MODERN MOTORING.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 152, 14 September 1928, Page 4

MODERN MOTORING.

RACING THRILLS. VOGUE OF DIRT TRACK. Dirt-track car racing has made a start in England, and promises to catch the public fancy, judged by the success of the first meeting—held there recently—when hundreds of people were turned away at the gates. In America, where they have been at the dirt-track game for many years, racing on an unbanked course of earth or cinders has been brought to a fine art. This form of car contest provides all the thrills of road racing in the restricted area of an oval or circular track, and, provided that grandstands are properly arranged—as they generally are—the spectators can see every incident in a race.

The roar of the super-tuned cars hurtling round and skidding in the dust, the blackened, begoggled faces of the drivers and mechanics, and the clouds of dust drifting with the wind provide a spectacle such as can never be witnessed on a cement or board track of the older type. The success of a participant in a race in the (i dirt ,f depends as much, if not more, on the skill of the driver as on the speed of the car. Constantly, as they tear round the bends in a more or less continuous skid, the drivers are experiencing narrow escapes ; an over-corrected skid may send them crashing into the inner harrier of the oval. W hen passing a competitor at speed there is the everpresent risk of becoming entangled with the wheels of another racer, while, if a bend be taken too fast, the car, slithering in loose dirt, will be hurled by centrifugal force towards the outer edge, and may well end in overturning. Thus there can be no doubt that dirt-track racing for cars is full of thrills, and the public will go with the same enthusiasm as it would flock to a cinema to see some thrilling flint. The possibilities are that dirt-track racing for cars bids fair to become an open-air amusement for the multitude. . PARKING OF CARS. PROPOSALS IN VICTORIA. PROVISION FOR FEES. In the Victorian Legislative Council recently the Minister of Public Works moved the second reading of a bill to empower municipalities to make bylaws relating to the establishment and control of motor car parking areas, and the fixing of a charge in 1 respect to cars using the areas. Reference to this impending legislation 1 was made at a meeting of the Melbourne City Council, which had previously requested the Ministry to introduce legislation on the subject fol- ' lowing the result of a recent test case.

Mr Jones said that motor cars nowadays provided a serious problem in regard to street traffic congestion. The result of a recent law case had thrown the responsibility on the Government of introducing legislation to enable the City Council and other municipalities to effectively administer aspects of the matter. The bill consisted of five clauses. Clause 3 was the main clause. It dealt with the power of a municipality to make by-laws under the principal Act. To the purposes for which by-laws might be made in regard to any municipality there was added the following:— (a) Appointing in streets and roads (without unduly obstructing the thoroughfares) standing places for motor cars. (b) Providing for openings through any such standing places for any purpose prescribed by the by-law or for cross traffic. (c) Prescribing the conditions on which and the days and hours during which all or any of such standing places may be occupied by motor cars. (d) Regulating the use of any such standing places and the number of motor cars to he allowed to stand thereon, and the manner in which motor ears may be placed or left thereon or removed therefrom. (e) Prohibiting the occupation by motor ears of any openings through such standing places. (f) Prescribing reasonable fees (whether daily or periodical fees) for the occupation by a motor car of a position on any such standing place or standing places, but so that no such fee shall be at a rate exceeding Is per day. (g) Prescribing conditions under which any person having paid any such fee in respect of any motor car may be permitted to occupy a position by the same motor car on any of such standing places at any time or times during the day or the period (as the case may be) for which the fee was paid; and (h) Prescribing the duties of officers or attendants for such standing places. It was advisable, added the Minister, that municipalities should be able to exercise such powers. Under clause 5 all by-laws made under the Act will be subject to the approval of the Governor in Council. TRAFFIC CONTROL. PROBLEM IN AMERICA. HOAV IT IS BEING MET. Every twenty minutes of the day and night someone is killed by an automobile in the United States. More than 25,000 will die in this way during the present year. The total is growing at a faster relative rate than the population. This huge death rate is bringing about harmonised traffic control throughout the United States. The Department of Commerce at Washington is co-operating with State and city zoning and traffic engineers all over the country, in seeking to find a balance between speed and safety.

Decentralisation of traffic in big cities has now been commenced. In Chicago no automobiles are allowed to park in the Loop district, where

Hurra by the way.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ traffic is most congested. Los Angeles is spending a huge sum in depressing one street under another at the busiest crossings. In Detroit, Boston, and other i)ig cities new skyscrapers I are being built to provide parking space for cars. One New York department store takes over its clients’ cars at the front door, issues checks for them, putting them in a nearby garage and delivering them again at the front door at a telephoned request. Pedestrians are now forced to cross streets only at intersections, under control of “the same system that applies to motorists. Driving signals throughout the country are being made uniform. A careful analysis of the delay of passenger traffic, based on a low estimate of the average person’s time, rats the annual loss for New York 3ity down at half a billion dollars. Canada has hitherto reconciled ter traffic by-laws in harmony with those of the* United States, owing to the heavy interchange of traffic. The same problem of decentralisation of traffic is being grappled with in the Dominion on much the same lines as in the United States. MODERN COACHWORK. ADVANTAGES OP FABRIC BODIES. Light, hut at the same time strong and durable, modem fabric eoaehivork is having a pronounced effect on motoring in England. It is this new type of body construction that is largely responsible for the closed-car boom. One of the first assets of this type of body is lightness, and in motoring this is an important factor. Reduced weight means improved road performance. Tyre wear is reduced, petrol consumption is lower, and the wear and tear on the engine less. In some cases the closed fabric saloon is actually faster than the coachbuilt

open car. There are quite a number of misconceptions about fabric coachwork. Some people imagine that the fabric merely takes the place of paint and varnish. This is far from the case. Fabric is used in connection with entirely new methods of body construction representing a very definite advance. Methods vary, but in nearly every case results are satisfactory. In one case the fabric is stretched over a rigid and solid structure of three-ply wood flexibly attached to the chassis. Here the body is entirely insulated from road shocks and vibration. The result is complete silence and absence from body drumming- under all conditions. There are different methods of building up fabric bodies and different methods of suspension, but freedom from vibration and silence are features common to all the best types. On rough roads the smooth riding qualities of this type of coachwork are a revelation. It is for this reason that Continental car makers have almost generally adopted fabric. At the last Paris motor show coachbuilt bodies of the normal type looked quite old-fashioned. The question naturally arises if fabric is durable. It has now been in use long enough to answer this question in the affirmative.

A REVOLUTIONARY DEVICE. THE GE.ARLESS CAR. SUCCESSFUL TEST OF 25,000 MILES. Local motorists await fuller details of the revolutionary gearless car about which some particulars appeared in the cable news last week. It is the invention of a practical motorist, Mr •T. H. Robertson, who has been experimenting ever since the war, and has spent £20,000 in research work. The new gear has been put to a practical driving test throughout Britain of 25,000 miles, and has come out triumphant, experts describing its performance as magical. The car glides smoothly and evenly from rest to to]) speed without a shock, the right ratio being automatically selected according to the speed. Apparently it works like a steam-driven engine and just as smoothly. One of the best features of the new invention is that it can be fitted to existing cars. It is expected that cars with the new device will be on exhibition at the forthcoming motor Olympia, which is held annually in London during October. This invention should help to further popularise motoring with those who now experience trouble in changing up or down, as it will free them of this exertion, allowing full attention to be given to steering, which, in turn, will make for greater safety. It is not to be wondered at that, with such devices as this one, the big improvements made in the style and comfort of modern cars, their improved running economy and their receding cost, this is rightly termed the motor age.

HEAR REFLECTORS AGAIN. SOME TO BE CONDEMNED. The latest information in motoring circles goes to show that the majority of owners have complied with the law requiring the fitting of red rear reflectors, hardly one per cent, of cars being without them. Some of these are large and some small, but practically all are of flat glass which reflects only in a. straight line. It is rumored that we are to be forced to fit a reflector which will reflect at an angle of 35 degrees on either side if directly aft of the car. It must be admitted that the majority of reflectors now on our cars will not do this, and it seems a great pity that some authoritative statement was not made at first as to just what would meet requirements. Many motorists objected to the rule requiring the fitting of such a device, on the ground that if the lights on a ear ahead failed—a very rare occurrence on a modern car—it would be easier to pick up the car itself than one small spot on the rear of it. There is a lot of truth

in this, and by the same reasoning the big expense motorists have already been put to for reflectors has been unnecessary. If it has to he nearly | doubled there will be a rumpus. When it is considered that there are well over 100,000 cars in general use throughout New Zealand, this, at an average of 4s per reflector, represents no less than £20,000 outlay. Quite a tax on top of petrol and tyres, and one which is not justified by the amount of good it can do. It is time that motorists made a combiped effort, through their various organisations, to combat such unnecessary expense.

THE BRITISH CAR, AND ITS REAL HANDICAP. The British manufacturer, like every other, produces primarily for his home market, says a recent issue of the “Field.” He may adapt his chassis to the requirements of his export market, but he never will produce for that market and adapt his chassis for his home market —yet that is just what this argument amounts to. There is a lot of nonsense written and talked concerning our overseas market demands, much of it pivoting on the allegation that we are losing trade there because our cars are not as suitable as are those of America. The clear fact is that the American car is a much cheaper proposition for the colonial buyer, and that if our British cars of equal power could be sold at equal prices there would be no need to alter chassis specifications in any particular. Thi substitution of a fuel tax for a horse power tax would give all the freedon to the car designer that this horse power rating by cylinder conten could achieve, but when it is adopt ed, as we feel sure it will be in tb end, we shall be surprised if it ha any material influence on engine de sign. We do not suppose that it ha escaped the observation of those wh write on these matters that America: motor car practice is approximatin more nearly to European design yea by year. Nor will it have escape them that the European, and in pai ticular the British, motor manufa< tnrer has developed a new type c cheap six-cylinder chassis, the ii tention of which is to combat tl American car, with the aid of prote . five duties in order to equalise cos lof production. The issue, therefor is closing in on a price test, and I will be fought out on that. An somehow, we imagine that the victi will not reap the fruits of victory f( some time after he has been retun ed the winner, so great will be tl cost. At the present time these e port markets are not developing on natural expansion due to demand, bi on a process of forced feeding due the huge over-production in the Am ricnn industry' which compels export tion even at a loss, and also let be admitted to the need of the Britii car maker to find overseas markets order to secure the volume of pr duction essential to the low pric now ruling on his home market.