MOTORING & CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1364, 15 June 1916, Page 26

MOTORING & CYCLING

During the past two and a-half decades many brands of pneumatic tyres have been put on the market. Most of these, unable to meet the demands for quality and endurance, have disappeared from public knowledge. A high degree of science and skill is necessary to produce a tyre that will really stand the test of the road. It is noteworthy that the most popular tyres in present use are those which can be described as the veterans, and in this connection the Dunlop tyre—the original pneumatic—holds a remarkable position the world over. Invented in 1888, the Dunlop has never looked backwards, and today its fine quality and strength keep it in the foreground in all parts of the world, whether it be on motors or cycles.

Few motorists are aware x of what proportion of air to petrol is essential to proper carburation. Experiments have determined that the best explosive mixture is obtained when sixteen parts of air to one of petrol are used. The ideal condition is to have the mixture homogeneous, to have the proportion of petrol to air constant throughout the combustion chamber; but this condition is not exactly attainable in the average motor, because the carburetter will not supply an absolutely perfect vapour. In other words, the first part of the charge sucked into the cylinders may be weak and the last part rich, and only the intermediate zone will be of the correct proportions. Again, there is always a certain amount of burned gas left over from the previous explosion, and this does not mix evenly with the incoming charge, with the result that some parts of the mixture are diluted by it more than other parts.

Every motorist in Great Britain and her colonies (says the “Motor,” England) should know and keep in mind the fact that every British motor manufacturer has what may be termed a “waiting order list.” These are days when every one of us is prompted by patriotic motives, and certainly the motorist will be acting the part of a true patriot when he, remembering the sacrifices which the motor car industry as a whole has been called upon to make, decides that when peace comes he will be the owner of a motor car produced in his own country. We know that in some cases immediate and urgent requirements, particularly those of professional men, have necessitated purchases of cars during the war, when the Home industry, by reason of its present obligations to the State, has not been able to supply. But in nearly every case these manufacturing concerns have their waiting order list, and those whose requirements are registered thereon will have the company’s first attention immediately the time comes for their release from present undertakings. Everybody who can gauge future financial facilities with sufficient accuracy would be well advised to place his name and his possible requirements upon the list of the manufacturer for whose products he has a preference, so that when car building is again resumed his order will be attended to with the least possible delay. There are two important reasons why this piece of advice should not be ignored. If we place the purely selfish aspect of the case first, it will be to the motorist’s own interest. Then we would urge that, for patriotic reasons, the British motor industry, which has been helping to pile up munitions for the Government and engines and vehicles for the services, deserves, and should be assured that it will have, the support of British people, which assurance these waiting order lists will provide.

In connection with the official steps that are being taken in England to secure a reduction in the consumption of motor spirit, it is interesting to note that the Commercial Motor Users’ Association has issued a circular to its members urging them to use their utmost endeavours to save petrol, and recommending, in order to assist in securing this end: (1) that a bonus be offered to drivers,

based upon present average consumptions, to the extent of half the value of the petrol saved, and (2) that an accompanying instruction shall be issued to drivers to slop the engine when the vehicle is collecting or delivering or when a halt (other than in traffic) may exceed one minute in duration. Although these recommendations are addressed to owners and users of commercial motor vehicles, there is no reason why they should not be adopted with advantage by all professional users of cars, such as doctors;' commercial travellers, and others who employ a chauffeur to drive their car or cars. There is no question that considerable economy can be effected in petrol consumption if a little care is taken, which is more likely to be done when it is to the driver’s own interest to do so. Not only can the consumption be reduced by not running the engine a moment longer than is necessary, but in a variety of other ways, as, for example, more care in the emptying of the contents of the tins into the car tank, better adjustment of the carburetter, stopping the engine when descending long hills, etc. A long article can, indeed, be written on the subject of ways of economising petrol, which, although they may appear trivial and

not worth bothering about, would represent a by no means unimportant total, if generally practised throughout the country. The intelligent driver, however, needs little or no instruction on such matters. By giving them the necessary monetary encouragement, however, they can turn the bonus system into a threefold advantage—(l) a welcome addition to their weekly earnings, (2) a smaller fuel bill to the employer, and (3) a reduction in the aggregate petrol consumption which is urgently pressing.

It is little wonder the crack Australian racing cyclists find America a congenial place to live in. Last season Goullet, Grenda, Spears, McNamara, Clark and Walker between them received in contract fees, from promoters alone, the sum of £3900. Goullet’s share amounted to £750. In addition to this amount the above riders won big money in prizes. During the American racing season £21,000 was disbursed in prizes.

Mr. John Wanamaker, millionaire merchant, of Philadelphia, in a letter to the Aero Club of America, has announced his intention to attempt a Trans-Atlantic flight in a heavier than air machine during the present month. Mr. Wanamaker, it will be rememt ered, intended to make an effort in the summer of 1914 with Lieutenant John Porte, R.N., now commander, as navigator, when the European war stopped his plans. The new machine with which Mr. Wanamaker hopes to cross the ocean in one flight is now being completed by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company. It is a seaplane of huge proportion, and will have ten times the power of the old America. Although no details of the new machine are yet published, it is known it is equipped with six twelve-cylinder motors' of 300 horse power each, and will probably be able to make 100 miles an hour, with a crew of six and a full load. It is expected the flight, the object of which will be to make a “purely scientific test of aeronautical power,” will take about thirty hours.

A party of Taranaki motorists recently had a very unusual experience when nearing Toko. The car was being driven along at a medium pace

when a pig ran , ! n front of the front wheel, and the shock diverted the motor from its track into the bank at the side of the road, with the result that the front axle was broken. But the pig survived the shock. Now it is a dangerous proceeding to ask the Toko resident how his car came to be stranded on the road side!

Interesting news from a correspondent engaged in army motor work at Salonika:. After an adventurous journey down the Mediterranean his company finally landed at Salonika, where they found that their cars, which had arrived previously, had suffered considerably from a severe frost. As the water had not been drained from the radiators, there was a large amount of work necessary to repair cracked cylinders, etc. The roads there are terrible, and no motorist at home could believe what they are like unless he actually saw them. There are pot-holes 2ft. deep in pro-

fusion, and the natives have a habit of bringing up huge stones to repair the roads and pot-holes, and leaving these stones just at the side of the hole until the next day, with no light or warning at all. This makes night driving somewhat difficult, but, fortunately, the military motorists are allowed to use bright headlights. Salonika is noted for dead animals, which are to be found lying at the side of every road. Opposite one camp lay no fewer than twenty-two dead horses and oxen, which had all been skinned and left to rot in the swamps.

Many of the pear-headed pins which form the plunger of the standard tyre valve are given to binding a little in their beds. - When a tube is being inflated from zero, the air pressure within the tube during the first few strokes of the pump is often insufficient to force the pin down on its seat, and the first few strokes of the pump may be wasted through the valve not closing—i.e., not acting as a non-return valve at all. This annoyance may usually be avoided by turning the wheel so that the valve is at the twelve o’clock position before inflation is commenced.

The New South Wales police authorities have issued instructions that action is to be taken against any record-breakers committing a breach of the traffic laws of the State by driving to the danger of other users of the road on the overland route. This means that aspirants after either the existing motor car or motor cycle records will have to exercise great care, or they are likely to fall foul of the N.S.W. police.

Heaped on the deck and packed in the holds of the steamer Suruga, which has arrived at Wellington from New York, there were 560 American motor cars. By the Waitomo, which arrived at Auckland from San Francisco recently, there also came 200 cars.

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