MOTORING NOTES

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 600, 2 November 1932, Page 11

MOTORING NOTES

BT

MAGNETO.

Endurance Record. One of the most extraordinary endurance records in the history of motoring has recently been established in France by an innkeeper, who has succeeded in covering 100.000 kilometres <62,000 miles) in a five-horse power baby car of French make, in 10a days. Thus an average of nearly 600 miles was covered every day while the test lasted. The average speed maintained in the run was about thirty-seven miles an hour, and for the three and a half months occupied by the test the driver had only four hours of • sleep each night, spending nearly twenty hours a day in his car. It is a tribute to the reliability of the car used that the most important mechanical attention received by the ear In its run teas the changing of the clutch thrust bearing and the replacement of a broken Spring and several broken wheel spokes. The engine was once dismantled for bonisation, but the deposit was found to be so small that it was removed with a piece of rag. Chevrolet Club. Members of the Canterbury Chevrolet Club wll 1 be interested to learn that the meeting night has been changed from the first to the fourth Monday in the month. The next meeting will be held on November 28, and the evening will be occupied by a lecture by Mr J. Coates, transportation engineer tp General Motors, Ltd. The annual meeting of the club is to be held on February 4. A more general use of the club badge is urged by the committee. Ford V 8 Baffin* Mounting. Much interest has been aroused by the unusual method of mounting the V 8 engine in the new Ford car. Like “ floating ” and “ cushioned ” power systems of mounting, the Ford system also permits the engine to oscillate freely to absorb its own vibrations. Suspended in the chassis of the new Ford at three points, the VS engine Is completely insulated from the frame by rubber. Specially developed rubber mountings of the simplest possible design cushion the motor on the chassis. This new mounting reverses past pro- »

cedure as two of the three points of support are in front and only one la at the real-. The front supports oonsist of two brackets, one being rigidly attached to each side of the front of the engine. The end of each bracket rests upon a. rubber “ half ball '* insulator. This rubber is vulcanised to a steel ring through which each ball Is bolted to the frame cross member. The end brackets are attached to the top of each half ball by a bolt passing into a hole in a metal bushing vulcanised to tjfre rubber. The single-point rear mounting consists of a steel plate with a centre opening, having a rubber ring vulcanised to the plate around the opening. This plate Is bolted to the front of the c.entre cross member of the frame. The rear end of the transmission and the front end\of the torque tube, or universal joint housing, are bolted together through the plate and rubber ring. Thus rubber’ i-n compression Is interposed between the engine, the torque tube and the -chassis frame. The entire power plant, including engine, clutch' and transmission, therefore, is completely mounted on rubber. :-r 'K x Discourtesy on the Eosd.

Discourtesy on the rpad is not such a very -common* thing, .but a member of the Canterbury Chevrolet Club mentioned a very glaring example of it at the«. apnual meeting of the club on Monday night. It appears that, he ran out ofr petrol on the North Road near the Styx Crossing. He walked towards Papanui and vainly waved his petrol can at every passing car. On the way back a dozen drivers passed without offering him a lift despite his request, until at last the Qdod Samaritan stopped and carried hittx tor the remainder of the return. Journey. X % X X.ight-car- Sports.

Once again the light-car events at. the beach have failed for want of an entry. It seems that for the time being at any rate the light-car sport will have to be abandoned. While ope or two firms are supporting the scheme wholeheartedly, the remainder are loth to have anything to do with it in the meantime.