MOTOR CYCLING
NOTES.
THE H.K.V.D.C. TRIAL.
SOME ADVANCE DETAILS,
[BY CAMSHAFT.]
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1931,
SPARKS
FROM THE PLUGS
ALTERING THE DREAM OF 300 M.P.H. HOLIDAY BREAKERS question, either on a bank holiday THE EXPORT TRADE
MAKERS' DESIGN.
THEN THE THING GOES
"FLOP!"
MACHINE.
STEERING PROBLEM.
The German Henne, who held the world's motor-cycle speed record until J. B. Wright, ou a British machine, took it from him on the Cork course last year, is getting s unpleasantly close to Wright's time that we can expect another British fent before September, says
Home paper.
Every motor car is designed for A certain maximum speed, but I am embled, through the courtesy sometimes that speed is culy at of Mr Williams, the organiser, to give one or two details of the forth tained by the first tool-room job, coming. R.K.V.D.C. motorcycle and when produced on a commor trial which have not yet been pub-eial basis the model falls short of lished. The full particulars will expectations, although on
overy not be available until after the
other point the car may be a great Trials Committed meeting, which is
One has in mind being held this afternoon, but in
car 2 the meantime the following points introduced a couple of years ago Temple, the designer, will be of considerable interest
by a firm which had hitherto been associated with staid and stendy cars, and consequently had a clien- tole consisting of staid and stoady
In the first place, the proposed! course has met with the approval of the authoritics, and oficial sanc- tion for it to be used has been
success.
For about three months now, and
Wright, and others who gave help and counsel in last year's attack, have boon in consultation and at work, and the result will be a machine which will top the maximum of the 1850 record-brea
obtained. In view of the fact that
folk who did not want an exces nothing in the way of a trial over a cross-country route has ever been sive speed; they were not a bit in- attempted before this is a matter torosted in the new model whichker by 15 miles an hour. for congratulation; particularly as
was advertised as. a. 70 m.p.h, bus it means that the only detail which might have been expected to meet (the speed attained by the col with official opposition has been room car.) So the old customers satisfactorily settled.....
were lost. Unfortunately the pro. The trial will be limited to solo duction car could only comfortably machines only, as it is considered that the route is not practicable do sixty, and as a result failed for sidecars. It has been the aim to attract the people to whom it of the couras finders to obriate the was being advertised. Result, what sections of the route, where the in theatrical circles in called a flop, element of danger was too pro-
This nounced, and the elimination of combinations is doubtless meant to quite capable of being tuned up by
experts, and this is where the tun ing firms come in, for they turn a production car into what is in effect a too-room job.
afford a higher degree of safety for the competitors,
Entrance fees are extremely low, being 83 for a single cotry, while in extra dollar will be charged for a team of three, making the en- trance fee for such, a team $10.
kind" of
car
is probably
How this is going to be done is a secret which it is not fair to die close, particularly as the Germans
are
so keen on recapturing the honour. But a statement that the record will be raised by ten miles an hour, at least, before the year is out will probably be found to be
correct.
Keen Rivalry.
So far as present the two-cylinder engine, with cer tain additions and alterations, 19
OF MOTOR LAWS.
RESENTMENT CAUSED BY{
NEW "OFFENCES.
With
pride not unjustified by subsequent facts Mr. Herbert Mor rison once called his Road Traffic Act a great charter for the for dered use of the King's highway" Motorists have been discovering that charters are not, so to speak,
· all beer and skittles..
SLUMP
MARKED DECLINES IN TRADE WITH · AUSTRALIA
AND INDIA.;
months of the year the value of our Although during the first four
AIR FILTERS.
ARE THEY WORTH WHILE?
FROM A CORRESPONDENT]
Is an air filter worth while1 In: view of the dustless roads over
the average motorist will probably which the majority of us new motor
say no. Such people can state nothing against an air filter, but do not quite see the need for it,
Now the Morris engineers would
licn and a half in excess of the
port trade shows a marked falling not go to the expense of embodying value of imported vehicles, our ex-
off this year compared with last.
an air filter in their latest engines if there were no advantages. It's
The saliont word the Minister and forms the monster of a law striking decreases in our trade with a good pelling point someone ex-
dofinition is "ordered." Our use of the highway is indeed so hodged about with orders that for every "yon mag Mr. Morrison's char- ter has given us there are several dozen "you shall nots." Exactly how many are offences the Act has created I do not know, but many they are, and, as usually happens with attempts to make us good by Act of Parliament, some of these provisions either cannot be enforced at all, or only now and then, here and there, which is bound to cause resentment, says a Daily Telegraph Motoring Corres pondeat.
Parking on the Grass. People who had their names and producing ten more horses and the addresses taken for parking their maximum speed of the machine is
CATS on the gras more than 15 expected to be nearly 175 milos au capturing the record, but if he does more annoyed when they found hour. Henne may be successful in yards from the road were, all ine
it will be a short-lived triumph, that others not far away had been and, further, there need be no fear left undisturbed. It is out of the of the future, whatever the Germans
do.
There is a disposition to think that 300 miles an hour on n motorcycle is a foolhardy proposi tion, and that no motorcycle will
the car the honour of being the ever have a chance of wresting from
fastest land machine, Admittedly the driving of the machine at that speed would be a vastly different it will not be more than three years proposition from driving a car,
but
before there is an attempt by a motor-cycle to beat any record"a car may put p
The Rudge firm, we know, are anxious to have a try, though nothing more has been heard of that talks had taken place with the project since it was announced
a famous car designer, But the Rudge are not the only people with ambitions in the same direction. Scientists Helping.
A Lighter Body, Competitors will be required to There is," however, another, kind- keep to a schedule of 20 miles per of car, the one. which exceeds the hour, and will have to contend with makers' intended maximum. Then the existance of secret checks, so that if they wish to obtain high all sorts of complications arise for marks their time-keeping will need the reason that the rest of the to be of a high order. Certain chassis may not have been designed sections and hills will be observed,
to stand up to the
tand up to the work imposed but up to the present the course does not include a water splash, upon it by the ultrasfficient in although I believe this is not the gine. Then the factory dotunes the fault of the route finders. It is engine by lowering the compres quite possible that between now and the day of the trial one may deve-sion and altering the cam design so lp, so my readers should not yet that we get a very smooth-running be too jubilant..
engine capable at any time of giv This year the trial is to be opening the makers' intended perform to the entire Cólony: anyone who' has a machine may enter upon pay- anco, This kind of car is cne that ment of the requisite fee, and can be "supertuned by expe those riders who have ridden in enthusiasts by the simple. process Home trials will agree with me
of raising the compression and a that the remark that entrance fecatering the cams until it is capable are very low deserves repetition.. of speeds very much in excess of Given good weather, the competi- the safe limits of the rest of the tors should have a most enjoyable car, .., the back axle, steering and sporting afternoon.
gear and, possibly, the frame. Thus the very wise clauso in the makers
THE T.T. FILM.
guarantee which renders it invalid
Steering at a speed of 200 mph. Riders will be interested to know if structural alterations are made.
has been spoken of as the problem that the News Reel containing There are, of course, certain which would wreck any attempt to shots of the Isle of Man Tourist body-builders who succeed in selling
challenge the car,
scientific but. people outside the motorcycle in- Trophy Races is expected to be cars with a bettor speed perform dustry have been taking an interest ohibited here about the middle of ance than the manufacturer of the in the possibility of a 250-miles Angust. Many of us undoubtedly chassis, by designing & body which an-heur motor cycle, and have put mis the famous Motor Cycle Film, is lighter than the standard pro forward scientific evidence which suggests that the steering difficulty shown every year at Olympia and duetica poachwork, but make no
can be
overcome and that: *
Some of our youngest and keenest designers have been studying the dificulties of challenging the Car record, and next year there is quite a possibility we shall hear some- thing defiuite:
at various club contres in England, attempt to tinker with the chassis.ching can be built which could be which deals very fully with the How the makers guarantes applica ridden with safety at 300 miles an Taces: it is a rather forlorn hope in these cases, one does not know. hour. That evidence has been de- bated very serionely, but it has not that it will ever roach this Colony, One presumes that if they neil a
gone beyond that yot." although it is circulated in many chassis to a body-builder, the guar countries, and so in its absence we antos holds good as regards the mast content ourselves, with what chassis provided a body is not fitted bsdinary news-reels offer hež graator-waight-than their own, for one hope that it will be and all other conditions are com,
plied with
not a little
One thing is certain. Whatever power unit is used when and if the scientific talk gets down to hard proposals, it will be multi-cylin- der, prob Flour, but a six uyan, der of,
not outside the. range of possibility
plained to me sometime ago, but I was not convinced, and now that have had to it: how pistons to my en simi ledly an the mide of the Ayes." Let the "Noes" go on minus their filters, some day they
engine after season's running
or any day, to protect every com- mcn from the deadly destructive motor-car. Tom, Dick and Harry will learn in time that what they have been doing happily for years post is now an "offence." But na
injury if Dick and Harry are left turally Tom feels insult added to
to picais in peace while ho has his appetite, taken away by threat 1 pxports of motor vehicles is a mil of a summons. excellent regulations for the guid
It is very easy to draft the most
ance of the motorist and road-user but there is a danger of reincar- nating in several different shapes This is accounted for mainly by which can be broken with impun
Australia and Indin. In the four ity. We are now rid of the old months, for instance, the value of twenty-miles-an-hour speed limit, motorcars exported to Australia with the traps and other unfair fell from £95,762 in 1930 to neas it bred. In its place wo are £3,303 in 1931, while the total of getting a lot of orders and regula-all motor vehicles showed a decline tiens which, while much more of £57,178. The figures for April reasonable, are equally difficult to show the extent of the Australian
The above paragraphs were writ alump. In that month of last year ten a few weeks ago, and now some enforce.
85 British motorcars, valued atom w
very interesting figures have been £21,413, were sent to Australia; in rebased by Mr, C. G. Vokes, of we mest each other at night. Who April this year only one car, valu-
Putney, who has been manufactur-
Of is to make us obey and haul used at £825, was exported.
ing air filters for some year. up if we don't? It is suggested The exports of British cars toccarse, he is
interested party," that mechanical signalling appar India/in the four months fell from but interested parties are usually atau should be compulsory on every £221,249 to £130,712, and, of com- interesting parties and generally
driver to use it. car, but you can't compel the mercial vehicles from £428,930 to know most about the subject.
2133,032 In all the decline of Mr. Vokes said that several Many of Mr. Morrison's provi- | business with the two countries is years ago a famous War Depart sions for the ordered use of the represented by the considerable by side, one with and one without ment ran two identical engines side King's highway seem destined to figure of £440,000. While the dean air filter. At the end of the become, either game for the law pression continues in Australis test the engine without the filter dodger, like prohibition, or else and the disturbed state of India wear and six times the amount of showed nine times the cylinder pious resolutions which the sheep is prolonged, a recovery in these grit and dist in the enrboni;; at will follow and the goats burn, The two markets is hardly to be ex- the same time the oil consumption question is whether education is pected, and the British motor in This is only one oxample of the kaging Exhowed an incrensa of 40 per cent..
legia.ation for antiduzzle and trade, and the Continent cfcient hit filter not a better stimulus then dustry should find other outlets for undoubted advantages of an effi
signal-giving and the like, and also Europe and South America would for the protection af our commons, seem to be the most promising,
For instance,
we are about to be ordered to dip our headlights when
NOW COMING
MODEL 522c!
will change their cry.
A fast car, a brilliant hill climber and with its marked acceleration capable of keeping up high average speed. Separate Hydraulic brakes for front and rear wheele The four speed gear box is fitted with a silent “Third", thus eliminating one of the most annoying noises. Further & special engagement system for the third and fourth speed renders more simple the passage from one to the other of these two speeds.
In town, owing to the silent running, the third gear may be kept almost continually engaged thus affording a lightning acceleration.
On the open road the silent third speed which is easily engaged in the high engine speed affords the most pleasant possibility of driving on hills, on curves and when overtaking.
For Service!
FIAT
FIAT CARACE: 350, Hennessy Road.
522c
AGENTS:
A. GOEKE & CO.
SPARE PART DEPARTMENT:
CHINA BUILDING, TELEPHONE 22221.
device
which few of us can afford to ignore
Thia is surely an econdmy
in these days,
FIAT CARAGE:
350, Hennessy Road.