THE MOTOR WORLD

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17026, 27 April 1923, Page 3

THE MOTOR WORLD

Notes and News by

"Radiator."

The growing popularity of the closed type of body for motor-cars in America can be gauged rrom the fact that over 348.000 Fords were sold in the United States last year with Coupe or Sedan bodies. Ihe English Dunlop Tv re' Compa-nv has erected a £5,000.000 plant at BiP~ ialo (America),’ which will start off with an output of 3000 motor tyres a day. When workinig to the limit, the huge plant will be capable of making 13.000 motor tyres daily. This company has now large factories in England, France, Germany and America. A i officer stationed at Cologne, in Gei :ian\ , reports that he wag recently successful in purchasing a brand-new two-seater car. with electrical equipment, including engine starting, lor two and a half million marks, which at the rate of exchange ruling worked out at £l4 in English money. Bicycles are considered dear at £l,‘ whilst the price of a motor-cycle is from £3 to £4 in English money. An adjustable back for the seat of a motor-cycle side-car seems to be a good idea, for while some passengers like to adopt a very reclining position °t , 1 IePS not find it. at ml comfortl able. The mechanism for altering the tilt is quite simple, and can be opera tea trom the passenger's seat, and it has been found that a small alteration will give relief to the passenger on a long journey. An English motor-cyclist named C. M ilson has driven a side-car outfit with passenger aboard 1000 miles on the road in 48 hours, and a deal of pub Ic,tv *to the performance. As a ieat of‘physical endurance it was a long time to sit in the' saddle, but is a long way behind the late Harold Parson’s’ great feat, of cramming 1114 miles into -4 hours on a Dunlop shod Indian Scout over a road circuit in Victoria, in August, 1920. Again, the recent performance by t-he South Australian motor-cyclists. C. Korner and A. Smith, aboard a Henderson sidecar outfit, when . thev motored- from Sydney to Adelaide. 1280 miles, in 44 hours 15 minutes, is an infinitelv superior record to the English 1000'miles run of AYilson.

Messrs J. L. Burton and W. Bradley met with misfortune in their attempt to cross Australia, from west to east per motor-car in record time. A hue performance .was recorded bv the overlanders up to-Enela, near th e W.A. and S.A. border.’ where the Yauxha.ll was over nineteen hours ahead of the previous record alter a run of 935 miles. An accident .-hortly after leavuig End a rendered further progress impossible, and the trip had to be abandoned. In the eariv part of the journea particularly fin e drive was put up between Fremantle and Coolgardio, the 3b4 miles of indifferent road and tracks up to the goldfields being negotiated in 9£ hours, giving an average speed of over 38 miles per hour tor "this section of the overland trip. As Eucla. Is a most out-of-the-way place ou the Great Australian Bight, Alessrs Burton and Bradley will probably have to wait some time before securing a passage by boat to Adelaide. It was a most unfortunate ending to what promised to lie one of the greatest trans-con-tinental drives y.et recorded. A hidden stump or log in tho long grass probably accounted for the mishap. Certain very important discoveries are being made with regard to luhnVatmg oils. Not so very long ago it was generally thought that the. thicker the oil, as it appeared to the eye, the better it was for lubricating purposes. Laboratory tests have proved that actually the opposite is the case, and that a thin oil really lubricates better than on© that is thick. The reason is not far to seek. Most thick oils nowadays lose a great deal of their viscosity when thev become hot, whereas the latest brands of lubricant aie thin, whether they are cold or warm. In other words, their viscosity does not vary with their temperature, and this scientific achievement will, in all probability, do away with one of the greatest bugbears of whiter’ motoring—that

of engines which gum up so that thev are too stiff to turn over with the starter-motor if they have been stand mg during the whole of a winter’s night. USE OF ALUMINIUM. That, aluminium will be used to n much greater extent in automobile construction in. the comparatively near fu- J ture is indisputable. Despite its J already extensixe employment by the . metal industry, if is still a new material from the standpoint of general en- j gineering. The motor-car and aircraft stimulated ' ite production: made it worth while to , invest the very large sums that are ! necessary for setting up an aluminium smelting works, and the world’s capacity for making the metal is to-day, for the first time, ahead of the demand. The price is declining, and the producers are—also for the first time—trying energetically to discover new uses for the metal. .Should the metal be adopted in general engineering to the extent which its peculiar qualities really warrant, demand would .stimulate production enormously, and the price would undoubtedly drop to lower levels than it has ever reached as yet. Lower, that ‘is by comparison with the cost of other metals, for the adaptability of aluminium is dependent upon its cost relative* to that of steel and castiron. of copper and brass. Modem aluminium is .so remarkable a metal that its general use for every kind of moving machine and many structural purposes is bound to come ultimately. 'Bulk for bulk it is now in simple alloys as Strong as the ordinary mil s steel oi • commerce, is one-third the | less time with much less wear and tear on the tools. For a long time lack of strength retarded its progress, and. it is only since the war that production of the strong alloys on a large scale lias been, carried on. The strength of modern alloys is not yet realised by the engineering profession, but within the next lew years the activity of the big producers will undoubtedly overcome all prejudice against the. metal; when this happens it will certainly rank next to steel and iron as the most largely used metal and play a most important part in the automobile industry.

TREND OF MOTOR DESIGN. j The- modern trend of European motor ; engine design—fashioned and developed J 1.0 meet the taxation, conditions, and j the need for more economical motoring j j has resulted in the introduction of \ I small, high speed, high compression en - « gi’.ies which are wonderfully efficient- i when judged solely from the point of , view of weight-power efficiency. An \ Australian correspondent to these col- j minis says:—“We have not enough ( experience of the wearing qualities of j these engines to say yet whether the j type will prove eventually successful ■ from the point of view of the general j user. Wo are not at all inclined to- ! wards tho long stroke, low compression j engine, as approved by so many Ameri- j can car manufacturers. This type has ite advantages. It. should wear well, and it should have distinct possibilities for slow- running •on top gear. But this is solely because it is a big engine ; and big engines, besides consuming ranch fuel, have big weight, for the propulsion of which we have again to expend more on fuel. There should, he somewhere the desirable mean between the two tvpesC’ and this may be found | to be very much nearer the engine of j the pre-war days, with the after-war \ refinements in design and material, but without the high speed of the high compression. which is giving a rather fictitious air of efficiency to the modern engine. We may yet have some lessons to learn about its being the pace that < kills. The cost of fuel is not the only / cost of running a car. Repairs and replacements may conceivably eat- up acme of the saving we may make under the head of fuel. It is well to progress warily and not to venture too far along any particular line of development. The happy mean may be the most economical.’’