MOTORING

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

MOTORING

SKIDDING ON BITUMEN

DANGER OF BRAKING. GRAVEL ROAD SPEED LIMIT. (By “Spotlight.”) Skidding on. bitumen roads after light, misty rain is often the unenviable experience of those Taranaki motorists whose tyres have worn and lost their side traction grip. The smooth, wet rubber surface of the tyre slips on the smooth bitumen and the rear of the car swings violently. Under such circumstances, inexperienced drivers are inclined to apply their brakes immediately and this merely accentuates the skid. The brakes lock the back wheels and the momentum carries the cai' on in. its skid. In the opinion of experts, the best way to counteract a skid is to leave the brakes alone and steer the car in the direction in which it is skidding. As there is often insufficient room on the road to completely check the carin this manner, there is always a certain decision required from the driver and. in most cases, those motorists accustomed to driving instinctively bring the vehicle out of the skid by adroit steering. # . # * «< The amended Motor- Regulations impose a speed limit on gravel roads—universal throughout the Dominion—of 40 m.p.h. This speed is imposed as a temporary measure in an endeavour to protect the road surfaces. Tire funds which in the past have been available for the maintenance of roads, have been subject to such serious depletion through the Government diverting huge sums of motorists’ money to the Consolidated Fund, that there is not sufficient money in the Main Highways Board’s accounts adequately to maintain roads which have been constructed. Rightly or wrongly—and all engineers are by no means agreed on this point—it is maintained that the speed of private motor-cars is affecting the gravelled or non-dustless type of roads. It has therefore been agreed, that temporarily, travelling shall be limited to a speed restriction on roads of this nature, and motorists are duly warned that if they travel in excess of the 40 m.p.h. limit on roads not surfaced with bitumen, tar or concrete, they will be liable to prosecution. The. Minister of Transport has accepted a recommendation from the motoring organisations that clay and pumice roads shall also be exempt from the 40 m.p.h. restriction. This has not yet been gazetted, and it is feared that there may be some departmental objection. It is understood further representations are being made to the Minister. BRITISH DESIGN. PROGRESS CLOSELY WATCHED. Experiments of a development nature take a necessary part in the production of modern motor transport. Recent activities of the Institution of Automobile Engineers, London, are of interst and importance to the industry. This institution has been in existence for 25 years, and has a membership of 2500, comprising all the leading technical men in the British automobile industry. Much useful work has been accomplished during that period in the dissemination of technical information, and there has recently been formed a research and standardisation committee of the institution, supported by the Government, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and many of the larger manufacturers. The functions of this committee embrace problems common to the industry in which mutual helpfulness is practicable and desirable. Co-operation is possible in two broad directions. In the first place data from British and foreign technical publications- are pooled in a bureau of information which is available for the benefit of the industry. Application to this source of information may save a manufacturer time and expense by preventing his engaging upon work which has already been done, thus enabling him to develop on the ground work already established. SUBJECTS INVESTIGATED. Further, those problems which are fundamental or common to the industry as a whole can be studied experimentally either at the committee’s laboratory or at’ any other suitable research centre. Such problems can be depit with scientifically and quietly in a manner difficult to cultivate in a “trouble-curing” department. A subject which has recently been investigated along these lines at the committee’s laboratory is that of the wear of brakedrum and clutch-plate materials, a matter of considerable interest to manufacturers of vehicles, pressings, friction linings, and similar products. Investigation is also proceeding into cylinder and piston, wear, the results of which must be of interest and importance to the industry. The question of British standards generally is dealt with by the British Standards Institution, with which the Institute of Automobile Engineers maintains a close relationship. Among its activities, the British Standards Institution is responsible for all British standard specifications relating to materials, including those employed generally in automobile construction. The various technical committees of the British Standards Institution dealing with automobile specifications include in their personal representatives of the Institution of Automobile Engineers through whom the views of 'the automobile industry are presented. The standards committee of the Institute of Automobile Engineers is responsible for standards which deal with dimensions of particular concern to the automobile industry. The outcome of the work of the standards department is issued to the industry as Institution of Automobile Engineers standards by means of data sheets, which are, in many cases, amplified by the publication of lists of firms who manufacture and supply from stock in accordance with, such standards. While the results of actual research are available only to affiliated manufacturers, of the institution, all other papers, etc., are distributed to evei-y member of the institution, which has branches in Australia and New Zealand. CARE OF SCREEN WIPERS. ’ With the approach of wet weather, careful attention should be given to the condition of the windscreen wiper. Hand-operated wipers are now obsolete but there is quite a good selection of suction or electrically-operated types available. The double-bladed wiper is an added convenience, and certainly tends toward greater safety. In the interests I of safety, every motorist should make a thorough examination to make sure the instrument is in a perfect condition, wiring or tubing new, and lubrication, suitable for the type, adequately provided.

DIRECTION INDICATORS

“FIT AND FORGET’’ HABIT. BRITISH DEVELOPMENTS. e (By Our Motoring Correspondent.) London, April 13. Direction indicators have been receiving a good deal of attention since the Departmental Committee of the Transport Ministry issued their report on the subject. It will be recalled that this report poured cold water on the enthusiasms of direction indicator inventors and plumped in favour of one particular type only, namely, the semaphore (moving arm) type. Since then the owners of cars fitted with the recommended type of indicator have probably had an access of self-righteousness. My own experience of direction indicators is that one makes use of them assiduously while their novelty persists, but after a time it becomes a bother to stretch out the hand to work the knob or push the switch. It is easier to put out one’s hand and give the ordinary hand signal. But the blessing bestowed by the Departmental Committee on the movingarm signal will probably bring the existence of these accessories back to the memory of owners to whose cars they are fitted. They will no doubt flaunt them as they pass owners of cars fitted with devices of the condemned type, and will congratulatae themselves on their - own prescience in choosing the right kind of signal long before it officially became the right kind. As there is no official ban at present on any of the “unauthorised” types, and as the committee has definitely recommended that the moving-arm type of which they have approved should not be made a compulsory fitting, the motorist whose car is fitted with some other type of signal or no signal at all, can afford to ignore the smug complacency of the moving arm fraternity. In any event their tritimph must be short lived for although the fitting of moving-arm signals is not apparently to be made compulsory, it may be taken for granted that every new car made from now onwards will bear the official type of signal. In this connection I may say that the gesture of one of the wellknown companies in announcing that they will supply and fit free .of charge the new type of signal in substitution of the three-light flashing signal introduced on the 1933 models, seems to me one of extraordinary generosity. SPORTSMANLIKE GESTURE. They have announced that the flashing signal is no longer being fitted to the cars that are being turned out at the present moment, and that all cars now in production are being fitted with the new type. I had my doubts as to the efficacy of their flashing three-light signal when it was first introduced, and their action in accepting the recommendations of the committee so readily and at so substantial a pecuniary loss is a piece of real sportsmanship worthy of the, high traditions of that firm. I ought to emphasise that application for fitting the new signal should be made to the dealer from whom the car was purchased. Naturally all requests for conversion must be treated in strict rotation in view of the large supply of signals required to re-equip the number of 1933 models already on the road. The actual work of conversion takes only about an hour. It is not to be expected that the makers of others cars embodying “unofficial” types of.signal will immediately come forward with a similar offer. Signals of the type used on some cars, the illuminated arrow, have the warrant almost of tradition for they have been in use in one form op the other, for many years. It is different with the latest type of flashing lights, which represented an entirely new departure in direction indicators, and might conceivably be held to create some confusion. As it happens I tried out on the road the other day the 21/60 h.p. Wolseley County model—a make which Sir William Morris of course also sponsors. It is one of the most lavishly equipped cars that I have ever driven, and this equipment includes a direction indicator of the arrow type which is worked by an ingenious switch above the windscreen within easy reach of the driver’s fingers. This direction indicator lights up fore and aft and seems to me a very handy type of signal even though the Ministry of Transport Committee does not give it its approval. But I must confess that for most of my 300 miles I forgot to use the signal. The. R.A.C. Rally was run according to plan and furnished, the competitors with some strenuous but on the whole safe motoring. Night driving with its abnormal conditions proved the greatest strain, and many of the competitors found that reading a map and finding one’s way at night is not so easy in practice as it sounds in theory. With the whole of England and a good part of Scotland to get lost in some of the drivers made the most of their opportunities. The Rally did not set out to prove anything that was not already known, but it furnished many a modest thrill and confirmed probably all who took part in it in the view that there is no hobby like motoring and no possession that can give one greater pleasure than a car. NEW BUSES IN PARIS. Tire Paris bus organisation is to put into service 162 new buses equipped with six-cylinder overhead-valve engines. By reason of their more rapid acceleration and their better hill-climbing abilities the new six-cylinder models, of which a number are already in service, allow of a much higher average speed than is possible with the fourcylinder models. The time-tables have been altered in consequence. The Paris bus company is seeking to raise the average speed of its buses to that of private cars and taxicabs, thus reducing traffic obstruction. Permission has been granted to float a loan of approximately £600,000 to meet the expenses incurred by substituting buses for trams. The general plan, which has been approved by the municipal council, provides for the conversion in five stages, beginning with the centre of the city, from which most of the trams have already gone, and extending to the surrounding districts. » ® a ® To serve a subpoena on Mr. Henry Ford, in connection with a suit brought against the Ford Co. by the receiver of the Sweeten Automobile Co., states the “Motor* Trader,” Mr. William C. Leland, jun., the twenty-four-year-old grandson of the founder of the Lincoln Motor Co., “Gate-crashed” a dance Mr. Ford was attending. He served the subpoena on Mr. Ford before his intentions were known.