MOTORING & CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1289, 7 January 1915, Page 31

MOTORING & CYCLING

A motorist who made the run through from Auckland to Wellington gave the time occupied as 23% hours.

A Coventry garage proprietor states that during a week end soon after declaration of war he had sold only five gallons of petrol, whereas in ordinary times he would have sold fifty.

The through road to Wellington, via Hamilton, Rotorua, Taupo, and Napier, is reported in good order.

Guyot is at the wheel of a motor van in the battle line in France. He won much prize money on the Delage in America.

Now that the sea routes are clear, American motor exporters do not think that there will be much, if any, difficulty in getting shipments away, and even now the dislocation that occurred shortly after the outbreak of war has practically ceased.

Last year the total value of cars, bodies, motor cycles and materials imported to New Zealand was £1,021,613. It is feared the war will cause a shrinkage this year.

The Pioneer .Amateur Motor Club in Christchurch intend to inaugurate a Championship Reliability Trial for the South Island, to take place over a course which will tax the capabilities of all the highest grade machines.

Germany is reported to be feeling the pinch of a petrol shortage. Russian victor es have closed the Galician fields to her. She cannot look to Roumania for supplies. No supplies can reach her by sea so long as we command the waves, save through the neutral ports open to her. As the shortage becomes greater, then her mil'tary operations must be seriously hampered. Germany has relied very largely on motor transport. Her dash through Belgium was carried out by means of a very large motor service. The Army is equipped with armoured motor cars of enormous size. We are well equipped, but not to the extent that Germany is. This enormous fleet calls for a constant and unceasing supply of spirit. If that supply is seriously curtailed, Germany’s programme may be handicapped severely.

The Wairarapa Automobile Association has suggested that the Masterton cab stands be removed from the centre of the streets.

There is an outcry in motoring circles in America against the proposed new tax of two cents, a gallon on petrol.

The motor cars attached to the British Field Hospital are doing excellent work in Belgium.

The American manufacturer is going to make a big bid for the motor trade th s coming season. * * * *

The French transport arrangements were so complete that the mobilisation of the ’bus service was a matter of only a few hours. These vehicles were only taken off the streets on a Sunday morning, and by Monday evening they were all on their way to the frontier with soldiers or war material.

Ohakune, at the base of Ruapehu, a fine holiday resort, may be reached by motor.

Some of the 132 motor waggons purchased for the Australian Expeditionary Force have been fitted up as complete travelling repair shops. Each of these weighs about seven tens, and has cost the Federal Government approximately £5OOO apiece. All of them have collapsible sides, which may be raised on metal uprights, so that in case of need the ordinary floor space can be, at least, trebled. Practically every machine and tool necessary for repair work are carried. There are lathes, drills, milling machines —all driven electrically by a dynamo deriving its energy from the propelling engine—and there is a forge in each as well. An immense number of spare parts will be carried with the column, but even serious breakages will not cause permament disablement with the complete facilities so near at. hand. The repair shops have already been submitted to practical tests, and have worked sat’sfactorily. A foreman will be placed in charge of each lorry. He will have the rank of staff sergeant. His staff will consist of six trimmers' and fitters, two blacksmiths, two wheelers, and the electrician.

Robert Peugeot, of Peugeot car fame, is serving as a lieutenant in a French artillery regiment at the front.

Corporal T. L. Gliddon, a mechanic of the British Flying Corps, has received the French Legion of Honour for special service. Gliddon is twentythree years of age, and lives at Hampstead.

So far as the fighting motor car is concerned, there is no doubt that the ordinary mo lor chassis of 26 h.p. and upward, armoured with 5 m.m. compressed steel and mounted with a light quick-firing gun is one of the most deadly weapons. Its speed and easy manipulation enables this fighting car to make rushes, short, sharp attacks, and to retire quickly. These qualities of extreme! mobility more than make up for the fact that the thin light armour is not bullet-proof at short range.

The new motor service between New Plymouth and Opunake only takes 3V 2 hours. The motor is a 35 h.p. Overland, which carries fourteen passengers.

When tak'ng over a new car, ascertain the engine speed at which it is supposed to work best and time your gear-changing accordingly. Most lightcar engines are of the high-speed type, and a change down from top to second on a long hill is best performed at from 20 to 25 m.p.h., and from second to first at from 10 to 15 m.p.h. In the conscientious observance of this rule your engine and transmission will evince much satisfaction.

The motor car is everywhere in this war, and is used for all purposes. There are armoured cars, ambulance cars, wireless cars, X-ray cars, transport cars, field hospital cars, scout cars, touring cars, cars converted into workshops, hospitals, kitchens and every other conceivable service.

Mr. J. W. Stocks, says a notice in “The Field,” of the De Dion Bouton Company, who has secured a commission in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in connection with their armoured car scheme, was desirous of securing a number of really experienced motor cyclists possessing a thorough knowledge of French for active service as despatch riders.

One of the largest works in the north of England had to estimate to give the Government 20 chassis per week. It is going on with an order for 1000 chassis. Other works in England, of which at least one was, to

a considerable extent, previously identified with the private car side of the industry as well as the commercial side, have similarly received instructions to put through a 50 weeks supply on the basis of 12, 10 and smaller numbers of chassis weekly. The aggregate of orders when fulfilled will be well in excess of 3000 chassis.

Just as the motor ’bus driver was a new type in the London streets, so has his class created a new type of hero in war. The man of the moment at the front is the London ’bus driver. At home he may be just a driver with a police badge and a reckless way with the brakes. At the front he is a private in the Army Service Corps, driver of one of the splendid fleet of motor lorries which has made the British Army transport the envy of the Continent, serving in a corps whose services are one of the noblest features of the British Army’s splendid record in the present war.

Those of our readers, says Melbourne “Punch,” who have seen the cinematograph pictures of the ruins of Termonde and Louvain will have a good idea as to the vile incendiarism of the German Army machine. To an enquiring mind the precision of the devastation forces a query as to how it could have been done other than by precise and pre-arranged methods. We regret to say that, inanimate though it is, the motor in this despicable work has descended from its usual honourable status to a means of carrying wanton destruction in its trail. It is now quite obvious that this spoliation of private property by the blackguardly German fighting machine is part and parcel of their pre-arranged plans. At Termonde when the German commander announced his intention to burn the town, the sdldiers brought cut special machines for spraying kerosene, and one exceptionally large one was driven by motor. With the butt ends of their rifles the soldiers smashed in all the windows, and as one set of men marched down pumping the kerosene into the interior of the houses, others came along and threw in specially made lighted fuses. Thus we find that no excuses of any valid nature can possibly be made out by the Huns fop this wanton destruction; it is evidently part of their pre-arranged plans, as they have these special motordriven plants and mechanical appliances for carrying out the dastardly work.