MOTORING

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

MOTORING

the dazzle danger TO DIP OR NOT TO DIP? POINTS IN NIGHT DRIVING. y - (By Our Motoring Correspondent.) London, January 5. Night driving, which under the best conditions is an over-rated pastime, has been rendered more uncomfortable than ever since the motoring boom because of the perils resulting from dazzle. In the earlier days of motoring, when comparatively few cars were met with at night on the roads, the dazzle problem was not so acute, because an oncoming car with headlamps shining was met only once in a long while, and, if a driver found himself dazzled by the light, he stopped dead until he had once more recovered his full faculties of sight. Nowadays the position is entirely different, for even on a moderately busy road one meets cars at intervals of only a few minutes, while on really busy roads the procession of cars is sometimes almost continuous. Thus drivers have barely had time to recover from one bedazzlement than they are again blinded. That sort of experience soon begins to annoy, and the temptation is to go on instead of stopping, even though the conditions on the road immediately ahead are obscure. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that proceeding blindly ahead is highly perilous. There may be a deep ditch just ahead or a pedestrian or an unlighted cyclist. There is only one course for the careful driver, and that is to stop as soon as he cannot see the road immediately ahead of him. In such circumstances it it criminal to take a chance. In a recent fatality a motor cyclist was apparently dazzled by the beams of an oncoming 'car, and he ran into another vehicle drawn up at the side of the road. SAFEST COURSE. Curiously enough, another fatality recently reported was caused by the circumstance that the driver of a car had dimmed his lights upon the approach of a commercial vehicle which had similarly cut out the headlamps. In the result the driver of the car, deprived of the guidance of the headlamps, failed to notice a pedestrian on the road immediately ahead of him, and knocked him down. Here, then, are two cases which demon-: strata not. only the danger of dazzle from headlamps, but the risks run. when dimming is resorted to. What is the careful motorist to do under such conditions? It is not easy to give advice on toe matter, for even the dipping devices with which most of the newer models are fitted cannot always be depended upon to prevent dazzle. On many occasions I myself have been dazzled at night by headlamps which have been dipped but which, nevertheless, still emitted a strong enough volume of light to make things uncomfortable for me. It seems to me, therefore, that where even the dipped light dazzles the only safe thing to do is to keep on one’s headlights without dipping or dimming until that particular danger is passed, or in the alternative, to stop dead. The other evening I happened to drive a car, the dipping device of which had gone out of order. I tried once or twice to switch. off my headlamps and rely upon my side lamps, but I soon gave up this course because the road in front of me was immediately plunged in stygian darkness, and I could not see anything beyond my radiator. For the rest of the journey I kept my. headlights full on, and had to run the gauntlet of infuriated oncoming drivers who apparently put me down as a road hog of the worst description. Some of them engaged in reprisals siich as switching their headlamps back to the “straight” position as they approached me, but I determined to lose my reputation rather than run the risk of killing some cyclist or pedestrian whom I could not see, and kept my headlights full on. Irascible drivers who find that an oncoming car does not respond at once to their invitation to dip ought to remember that dipping mechanisms can go wrong. They ought also to remember that a large number of cars on the road are more than , one or two years old, and are not fitted with dipping devices. It is all very well to say that the owners of such cars ought either to have dipping devices fitted or take their cars off the road, but it is only fair to point out in this connection that to fit a dipping device to an old car may be a costly business and that, in any event, dipping has not completely solved the dazzle problem. ACCESSIBILITY TESTS. It is interesting to note that the heads of motor manufacturing firms are not above testing for themselves whether the cars intended by them for the use of owner-drivers are in point of ifict designed to give the ease of maintenance and accessibility desired. Recently Sir William Morris took a grease gun, and himself went round the chassis of one of the cars he sponsors to see whether the claims of accessibility were well-found-ed. I wish more manufacturers would spare the time for such a purpose, for, despite advance in design which has been made in the past few years, some models still leave something to be desired in that respect. The use of oil-less bushes and the grouping of grease nipples has made things easier for the owner-driver, as far as lubricating the chassis is concerned, but there are other components that are not so accessible. Some of the oil filters, for instance, might be made more getattable. It is now generally recognised that one of the essentials towards keeping an engine in good order is to subject the various oil and petrol filters to frequent cleaning, yet this operation is by no means easy on some makes while occasionally the filters are tucked away in a manner that makes the car owner forget all about them. There is also the question of ready access for repairs—a highly important matter from the point of view of the ownerdriver who cannot afford large repair bills. It is axiomatic in the motor trade that much of the cost of a repair has no relation to the actual work of repair. The time of the mechanic is often mainly employed in dismantling perfectly sound parts of the car to enable him to reach the faulty part. Let motor-car manufacturers place themselves in the position of the mechanic sometimes, and try themselves to dig out the starter motor, for instance, in order to replace a broken Bendix spring. After one try they may decide to make this, and other components, subject to occasional damage, more accessible. BODYWORK EXPERIMENTS. I am told of the managing director of a well-known firm of coachbuilders who believes in testing things for himself and who has had a body built for his Rolls Royce on which, for the sake of experiment, every outside section has been treated with different kinds of paint and cellulose. On one side a finish unlike that of the other has been used

and the back and bonnet are different again both from each other and the rest of the car. In addition, various types of locks and accessories have _ been fitted. The interior also is finished in a number of different upholstery leathers. Not many owners of expensive cars would care to subject their vehicles to such treatment or to be seen in them, but the principle is a sound one for. driving the car in all weathers and under all ordinary conditions, the owner can determine which of the varying kinds of finish proves most lasting and serviceable in ordinary use. I .think it would be an excellent course for the makers of quantity produced cars to follow. What they ought to do before marketing a new model is to run it themselves for some weeks, see how the cellulose and chromium behave, how the doors and windows close, and how every other part of the body functions. This would obviate some of the minor irritations experienced occasionally by purchasers of mass-produced cars. Obviously, no maker can afford to subject his vehicles to prolonged tests, and yet sell them at the remarkably low prices at which they are offered, but the modern mass-produced car is so admirable a vehicle from the mechanical point of view, and also in respect of appearance, that it seems a pity to spoil the initial delight of the purchaser by such little things as sticking windows, doors which do not close properly, or obscure parts of the body which rattle. ,

MOTORING THRILLS hurdling nine foot slip. adventures in waioeka, A Gisborne motorist and a companion had an adventurous journey through the Waioeka Gorge one night, last week when returning from a holiday visit to Rotoiti. A beautiful and safe road in fine weather, the Waioeka route presents many hazards and dangers after heavy rain, and there were some unforgetable incidents in the journey on Sunday night. v The watercourses everywhere were heavily charged with flood watei, and all the way from Rotoiti to Matawai innumerable small slips were seen. Turning a comer after travelling 37 miles through the valley, the Gisborne men found tire road, which is at its narrowest at that point, with the outside edge built up by means of a concrete breastwork, completely blocked by a loose gravel slip. The slip was about 9ft. high, and 7|ft. across the top, but as the motorists were not anxious to spend the night on the road, it was decided to attempt the slip. The gradient of the slip was about one in one, and the first attempt to negotiate it was a failure, the car baulking near the top, and coming to a standstill with the carburettor higher than the vacuum tank, so that the engine was starved for fuel, and stalled. The car was then pushed back off the slip, and after it had been run back a considerable distance, a second attempt was made. This time the car approached the slip full out in low gear, and seemed to be about to loop the loop as the front wheels began to climb the obstruction. There was a 50ft sheer drop to the river, and the car leaned over at an alarming angle as it hurdled the slip; it did not capsize, however, and came down with a crash on the other side. Beyond the slip they found another motorist who had drawn his car into the side of the road and camped for the night. As they travelled further through the gorge, the Gisborne men found the road to be strewn with boulders as big as sacks of potatoes, but fortunately the driver had a herculean companion, who tipped the boulders over on their ends to allow the car to pass. Despite the numerous delays, the whole journey occupied only 84 hours, and the car reached Gisborne at 5.30 a.m. on Monday. The driver remarked, however, that had the trip been made in daylight, he would not have been game enough to tackle the slip. Other small slips were coming down all along the gorge road, and frequently stones and rubble rattled against the side of the car as they passed, the motorists running the risk of destruction by boulders falling from above. With the continual movement of the hillside he did not think it possible for any other cars to have negotiated the road after they themselves had passed, for the conditions were steadily becoming more difficult and dangerous. " They and another Gisborne motorist returning from Auckland experienced the full force of the storm which struck the Rotorua district on Friday night. It was a gale of cyclonic force, and the latter described it as the most severe that he had ever known in New Zealand. The Gisborne man was spending the night in a shack at Rotoiti when the gale commenced, and he remarked that the few tents which had been pitched in the locality were quickly uprooted, while the rain also penetrated the houses, which at tunes appeared likely to be unroofed. Saturday morning broke fine, but torrential rain fell later, and on the journey to Gisborne all rivers and creeks on the Bay of Plenty side of the Motu Range were found to be considerably swollen, travelling conditions resembling those of midwinter rather than of summer. Innumerable small slips were seen between Rotoiti and Matawai, and the Gisborne motorist was fortunate to negotiate the Waioeka Gorge before it became blocked. The opening of three of the four bridges on the Otoko-Mahaki section was greatly appreciated, the motorist being glad to avoid the fords at Swarbrick’s Creek, Gold Creek and Mahaki. Italian Driver Killed. The prominent Italian driver Rugger! was killed at Montlhery Track, Paris, recently when putting in some practice laps preparatory to an attempt on records with a 16-cylinder Maserati. With Fagioli he was to have attacked the world’s hour and 24-hour figures and also the international class B 10-mile record, which stands to the credit of the late J. G. Parry-Thomas at 126.03 miles an hour. The accident, the cause of which is unknown, happened just as Ruggeri. was coming out of the western banking, according to the Motor. The car turned over four times, the driver being shot out on the track on the first roll and so severely injured- that he died in hospital a few hours later. At the time of the accident the speed was approximately 130 miles an hour and the car continued for fully 200 yards before coming to rest upside down in front of the pits. It was completely wrecked. This was Ruggeri’s first experience at Montlhery and he appeared to be taking the banking far too low. The lap speed prior to the crash was 132.95 miles an hour. At the time Ruggeri was wearing a helmet, but without a chin strap in place, and consequently it shot off his head as he was projected from the car. Before joining the Maserati concern Ruggeri was several times motorcycling champion of Italy. ,