The Motorist.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 741, 19 May 1904, Page 14

The Motorist.

(By

“Petrol.”)

The afternoon runs of the Auckland Automobile Association were resumed on Saturday last. Owing to the short notice given to the members only six cars turned out. The run was from Svmond Street through Onehunga and Mangere to Otahuhu. Afternoon tea was taken at the Criterion H ° te } - , The roads were in finer condition, but there is immense room for improvement, lhe following took part in the run Mr Leyland and party, 9 h.p. Darracq ; Mr Stuart Milne and party, 9 h.p. Darracq ; Mr Chambers and party, 12 h.p. De Dion ; Mr Cleave and visitor, Oldsmobile ; Mr Cleave, i unr- > al }d visitor, Locomobile ; and Mr McCoskrie and visitor, 3A h.p. Star. It is to be hoped that a bigger muster will attend the run next Saturday., Cars will meet at Dr. Raynor’s residence, Symond Street, at 2 p.m.

A good run was made on Saturday last by Mr Will Atkin with a new Vauxhall car. Leaving town at 9 a.m., it was decided to run out to the residence of the Hon. E. Mitchelson on the West Coast. The distance is about 38 miles, and the road beyond Waimauku is described as atrocious, hills and ruts being the order of the day. The car came successfully through the test, and returned to town on Sunday, and has now the honour of being the first motor to reach Mr Mitchelson’s West Coast dwelling.

The Queen has recently developed a keen enthusiasm for motoring, and is said to have decided to buy a car for herself.

Mr Andrew Carnegie is having a fireproof garage built in New York of marble and brick, costing £4OOO.

The annual general meeting of the members of the Auckland Automobile Association will be held at the Club Rooms, Queen Street, on Wednesday, May 25th, at 8 p.m. Nominations for election of officers for the ensuing year should be forwarded to Mr Arthur Cleave, hon. secretary, on or before Monday, May 23rd.

The motor event of the week has been the arrival of the two 1904 models of the 12 h.p. Darracqs to the order of Dr. Purchas and Mr A. Cleave. Even the agents, Messrs Skeats and Bockeart, are surprised at the wonderful improvements that have been made in this year’s models. I had a run on Sunday in one of these 'cars with temporary seats rigged up, and I must confess it was the most enjoyable ride 1 have had. Space was simply, annihilated and the smooth running was delightful. ' Or>e of the most original things about their construction is the “chassis cuirasse,” in which the pressed steel frame is extended in the form of a broad flange or web to act as a support for the engine and gear box in the place of the usual secondary frame. It is pressed out of one plate, which is subjected to a variety of operations in a powerful and costly press of special design; a rectangular piece being cut out to receive the motor and gear box, and then the plate is pressed with U shaped side members and folded up to join the cross pieces. The broad webs and absence of joints give a remarkable stiffness and strength to the frame supporting the mechanism and protecting ,it from dust

and mud. At the same time it is very light. The design of the frame is also new. In the old types the straight frames had, of course, to, allow of sufficient clearance for the propeller-shaft and defferential, but in the new cars the frame curves down from the back, where it has to give this clearance, and thus from the defferential forward it is some inches lower than usual. The carriage body is, of course, straight, since it is carried along outside the raised part of the frame. With the tires inflated the distance of the carriage body from the ground is only 22A inches. In the engine the cylinders are cast separately, and the valves are now on the same side, as with the fairly high compressions used in the Darracq motors it was found preferable to suppress the exhaust valve chamber on the opposite side. The sparking plug is on the top of the combustion chamber above the inlet valve. The carburetor is very simple, an’d is composed of exactly seven parts, including the needle valve. It is throttled by a sliding valve which, on being pushed forward, partly closes the aperture to the induction pipe. There are .several improvements in constructional details such as the forging of the sector and steering connection m one piece, and, in fact, the tendency generally is to reduce the number of parts as much as possible. Another good feature that commends itself to me is that the new petrol tank is placed under the seat, and will hold ten gallons of oil.

One of the surprises of the near future, which French invention promises us, is a motor-monocycle.

Belgium, although a small country, collected taxes on 2,671 motor cars last year.

The cost of police protection during the Gordon-Bennett Motor Race in Ireland last year was £3,752, of which the Imperial paid £2,752. *

The automobile is the best vehicle on earth for women to use. It is safer, more convenient, reliable and more efficient than the horse and buggy. Hundreds of women in all parts of the world have learned this ; hundreds more learn the same thing - each season. Automobiling has reached the end of the beginning. The demonsitration/ by pioneers that it is a practical vehicle has been accomplished. It is even unnecessary, after the arduous but successful endurance and reliability trials, that the efficiency of motor cars should be acknowledged ; it has been proved and generally known. Automobiling is now in the process of common acceptation —in the stage in which the-pub-lic adapts itself to the new vehicle, and the new vehicle is - adapted to the varying ’ requii ements of the public. - Automobiles can go anywhere, render any kind of service, beat all other. kind of roah transit This broad statement of their worth applies just as much.to their use by women as they are by men. They are not only the mediums of great speed, of great power, of great endurance ; they are pleasure vehicles—without peer —and may be adapted equally well to the leisurely travel of milady. The automobile is stylish ; its mediums of control are sure ; its responses to the guiding hand are quick ; its temper is even and never ruffled, and it has no fear ; it is comfortable and it is clean ; it furnishes the intoxication of motion without the effort of walking or bicycling ; it is as well suited to the purpose of shopping, callin'? or matinee-going as to the purpose of park or country pleasure riding.

Women have shown that woman can manage an automobile without assistance (as in th<- case of Mrs Thompson from Adelaide). and have also shown that, if necessary, they can care for it as yell (says Melbourne “Punch”). Prejudiced ones may call attention to the fact that women may not delight in fussing about an oily, greasy, perhaps dirty, mechanism. The/ do not have to; the maintenance of the car in good running order may be left to other hands, and still the automobile is just as much under their own supervision as a horse and buggy they are accustomed to use. It is not presumed by the most devoted horseman that the stylish young woman, who drives her equally stylish team and trap in our fashionable drives of a bright afternoon, attends personally to the maintenance* in good order of that trap and team. The oat bucket and currycomb and the hay pitchfork are used by other hands than hers. The rig is hers to use ; its care is for others. It is not a fair comparison between the horse and the motor to overlook the disadvantages of the former in pointing out the necessary care entailed by the use of the latter. Were the young woman in the case compelled -to choose between caring for a trap and team and caring for an automobile, gasoline, steam or electric, doing every bit of the necessary work herself

probably scales '9st 71b, Mprphy. will be in either case, it is almost certain she would choose the maintenance of the automobile. The amount of d;sagi< cable work connected with its maintt :ar.ce is less.

Two hundred and fifty regular motorar road services are to be started shortly in Italy, the necessary cars for which are already ordered. Fourteen of these routes will be international, between Italian and French towns on the frontier.

Another good performance by motor overland from Adelaide is that of Mr R. A. Duncan, who, in a 5-h.p. Oldsmobile covered nearly 600 miles in 38 hours actual travelling. He left Adelaide Adelaide on 27th ult., and reached Melbourne on 30th ult. He left again for South Australia on the 3rd inst.