MOTORING PIONEERS
ADVENTURES ON THE ROADS.
By AN EDWARDIAN.
I wonder how many of the present generation who drive motor cars realise the uncertainties, difficulties, dangers and excitements of motor lug fivo and twenty years ago |
Nowadays, with a modern oar, it is nhundred, to one on arriving at one's destination without mishap, and, provided the driver knows the
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1931.
SPARKS
FROM THE PLUGS
MOTOR CYCLE FIRM'S 5 H.P. SALOONS AT BATTLING
DIFFICULTIES.
WINDING-UP RESOLUTION
Wolverhampton, September 24.- The Wolverhampton firm of motor oyele manufacturers, Messrs. AJ Stevens & Co. (1914), Ltd, to-day informed creditors, and shareholders that resolution for the voluntary winding up of the company will be moved at an extraordinary general meeting on October 2. Meanwhile, negotiations aro in progress for a merger with a firm of standing in the malor trade. The directors
60 MPH.
BABIES"
OF BROOKLANDS.
THE REAL CAUSE OF the light was trained to the off nide, so that it nefually shone DAZZLE
straight in the face of oncoming
PROSPECT OPENED UP BY FINAL ROUND AT 100 MILES LESSONS OF AN UNOFFICIAL
RACING EXPERIMENTS:
DRIVER REAPS WHERE THE PIONEER HAS SOWN.
London, September 14-Engine designers and
busy
t
#AN HOUR)?
EXPERIMENT
PLEA FOR THE DRIVER WHO
PLAYS. THE GAME,
drivers.
Dimming Not & Solution.
The Ministry of Transport stand practically committed to a form of dimming light. But this is not a
The drivers of 10 care, seemoitolation of the problem. The
anxious to illuminate the tops telegraph posts, and for all prac tical purposes their bond Tamp were useless, indeed, in the mists which one frequently encou the Cambridge area they were decided menace. On five of the re- During the summer inventore all maining cars the lamps, while cor over the country have been seeking rectly aligned, were It was the final round for the solution to the dazzle problem, focussed. In other words, half of your in the Battle of the Babies.and at Cambridge recently experts the available lighting was being
Ever since laat February, when were treated to an excellent dis-wasted. the MG. Midget beat the class play of anti-dazzle devices writes mile record set up by Sir Malcolm Norman W. Rac in, the London
An intensely keen but amicable struggle between rival car manu facturers for high-speed laurels culminated at Brooklands on Octo or 3 in the British racing drivers mechanies Ware 000 miles race. still
on the. Schneider Trophy machine engines, racing drivers are preparing their cars for their 500 miles race at Brooklands oxt month and almost every day
now 1939 models.
car and the road, he can judge have with the Registrar of Com manufacturers are announcing their Campbell at Daytona on the Austin Evening Standard. We who wat
most exactly the time it will take him to do the journey. But in the old days it was almont ten to one
against getting anywhere without some sort of trouble.
winding up
That there is a definite connee tion between the two has been stated again and again: Racing teaches designers their jobs.
"Improving Breed."
panes a declaration that in their pinion the company will be able to. It is often asked, what connection all full within twelve there, can possibly be between a pay the debts in full witcom we of Bluebird with, it's 4-and-a-bit-miles a minute and a 5-seater saloon sell In the circular to shareholdersing it between £200 and £3001 My first experience was with an the directors explain that to meet old Star car in 1897, which had a the crisis they called together single cylinder horizontal, engine twelve of the largest shareholders under the chassis and two gears, who appointed an informal com operated by means of belts sliding mittee to confer with the board. on and off pulleys, these slipped At a meeting at which 150,000 sharé- on the slightest provocation. holders were represented, it was At the Paris Exhibition of 1901 decided in the first instance, that I saw a car which had won the steps should be taken to negotiate Paris-Marseilles race a year or two if possible a merger with a firm before. It was a Panhard that of standing in the motor trade, and looked like an enormous double per-important negotiations in this direc ambulator steered by a huge tiller.
tiller.tion are proceeding. In the mean- "the shareholders consulted Nevertheless it averaged thirty-four miles per hour over the bave agreed that in order to pro- journey, an amazing frat, despite Leet the company's assets and in the straightness of the French view of the solvency of the com
roads, when one considers how little developed the motor tyre was then, and the consequent amount of tyre trouble suffered.
<
Mr. Victor Riley, chairman and managing director of the Riley Co. is quite definite in his views on
were at
Ten Per Cant.
Ministry have forgotten the selfish
blaza
in the knowledge po. police
on with his head lamps fulf
The dazzle-menace can be met only by protecting the driver of ctly, the car carrying the anti-dazzle dovice, and not by protecting "the
other fellow
Why should we take all thịu
trouble to ensure that the other
In only five out of 50 cars did motorist has a clear run an
Seven, Capt. Waite, Sir Herbert ched nearly, a hundred inventors,
correctly focussed and aligned Austin's son-in-law and manager of demonstrate their devices were we find that the lights were both RAC offelal asked me the other- his racing interests, and Mr. Cecil satisfied that there Kimber, desiguies of the M.G. cars, least do different ways in which of which firm Sir William Morris dazzle could be eliminated. is chief, have been striving every herve to beat each other, both in record-making and in big races.
for the driver to ece a long way ahend, did not bling the oncoming
driver.
day. Surely out inators, would is out of t But out of the whole 60 we did; be more succesful if they set out not find one driver who had taken to protect the driver who takes the the elementary precaution" of "set trouble to hit an auti-duzzle device
to his own car.
We thereupon carried out a num ber of experiments and found that hy setting the nearside head-lom so that it struck the nearside kerk about 100 feet ahead of the car, we were able to carry on in the face of the fiercest of oncoming. lights,
In addition to the dipping and dimming devices which have been standard for several years thering his nearside lamp so that it would shine on the nearside kub were nearly two score of remark-
nhend. Three New Austins,
ably ingenious masks and shutters In the Double Twelve race ut
that turned dating beams inte Brocklands and in Ireland the Mid-lights which, while making it tay gets triumphed, and a Midget also held the mile record at over 103 m.p.h. But a fortnight ago, the stream-lined orange) Austin racer "We support racng for no other
As practical motorists it seemed purpose, than to improve, the breed, recaptured that record, and last he said, "and we believe that the week at Montihery set up the amaz Fellowing the actual official dis
to us that the anti-dazzle demon cause of utility is admirably sorreding figure of 100 miles an hour for play there wore a series of unofi-stration was designed primarily for by sporting tests and experience.
five miles
cial demonstrations in garages in the benefit of the other fellow learn where the points of
Not only has this fastest of all and around Cambridge, It was Most motorists have experienced failure arise under maximum stress
racing.
Wo..
few hours,
portTM Census.
test cause of dazzle" was faulty alignment of lights.
the annoyance of switching off or dimming in the presence of an on coming car with dazzling lights
rany, there is no tornative but and we pack ' a car lifetime · into a babies been entered for the Brook-proved beyond doubt that the stent proceed with members voluntary.
lands event which is open to rac liquidation, leaving it to the liquida tor to continue the merger negotia-
The sporteman can afford to sing as distinct from shorts cars, but tions,
suffer failure. Loss of a trophy
The firm largely owed their great
the
and
means bat temporary disappoint trio of similar cars with brilliant
MORE COMFORT IN MOTORING.
CARS WITH INDEPENDENT WHEEL SPRINGS.
I accompanied a group of six whose driver does not return the
So it seems that the invention the Cambridge-London road, where we took a census of approaching motorists are waiting for is the
will
ears. In an hour we had checked | lamp whiids wow a beam
up 59, of which 24 hod their head | ahead capable of penetrating be lights so fixed that instead of givyond the most dazzling of head, ing a good lighting beam ahead lights.
The first serious car I owned was developments in recent years to ment, but car trouble mohns delay orango racing bodies have been lighting experts on a trip down courtesy. a four-cylinder, 8 h.p. Panhard,
successes in the Tourist Trophy and expense to the ordinary owner. built, and are now being tuned up. with tubo ignition. This was in itself a mourer of danger, in that races in the Isle of Man, in which The manufacturer who learns his they won repeated distinctions, lessons in the school of racing, ex- the tabes had to be kept hot with n
Assistarred of live dame now far distant from the und in one fear they had the perience, with the
of winning gallant enthusiasts, is thus enabled carburettor, while the flains invari.unique distinction
Senior raees to present a more nearly perfect ably blew out if the wind happened with a Junior riachine. They have design to his masters, the public, to be blowing in its direction.
also secured many notable triumphs Some will say that all this The maximum speed of the car and established recorda in Can,"schooling is not obtained without was 30 m.p.h. If at any time this "tinental races. Their motor-cyale price, and that somebody must pay. was exceeded in going down hill the worke at Wolverhampton are now Somebody does pay, but the point draught made by such appalling one of the best laid out in the Midis that the payer gets his money's velocity always had the same effect lands, and normally they employ worth." on the flames as the wind had. over 1,000 work-people. Four hun- There was no protection to the un-dred employees will now be au- der part of the chassir, and the ponded pending the new arrange- glutch was merely a leather tapered ments. cone which fitted into the flywheel. When this slipped, the driver de pressed the clutch, while a kind friend throw dust from the road into the flywheel, and the neccss'y grip was restored for perhaps on- other thirty miles.
ROUND, THE WORLD IN AN
AUSTIN SEVEN:
A 7-Horse Wonder.
Another Coventry, firm, the Singer Co., has found that lessons learned in racing are of extreme valus.
Mr. J. R. Stevens, who has prob ably designed more racing car en
"
The motor-car with individual wheel springs, which allows ench wheel to rise and fall independently whon encountering uneven read sur- faces, has arrived.
Two such models have made their bow to the public. One if the British new. B.S.A. light car of 8 hp with a front wheel drive and Twa New Zealanders, Hector gines than any other man, has re-independent front springs and the MacQuarrie and Dick Matthews,cently joined this company. Already other is new French Derby car of Tinkering with a motor car is who left London on February 23, he has performed something skin php, with a four-cylinder engine never a clean businers, but in those on the second half of their tour to a miracle. Out of a diminutive and a chassis incorporating a new daya it, was far dirtier. A large round the world in an Austin Seven, mechanical oiler was, carried on the successfully completed their journey engine of 7.78. h.p., taxed at £8,principle of front wheel drive and dashboard, and a careful watch had when they reached, Auckland, New he has been getting over 21 h.p. on independent rear springing,- to be kept upon; any, a dozen oil Zealand-their starting point-on the test bench, and this on a patrol. These rivals in front wheel drives
เฟ droppers to see that they were per September 7,
consumption of 40-50 to the gallon. and independent wheel spring were forming their duty. When electric
Although their car (Emily II.) ignition was first introduced a coil encountered every kind of weather A 17.9 six-cylinder engine built by on view at the private çay exhibi of the buzzer description was also and climate, traversed deserts and him is producing 60 h.p. on the tion, which opened at Olympia, în carried on the dashboard. The ear mountain ranges, crossed flooded bench.
October 16. They were staged in alone could tell whether this was in rivers and muddy swamps, every order. What with having to listen obstacle was surmounted; A heavy
thair stripped chassis form, and with to the buzzer and keep one's eye on load, of camping equipment, kit,
two-seater and saloon coachwork. the road and the oilor at the same photographic apparatus, etc., was
Another Franch car of low rating time, driving a car was almost as Parried in addition to the passen
gers,
the explanation is that this tiny has adopted the Diesel heavy-oil. tiring as
a locomotive,
7.78 hp. engine can haul at a speed using engine, for its power unit. of roughly com.pl, & full-sized This car,, the Le Zebre, will be
Another source of constant trou, to before the advent of the live Axle were the chaina.. If they were sufficiently greased they picked up masses of dust; if they were not, they got hot and came off. But the bugbear of all motorists i in those days was tyres, which could be guar sterd to puncture or burst at the sight of a tintack, and wors quite
to prevent skiddin It was common occurrence to see a car waltsing round on tlio tramlines on
he Brentford road
The non-technical motorist does not probably realise quite what this means, but in everyday language
traffic was about one-sixth of what
it now 38 the motorist only hit 4-str. saloon.car complete with all sxlübited the Paris Automobile something if he was unlucky.
If one was adventurous enough possible equipments at a cost in Salon this month. There also will to take one's car, to the wilds of Scotland one had to arrange for Petrol consumption of less than id. be the French edition of the Austin supplies of petrol in advance. In- cidentally the driver, alwayss sak, on' the patrol tank, but nobody seemed 12 worry about that. This position
mile.
Boven-the Rosengsti~~to appear
With the lessons learút from: also as it small six-cylinder, car of
of the tank, however, had its die racing it seems that on a day not 1007 o.c. empacity, rated at 11 h.p., advantages, for on certain has the far distant family galcons will be or php-French carburettor being gravity-fed, did
not receive its proper supply, -and | travelling consequently the only way to tackle ap
FIAT CARA
"Then," he added, ""you" would hear the end of this anti-dazzle danger problem.”
This is a hint which inventor
would do well to next few months.
"People Who Matter®
PEOPLE
WHO MATTER, to the
advertiser are the
people who ca
afford to buy, his gooda
Most of
these people buy and read the
Hong Kong Daily Press,
ARRIVING SOON
FIAT 522C
6-Cylinders.
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 wheels. The four speed gear box is fitted with a silent Third *** thus eliminating one of the most annoying noises.
On the open rond the silent "Third" speed affords the most pleasant possibility of driving on hills, curves and when overtaking.
#ront-wheel drives, ide along England k" wide
ndent
new phase
350, Hennessy Road, Tri 24821.
the hill, was to, go, up: backwards. arterial roads at 60 mph, with only wheel springing.. I remember ondt, after Henley Hela 5 or 6 h.p. engine under the engined curs gutta, meing tan care nil negotiat Uontinued at foot of nezi column.) ing the famous hill backwards.
AGENTS:
A. GOEKE & CO.
SPARE PART: DEFATTHENT
CHINA BUILDING
TELEPHONE
Showroom
FIAT CABAGE:
Hennessy Road