars will be despatched in batches according to their sizes and handicap. Cars will be dispatched in batches according to their sizes and handicap. Another new rule is that female attendants will be x allowed to assist in the pits. It is estimated that at least 500,000 people witnessed the race last vear.

MODERN IMPROVEMENTS.

POWER OF ACCELERATION.

Modern automobile engineering practice has tended towards increasing the efficiency, speed and smoothness of operation of the internal combustion engine with remarkable success during the last few years. In the old days of single-cylinder engines one could only get smoothness by using a heavy, flywheel to carry the shaft over the nonpower strokes of induction, compression and exhaust. Two and four cylinder engines have a more constant torque, whilst “sixes” and “eights’’ have affected a further big advance in this direction. And with each advance it has been possible to reduce the weight of the flywheel. In the case of an “eight” the flywheel need be little more than a clutch housing. The result is that sluggishness in acceleration, due to overcoming the inertia of a heavy flywheel, has been minimised, and the great—perhaps the most importantadvance of the multiplicity of cylinders has been the tremendously increased power of acceleration, which may be obtained even under considerable loads.

WHAT MOTORISTS MAY PAY.

OWNERSHIP OF FOREIGN CAR

In addition to the new petrol tax the new Customs duties tax the motorist severely. Duties on foreign cars show an increase of 32.8 per cent,, and on British cars 18 per cent. In an official statement issued by the president of the North Island Motoi Union, Mr. W. A. O’Callaghan, and the president of the South Island Motoi’ Union, Mr. E. A. Ansell, it is declared that “a motorist owning and operating a new foreign car will, if the Prime Minister has his way, be called upon to pay by way of taxation in the first year he owns a car, no loss than £162 8s Id, as under: — (On a car valued-for Customs at £213.) £ s. d. Duly •• • 85 4 0 Body duty 33 12 0 Surtax 26 14 7 145 10 7 Registration fee 1 0 0 Annual license 2 0 0 Plates and driver's license 7 6 Petrol tax and duty on tyres and oil . 13 10 0 Total 162 8 1 (Note. —Since this statement was prepared. the petrol tax has been reduced by one-seventh.) “The buyer of a uew British car declared at £275, will, under the new tariff,* have to pay in. the first year £B3 7s sd.

“Last year the gross motor taxation was £3,094,975. The new tariff adds £1,002,000 to the burden, so that this will be mulcted in the sum of £4,096,975, year it seems certain that the motorist which is almost as much as the whole of the land and income tax collected in 1929. Is it any wonder that organised motorists complain?”