HIGHROAD AND BY-ROAD

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14770, 8 October 1921, Page 15 (Supplement)

HIGHROAD AND BY-ROAD

A COLUMN FOR MOTORISTS. (By “Crank.”) True Economy. It stands to mason that extreme lowness of price in cars 'is not consistent with great strength, durability, and last, but not least, freedom from trouble. The haek-hloek farmers realise this most, where they must have freedom from trouble, or the ear js of no practical use to them. The further away a farmer lives, the greater is the loss sustained in the event of a breakdown of his car. A car that is frequently out of order is really not cheap A I any price. Neither Is there real economy in a cheap machine, which serves all right for a short period, hut very soon begins to give trouble and a rapid wear of parts, and finally needs to he replaced after an amount of work which would have had practically no effect on a superior structure. The actual cost of running a car can only be taken over a number of years of running. How many people realise that in the long run they may spend more money on benzine than they did on the car purchase. Suppose, for example, a ear cost £4OO, and it cost 2d a mile for benzine to run it. The fuel hill will be approximately £fi for every thousand miles run. and by (he lime Ihe car has run 50,000 miles the expenditure on benzine will have cost as much as the new ear. Therefore a car that will run ?0 miles per gallon as against Ihe ear that will only do 15 miles per gallon is saving approximately £IOO in every 50.000 miles. Worn-out Bushes. The car manufacturer lias made provision throughout the car for replacing quickly worn out parts, and unless the car meets with a serious accident ninety-nine per cent of the car remains intact for years, while only a few parts get really worn out. Tho^c bearings and bushes can be easily replaced with new ones, and the sleek or play is immediately taken up. A great many of these bushes arc cont'.nalii running in oil in the engine, gear-box and differential, and these bushes do not wear so quickly. It is the bushes .in places where they are seldom oiled that wear quickly, such, as all spring shackles, steering gear bushes, and especially the steering pins, which are expected to take a terrible strain, and arc continually being abused, and 't is only when the front wheels are jacked up that the wear is discovered. On a late model car all these bushes are usually stocked and ready when required. It is not a very long job to have the pins and bolts r.cbushed, if the parts can be secured, and most of the wear can be traced to Ihe oil groves getting blocked with rust, and dirt through the absence of oil. Metal to metal very soon wears. A little oil will save a big job. Any mechanic will tell you that the garages arc kept busy through the neglect, on the owner’s part, to use the oil can. The World's Best Car. The discussion ns to which is Ihe best car has been going on for years ani'ongst motorists, and everybody seems to own the only one. Really there is no such thing as the world's best, except for advertising purposes. Owners of entirely different cars have each maintained that theirs is the best, and it is clear that just what makes a ear better than any other is, after a certain point is passed, merely a matter of individual taste. Each car will ' always go better by a point or two i than Its competitor .as, for instance, ;ono will go up on top gear, where the other will have to change down; another will ride better: another will go in dead silence, where, another will make enough noise to wake Ihe deoil. Very often the cheapest car in the world will go where no other will follow (in the winter). The fastest car is not the best: thank goodness there is as all the garages would have to close —except mine. New Motor Legislature.

' A gentleman engaged in the legal profession stated the other day that he was looking forward with interest to the motor legislation which is to he dealt with by the House of Representatives this session. He hoped that something would be done In regard to a medical examination of all motordrivers, as there were finite a number ■ driving cars in the busy parts of the city who, on account of the stale of their health or some physical defect, constituted a menace to the safely of the public. Under the present system a person who was subject to epilepsy or who had impaired sight, was considered to he finite capable of handling a high-powered car 'in the busy thoroughfares. Another point which the same speaker made was in regard to those persons who were not financially sound, and therefore incapable of flaying damages to any unfortunalc person they might injure. He said lie had appeared as counsel in many civil cases in which a party claimed damages for injuries received through the negligent handling of a car, and often il had been found, after judgment had been given against Hie ear-owner, that the latter had not the wherewithal to pay the amount ordered. “There arc many people driving to-day who arc only nominally owners of cars, having no more than a £lO to £SO interest in their cars,” said the speaker, "and it is disgraceful that they should be allowed to maim people for life and pay no penalty, simply because they are men of straw.” Although it might seem autocratic to make a man prove that he is possessed of a fairly substantial banking account before allowing iiim to drive a car, there is a good deal to be said for the suggestion from the point of view of the party who suffers injury. Storage Batteries. Mr C. Nisbet, the local Exidc Service agent, brought out, an interesting fact the other day when lie told how Exido batteries were used to help carry President Harding’s voice to the eager throng gathered at the capital to hear his inaugural speech. An ingenious arrangement, known as the amplifier system, was used. This system consisted of an exceedingly delicate apparatus, electrically sensitised, and connected at fine end to a receiver standing in front of 11 1 c President. The other end was connected to immense horns eleven feet in length through which even llisoe on the outskirts of Hie crowd, at a distance of 500 feet, were enabled to hear distinctly every word that he said. The power of this system, which was said to be the largest ever attempted. was electricity. A constant supply of energy issuing from a dependable source was absolutely necessary. Naturally the one source winch could be depended upon duplicity was storage battery power.

After careful consideration by prominent electrical engineers Exiilo batteries were decided upon. Nine Hxi'le batteries were employed, varying: in size from six cell batteries, such as one used ordinarily for motor ear starling and lighting, to a sixty-six cell battery, similar to those used for propelling trucks, tractors and storage battery locomotives. That these batteries did not ‘ fall down on the job" is evidenced by the uninterrupted service they'rendered until the inaugural cercBjonies were over.