MOTORING

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12087, 16 August 1917, Page 3

MOTORING

CAR and CYCLE NOTES

By "BPJ.RK"

Tho annual meeting of th? Automoll© Association has been changed from vVednesday, September 26. to Thursday, September 27. It will take placei In the Chamber of Commerce Hall. * * * The warning given last week that motor traps would ho set during National Week is worth repeating. Special vigilance should be exercised by motorists in passing the West- Christchtirch School on Lincoln Road about midday, when th ( . children are dispersing for tho lunch hour. V Messrs 0. W. Hervey and .). £>. Hawkes will leave on Tuesday morning for tho West Coast, as delegates from tho Canterbury Council to tho new branches there. They will go straight on to Hokitika to meet the Westland branch there in tlio evening, and will confer witli the Greymouth branch on the following night. * * Mr Tho agitation for the resumption of ■work on the Sumncr-Lyttelton road is tfmelv, for the port is now completely cut off by road, the Dyer's Pass route bring in a disgraceful stato of disrepair. Thp Automobile Association feels very strongly on the matter, since it voted its £l5O on the definite understanding .that the work would be completed. The Mayor, who will leave lor Wellington to-night, intends to make strong representations on this subject as well as on the matter of the trainway lay-out in Cathedral Square. ». * Tho Automobile Pierrots have fixed Thursday. Friday and Saturday, September 27, 28 and 20, at the Opera House, for their C'hrislchurch appearances. and the proceeds will be handed over to the Red Cross. 1 lie concerts will be produced by Mr I?racy Wilson, under the tcgis of the Canterbury Automobilo Association. The concerts promise something quite out of the ordinary as far as amateurs are concerned, and actually approach a, professional standard. At Loburn the company obtained over £55, which was handed over for trench comforts. * * * The rush of raco traffic, with its numerous visiting cars, brings forcibly home the need for traffic regulation. Standing in Cathedral Squaro yesterday with the motor inspector (Mr H. Macintosh) one could see minor breaches of traffic rules committed on every hand. For instance, the driver who pulls up "offside" at a hotel entrance gives himself away quickly as one probably possessing no certificate of ability. City drivers aro all warned to pull in on their proper side, at all entrances, and a man who pulls in to discharge his passengers from thp right side is a nuisance and a menace to others. If a driver cannot discharge and take up from the near side ho .is strictly speaking offsKlc in any squaro pr thoroughfare, although tho rule may be varied in odd corners. • • * Another difficulty' is caused by the Iramlines- running from the Riccarton 'terminus past the post office, where the trotting trams travel. A.s cars travelling from tho A.M.P. buildings towards tho Bank of New Zealand are forced liv the trams to come between tho rails and the post office corner, thus meeting an outward stream of traffic going towards Worcester Street west. Tho fact that Cathedral Square is a tramway terminus is never more forcibly brought home than during raco week. # * » It is pleasing to note that the Australian manufactmer i- ; holding his own with overseas production at. least in one direction. Heretofore all Ford cars pupped to Australia by the Canadian 'ii r o,n P ;ui . v .have, come out fitted with tyre* which was a direct loss to In iV''S' n tyi '° Illakers - The DunJop Rubber Company of Australia has '+v! < ' on : h ± f ' ugemcnts whereby the next uOOO Fords coming into tlio Commonwealth will all bo shod with Bunions in this country. This is easily i e nnnff- st tyi \° ihi L Tfi and lubeSj yelt lnado ™ this pait of the world.

An article tl , e Jatcß( "Acir Zralnml IVlioclii,-;" dnsoi-ibos uhat is claimed to bp the first tihreepasscnger electric cabriolet to ho imported to ISew Zealand. This vehiclo has been obtained for the use of the } enmston City Council. While it ma y be strictly speakmir the first "cabriolet impoitcd, it is by no means tlio first, nor th 0 second, electric- vehicle of n,s kind in Ncn- Zealand. The present. three-seater runabout of Mr Stark the city electrician, has been in Christ! church for several years, ivhilo electric "waggons, as was pointed out some weeks ago, are becoming more and more numerous m Christchurch, where tjiey are very suitable for the even coin'" of the flat roads. "Wheeling" sutos •that the electric I*3 the ideal car for the medical man, in that it is absolutely dean, dust/ess ,nnd greaseless. It is like a private room, and there is 110 o'-'mg "p or cranking up. Electrics have become extremely popular among the medical profession and society ladies in America, because of their easy control, cleanliness, silence :in d freedom from probability 0 f trouble. Electricity lights, stars and drives the c;ir, which lias a nice steady, silent pace on flat roads and is an ideal road climber. ♦ » * The vibration on motors travelling over uneven surfaces, or at a rapid rato on the best of roads, is so great that frequently nuts and bolts, screws, and sometimes tools and spare tyres, are loosened and lost. The rush of air and the noise of the engine, transmission, and of th e car .itself, is so great that all other sounds aro drowned, and therefore the occupants have 110 warning that something is loose, unless the rattle is very pronounced. The practice of some motorists is that when a lengthy and fairly steep hill is reached the engine is declutched and stopped, and the car allowed to coast down the slope. Any foreign nois o may then be heard, and from its nature the driver will .invariably be able to determine whether it requires immediate attention or if it can be left until tha next halt. The engine is restarted by the impetus of the car, the clutch being gradually let in before the machine reaches the foot of th© lull. * * * The more or less general deterioration of the roads in many parts of England, due to very heavy military traffic, and also to the curtailment, in the expenditure of maintenance money, is, in the opinion of " Motor-cycling," hastening the coming of the spring-frame machine in Great Britain. Manufacturers accustomed to tho comfort of the magnificent surfaces of England's pre-war roads questioned the necessity for providing any means of eliminating the slight amount of shock and vibration that accompanied riding 011 these roisd.s, contending that development in tiiis direction would bo of the luxurious rjudier tluiu thcj essential aide.

The first motor-cycle taken up dn an aeroplane was a flat-twin 2i h.p. Indian, as part of the equipment of the air scouts being incorporated with the American Army. The idea is that the. pilot will, on alighting,' be able immediately to make his way into country which does not permit a landing, the machine to always be used as an adjunct to the aeroplane. * » In the matter of'lady motor-cyclists, New Zealand must be far ahead of Australia, for the latest issue of the Sydney "Referee" acclaims Mrs F. Paape an entrant for a reliability trial held last Saturday, as tho first lady who has competed in tho State, and possibly in the Commonwealth. She_ is described as an expert motor-cyclist, and rides an Indian. It is at lea,st four or five years since a lady first competed in New Zealand. This was Miss Hines, of Christchurch, who rode an Indian in a petrol consumption tes't. Since that time, however, many ladies races have been held, although no speed records have been made. * _ Upwards of forty motor-cycles, some with side-car attachments, started from Melbourne at 0 p.m. on l'riday. August despite every indication of unfavourable weather conditions, on tho A dorian Motor-cycle Club's continuous reliability run. The distance travelled by the various machines varied according to their powers, a.s also did the average speed to be maintained during the all day run. The miles negotiated ranged from .'3BO up to miles. At the conclusion of the test twelve, contestants finished within time, but, as all the control checking returns were not availaide. the success)ul riders will not be known until a later date. Iho riders who srot through on time are as follows : - J A. Gunn, 1). Tavlor. J. I). Reid, H. S. Godfrey, A. L. M'Call, L. Bonn (all on 7 h.p. Indians). E. C. Tyler (4i h.p. I*.S.A.J. W. S. Clarke. (7 h.p. Excelsior), G. F. Wright. 11. A. Parsons, J5. MTlelland. F. L. Yott (all on 7 h.p. Harley-Davidsons). At least eight other competitors completed the course in reasonable time, but lost points at various stages. An interesting feature of the run was a teams section limited to three contestants on the same make of machine. The successful team is likelv to bo Messrs H. A. Parsons b. G. Wright and F. L. Yott on HarleyDavidsons. *** Owing to the high price of petrol in England—even when it i.s obtainable, for the supplies are limted to motorists of all classes—the use of coal gas as> a motor fuel is increasing for a. certain class of work in England, and the present difficulty of obtaining petrol may lead .to even greater attention being given to this subject. Various English motor bus companies are now testing various devices for the carrying and use of coal gas. The chief difficulty i.s tho storage required tor the gas. The capacitv of tho various holders varies from 2oo'to 930 cubic feet, the. former giving the propelling power equivalent to about one gallon of petrol. With gas at os per 1000 feet and petrol at from 2s to 2s oil per gallon, it will bo seen that the coal product- is considerably cheaper. An instance of this is cited in the motor vehicles running between London and Eastbourne. They run the double journey, 130 miles, on 4(100 feet ot gas, the reservoirs being refilled at. various points en route. The cost of the gas is 18s. On petrol it vi.uld run into 40s. A Ford car fitted up with 200 cubic feet, capacity gas hag carried on top of a rigidly fixed hood is smother instance of the application of gas fuel. This car runs seventeen milos at a cost ol (id for fuel. It will therefore be seen that for commercial purposes there are big possibilities in the use of coal gas, and no doubt further developments may be looked for in this direction. V Although petrol traction is only in its infancy, and can hardly be sukl to have completed its first quarter o a <"c tury. vet it has existed long enough to make it absolutely certain that .sooner or later the horse must go, says "Steering Column" in the 1/cndei. Taken from every standpoint, the motor is superior. It is a tireless servant, capable of exerting its full power for twenty-four hours a day. It does not take fright and bolt, nor does it requnro 'food and water when not working. Its first cost is greater, but it will do twice and three times as much a.s .a horse in the same time, and it used commercially. will pay ior itsolf in a> voiy shoit* space of time. From tho sanitation aspect alone the horse should bo dri\en from the streets of a city and bo replaced by the motor. Putting the question of utility aside, there aro very grave reasons why the horse should be eliminated from the cities. Apart irom the necessity of keeping a largo army of street sweopers in busy through fares, there is the question of stables as a breeding ground of disease, llealtb authorities will tell von that the cradle of the common housefly is the stable, and that this little pest is responsible for a great deal of disease and infant mortality. In tho United States there is evci-y year a campaign of " Swat tho flv." It is laudable enough as far as it goes, but it has no preventive result. Ono might just as well endeavour to kill a rose bush by plucking a leaf. To swat the fly" effectually there must ho no manure heaps, and therefore no horses stabled in the midst of a thicklypopulated area, but as the mileage covered by a horse in a. day is strictly Inni ted, it is not practicable to keep "the four-legged motor very far from his work. V resigning engineers are now apparently satisfied with the exterior lines of the car, says an American writer, and are devoting some of their attention to the interior of the machine. W hen an automobile is occupied it i.s the homo of the passengers, and everything that tends to mako these occupants more comfortable is a step in advance in the art of automobile designing. Tho first, thing done when attention was devoted to"tho interior of the car was to lengthen the wheel-base, but the trouble hero was that it tended to make the car heavier, when the demand was constantly growing for lighter machines. Between the shorter engine and longer wheel-base plenty of loom has now been secured, but'faho question that remains is the scientific distribution of that room. In tho fivepassenger machine tho question is easy of solution. There are but two compartments to bo taken caro of, and it is easy enough to allow plenty of room in the tonneau withtfab crowding the driver's compartment. With the sevenpassenger roadster or sedan the problem presents more difficulties. In the seven-passenger car the concealment of the extra seats has given, a wide field for inventiveness. Some are in tho back of the front seats, some under carpet, and others merely fold to ono side. Tho latest plan is to fold them back under the rear seat. In tho roadster the question becomes one of seating the greatest number of people in the most comfortable manner and at) the same time maintaining the more or less racy lines of tho roadster. The first roadsters or runabouts were made so as to seat three peoplo in a single seat. As a result these bodies were rather wide and could not be given tho racy lines desired. The next step was to preducq soiEcthinjj; whjeia seated tho

three passengers and allowed the narrow body. The cloverleaf, of course, has jthe seats in the form of a tihrocleaf clover. Jn the staggered seat type the driver's seat is somewhat in a(dvunce of 'the other, which holds two people. The sedan is really the car of comfort. A great many experienced niotorist3 f.ivour them encb year for touring. They combine all the admirable features of a touring car and most (enf 'ttke (ceaaiairta «ti -a closed cax,.