HIGH ROAD AND BY-ROAD

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20786, 22 April 1939, Page 28 (Supplement)

HIGH ROAD AND BY-ROAD

A COLUMN FOR MOTORISTS.

DANGEROUS SPEEDS FEET PER SEGO'N'D DANGER IN COMFORT lAll motion vs relative, says EinpVin: a fact it would l)o impossible to dispute. Rut the modern car is so cleverly designed that while speeding j at anything up to 60, 70, or 80 • miles an hour (says ‘"’Chassis," in tlie ; I>ominion . its occupants may repose j in quiet comfort, barely conscious of the tremendous momentum gathered j ;by the machine in which they are j ridirvg. False Impressions No doubt the mere fact that In a oar we can hurry a*> much as .ve please without any appreciable personal exertion is frequently responsible for inducing unnecessary haste- Riding comfort, smooth acceleration, easy control; a'll these improvements , are affecting our conception of speed. ! To counteract these false impressions I we should think in terms of feet and j split seconds. ) For instance, take a car doing 40 > miles an hour on a hilly road, where there is a solid mass of rock rising j on one side of the road and a sheer drop of hundreds of feet on the other. Six feet to the right is disaster, and j at that speed six feet is only a natter of a split second, to be exact, less than one-tenth. Or take a car cruisin*g along a country road at 50 m.p-h. In places there arc cross roads where the view of approaching t raffic is obstructed by hedges or trees. Twenty feet from ' Lhe cross road the motorist can see j nothing of animals or traffic approacb- ! ing the main road, yet within a qtiarj ter of a second the car has covered ; that 20 feet and is directly opposite j the cross road. | We are apt to think vaguely of G. i E. T. Eyston's epic achievement at , i Bonneville as something terrific—3s7 j ! miles an hour. A far more realistic ; • conception of his speed is obtained ; jby stating it as 536 feet a second! j In most of the accidents due to ■ . speed, impatience, rather than a genu- • ine need for haste, is the cause. After all, even if there is a genuine hurry, ; what appreciable difference is made by cutting four or five minutes off a 20-mile journey? Such savings are! never worth while. This does not mean that fast driving j is always dangerous. A driver who realises what can happen within a j split second at speed and concentrates ; on his driving accordingly, choosing lhe proper time and place, is probably safer at 50 m.p-h. than some careless people at ID m.p.h. Car Comfort Lulls Danger Sense The dangerous speed drivers are those who, lulled to a false sense of speed by the smooth, silent running of the modern car, respond too easily to the temptation to increase the pressure on the accelerator, forgetful or ignorant of the potentialities of the 1 tremendous momentum gathering under them. # Too often lhe remark is heard after an accident: “We didn't seem to be | going fast-” There is the whole point. Deception, or in other words, relativity obscured by skilful engineering. For safety’s sake the relativity theory in regard lo motoring could be carried further, so that at all times > speed would be related to braking efficiency, road conditions, and all other circumstances having a bearing ! on convenience and safely. I Thinking of speed in terms of feet ■ a second, instead of miles an hour, would help all road users to a clearer : perspective of road conduct and would prove a powerful influence in ; restraining that ijnpatience which is ’ i the root cause of many accidents. REAR LIGHTS The rear J'ght of a car is a small | thing, yet on it may depend not only ’ ; the safety of the driver and his own i passengers, but also that of other road ; users. Notwithstanding frequent • i warnings of a similar nature in the past, there is still to be seen a surpris- : i ing number of vehicles on the roads 1 : carrying rear lights which are so film ’ as to 'be scarcely visible to over- ! i taking traffic, except at a very short , | distance. Quite apart from the danj ger created by the use of such lights. ‘ j they arc f'-aa inadequate to illumin- ’ | ate the rear number plate—in itself n ' breach of the law. j The R.A.C. suggests that an ineffective rear light and a poorly-illum-inated number plate are often caused 1 by an accumulation of dust on the , bulb of the lamp. The blackening of bulbs, too, is a sign that their useful j life is at an end, and they should be replaced as soon as possible- The club urges members and other motorists to make sure that the rear lights on their car and motor-cycles are kept clean and in good working order, both in the interests of safety and so as to comply with the law.

SELF-ADJUSTING TAPPETS In modem engines, the correct adjustment of the valve tappet clearances is a matter of some importance, but with the current idea of bulldiDg up the mudguards so that the engine sides corne rather inaccessible, tappet adjustment is not altogether easy. Partly for this reason, and | partly to make an engine as efficient as possible, designers have been paying considerable attention to the production of self-adjusting tappets. The hall was set rolling by a rather expensive American model which uses self-adjusting lappets operating on a hydraulic principle, and recently in England there was produced a simpler design which is available for two of England's most po-pular light cars. This tappet combines a light coil spring and a coarse screw thread, and j it is set with the spring under full compression t,o give a clearance of .025in. When the head is released after this adjustment the coil spring winds the head up on the screw thread so that the whole clearance is eliminated. But if the valve stem expands under heat, the tappet head will at once move down the appropriate amount on the screw thread. Thus, there never is any actual clearance, and the valves operate with complete quietness. An ingenious arrangement of spring steel discs in the top of the tappet head prevents 100 early opening of the valve until the tappet, has moved up the amount allowed for by the designed clearance of the standard tappets. DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE Pride, it has often been said, comes before a fall, and a striking -pictorial example of this old saying was to be | 6een on the Main North road, Dun- j edln, recently. Around a corner came - a vintage model “baby” car, noisily j efficient. Close behind, and making no effort to overtake and pass the smaller car, came £IOOO worth of American luxury, a magnificent limousine, driven by an immaculate chauffeur resplendnt in blue and gold livery. To any observer the juxtaposition may have appeared unusual, but when the car came closer it could be seen that "the mighty had fallen,” and that they had a common bond — a tow-rope! TOOTING BAN HEALTH AUTHORITY’S PLEA MOTOR HORNS ANNOY i Mo tor-horns were net sounded in ! London, Rome, Hobart, and “other i civilised communities,” said the ehair- | man of the Melbourne Health Com mission (Dr. Featonby) in a plea for ! the lessening of the grave problem of | city noises. [ If London’s 8.000.000 inhabitants ; could live in safety without car horns , being blown, surely Melbourne's | 1,000,000 could do the same, he said j Noise in all mod-ern cities affect j the health of >he community. f l. i sounding of motor-horns at night an- . noyed people, disturbed sleep pari ticularly of children), and was a hardJ ship for invalids.. A ban on tooting i would merely cause motorists to drive

SPARKS Nearly 180 miles of road in Sweden have been equipped with a system of 1 “aid telephones” for the 'use of motorists and others in case of emergency. Hire cars, which are at present uncontrolled as to fares and operation, j arc to be the subject of a special in- j quiry by the British Minister of Trans- | port and lhe Home Secretary. j Toronto garage proprietor has invented a car which can travel at 70 miles an hour on land and 20 miles an hour in the water. ‘“He appears to be thinking of spending next summer in England,” adds a facetious Britisher. • * * * Noisy vehicles in Holland are stopped by traffic police equipped with noise registering apparatus. The noisy vehicle is given the mice-over, j the recordings noted by the police, j and the driver warned that it must be put right. There is no summons i for the first time; if, however, the j vehicle is found later still to be in an unimproved condition, a heavy fine ! usually results. * * * • A poultry dealer in Rome, whose j premises are next door to a garage, ! bought a tyre pump and filled his turkeys with wind to make them look plump. The story goes that customers flocked to the shop until one turkey burst, and a piece of bone struck an assistant in the eye—and now the business has burst, too. Drivers who are brought before a Cleveland. Ohio, judge on charges of intoxication, careless driving, and I driving unsafe cars, are given the option of sending their vehicles to a scrap-heap or going to gaol them- j selves. This plan was decided upon j by the judge when he learned that I nine out of twelve cars involved in f ' mishaps in one day were mechanically [ unsound. [

Professor Low believes that the petrol-driven cars will not survive another 200 years. “Can't let that worry us much," adds the Motor.