MOTORING NOTES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 237, 7 October 1936, Page 10

MOTORING NOTES

(By

“Accelerator.”)

PRECIOUS MEIALS

THEIR UTILITY TO MOxOR-GARS

Tiie precious niet_ls are ab- I sorbed io a consiueraoie extent in 1 tiie manuiacture oi motor-cars. Silver is used for headlamp reiiectors, piat.num lor magnetos and sometimes for plugs, uiamonus are used m macii.nc-too vvoru anu electrical components ne. <1 iridium. Tne only prec.ous metal in large-scale production that does not ordinarily enter in v o tne make-up of a motor-car is gold. But gold, of course, is the metal that makes cars circulate. I’AIL FIN STEERS CAR i SHAPE OF A FISH A car shaped something like a lish with a vertical rear fin that helps in steering, the engine tucked away in the tail and the driver right up against the front window is the latest automobile style. Its inventor, the famous French millionaire Andre Dubonnet, says it is no freak. He hopes this model will be in regular production within three years and claims many advantages lor his unusual design. “People have said that, my car looks like a whale,” says M. Dubonnet. “But what's more important, is that, it sheds air as a duck’s back sheds water.” Streamlining, in fact, is the big feature of the newest invention in cars, but by no means the end of the advantages claimed by its ingenious designer. Dubonnet is no visionary about motor-cars. He is an expert who has invented a number of valuable adjuncts. The principle of “knee-action” independent front wheel suspension adopted by General Motors is an adaptation of Dubonnet’s researches. His car design, therefore, commands respect of experts even if it looks funny to motorists. “All such cars will look strange for a time,” he admits, "but a few years from now there won't be any but fully-streamlined cars produced. People will get used to the fish-like contours.” “Fishlike" is a better description than “whale-like,” for the rear fin is vertical, not horizontal. This type of car, carried to its logical conclusion, can, of course, only be perfected with the general improvement of road surfaces, for the new Dubonnet design rides very closely to the ground. Pending ideal roads, however, there seems Io be no reason why the principle should not be carried out with a greater road clearance. The fish-like car has a rounded front with an undershot jaw, and windows all around the body, which curves back to either side from the nose. The “undershot jaw" contains leg room and a very little remotecontrol gear for the engine is in the tail. The door is in the nose, and the hind part of the car really tapers so much like a lish that there is only , room for the engine there. There is none of the body proper between the two back wheels. The body tapers off and into a vertical fin similar to that on Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Blue Bird, but. standing up as high as the top of the roof of I he car. It follows that the car body is forward, mounted well over the front wheels. The engine is small for a car of its size, but is said to permit of .speeds of 100 miles an hour without 'luster and with remarkable economy. Non-Daz,le Headlamps Headlights of this new car have Graded the notice of safety aut.hori-i-cs all over Europe. They are on a level with the hub caps and are mounted in front of the front wheels, one on each side. The lenses of the headlamps are flush with the bodywork, which completely encloses the front wheels. This makes it possible, according to those who have tested the lights to thrust two beams forwards to give a brilliant light on the road surface for well over a hundred feet without dazling the oncoming driver. : The inventor has placed his regisi (ration number plate on the bottom lof the curved front (the undershot- ! jaw part) of the car. He was chaffed I because he had rounded even the number plate to conform with the I streamlining. : “There’s only one way to get the ; highest efficiency out of a motor-car,” Ihe retorted, “and that’s to pay at- ' tention to the details as well as to big I things.’’ DRIVING MAXIMS A recent set of driving maxims aired in the American Press reads:— ! (1) Never overtake a car unless you ; are positive that there is ample space ahead; that means, of course, never on a curve or a hill. (2) Slow down when approaching all intersections, including private driveways, and thus have your car under complete control and prepared to stop. (3) Slow down when approaching any child or pedestrians and thus be be prepared for any unexpected movement. (4) Keep your brakes and lights, in fact, your entire car, in good condition, as safe a condition as when it was new. (5) Stop on red traffic signals and stay stopped until the light has turned green. Rushing signals invites disaster. (6) Come to a dead stop at stop signs because (fib other fellow has the right of way. (7) If you have been drinking don’t drive. Of course you believe you are sober, but the evidence is all against sober drivers who have been drinking. (8) Slow down to compensate for slippery streets caused by rain, snow or ice. (9) Slow down when driving at night. There is no substitute for daylight when it comes to visibility. (10) Always drive at a speed which will permit you to stop within the assured clear distance ahead. If you don’t get in a jam you won’t have to get out of one.

HEFIiEM' EEIROL ENGINE

CAR TO AITWa’ SuO MILE >3 A.. HOUR Two spectaular attempts on world’s speed records are being planneu, states an English writer. Working in secret lor over a year, ; a team ol Rolls-Royce draugnisine.; have been creating designs lor a.. all-British car wiui a theoreticssped of 350 miles an hour. 1 use the epithet, since Sir Malcolm Campbell.. ; 301 m.p.n. is the highest land spee . : ever recorded. The theory of any higher speed must be proved in practice. 3000 li.p. Engine The car will have the most powerful petrol engine ever built, a 3000horsepower Schneider trophy type Rolls-Royce supercharged 12-cylinuer unit, boosted to develop more than twice the power for which it was originally designed. Although the car is already hallway towards completion, the whole scehme till now' has been a closelyguarded secret known only to those directly concerned. The car itself will, I understand, be a super-streamlined, fully-enclosed single-seater, with front wheel drive as one of it soutstanding features. As Sir Malcom Campbell has definitely retired from motor racing on land there will be some speculation as to who has been selected to drive this mightiest of motor-cars. Here 1 must once again express my conviction that the mantle will fall on Captain George Eyston, whose feats recently on the salt beds of Utah have finally confirmed his candidature for the highest motoring honour. In my opinion, Britain has no more capable or consistent driver. And as for experience, he has for years held more world's speed records—in both midgets and monsters —than any other man. The fact that they were achieved unobtrusively in the smallest of car increases, rather than diminishes his qualifications. Super Man for Super Car I gather that the new car will be complete in every detail by the end of the year, and assume that it will be put to the supreme test early in 1937. There is no doubt that the measured mile at Bonneville Flats will again be the scene of the attempt. A final observation is that whoever is given the task of improving on 301 miles an hour will have to double the highest speed he has ever previously made. All British drivers who so far have held the land speed record Parry Thomas, Segrave and Campbell have worked up to it by steady and arduous stages —180 m.p.h., 200 m.p.h., 220 m.p.h., 240 m.p.h., sometimes gaining a mere mile or two at a time, which indicates lhe task which lies ahead for the next recordbreaker. INTERNAL COMBUSTION INTERESTING RESEARCH IN AMERICA Very lew motorists have any idea of the lengths to which scientists in the large manufacturing plants overseas go in their incessant warfare against the problems which beset them in their endeavour to obtain greater elliciency and economy from the internal combustion engine. An example of what is done is shown by an extremely interesting experiment carried out. in the laboratories of one of the largest American manufacturers. A quartz window was lilted to the top of a single-cylinder test, engine so that, an unobstructed view of the combustion chamber was'possible. From this it was but a single step to the use of a very high-speed motion picture camera capable of taking through the quartz top of the cylinder film exposures at the almost incredible rate of 5000 pictures a second. By this means the whole explosion phenomena in a petrol engine were recorded clearly and accurately. While a single explosion was occurring in the cylinder at a crank-shaft speed of 2000 revolutions a minute, which speed in a car gives a road speed of. about 40 miles an hour, 30 exposures on the film were recorded, the time between each two exposures being only l-5000th of a second. The complete filming of the firing of the charge took only 6-1000ths of a second. In order to see what happened in the cylinder while the film was being exposed, it. was projected at a rate 200 times slower, and thus it was possible I for engineers to see from a series of i these films the differences in engine : explosion caused by changing engine i conditions and fuels. The knowledge obtained in I his manner is said to be invaluable, as the engineers were able to see beyond any possibility of doubt those things that before were only guessed.