HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE, 20, 1933.
SPARKS
FROM THE PLUGS
CAR AND CYCLE BOOM
A ROW BREWING AT HOME
BRITISH INDUSTRY'S CONFIDENCE
in
WILD DRIVERS IN BIG TRIALS
There's a dickens of a row brew- ing about the behaviour of drivers generally in big trials, says the That, as a matter of Auto Car.
A MOTORING
THRILL"
LOST IN DAMASCUS
BAGHDAD DESERT
Between Damascus and Haghdad lies a stretch of 650 miles of open desert, across which the only means of transport is by the regular ser- vice organised by the Naira Trans. port Company. Every four or five
'The
return of confidence British industry is now showing nere definite results in a number of directions. The public is spending more freely, and manufacturers are producing souds with a reasonable fact, is not unexpertest, and is wart certainty of being able to find mag-of the age-long controversy between kets. Both luxuries and articles of experience and inexperience,, age everyday use are sold in greater and youth. What has been happen days a convoy sets out on the jour-
THE 10 H.P. AUSTIN you build a very heavy tyres add to the dead weight per wheel, impair acceleration, and, as a natural re- sult, increase fuel consumption. It
John Prioleau on “A Famous Car".
NOISELESS NON-SKID
TYRES
It is not exaggerated to call the .p. four-cylinder Austin
а
MAKING A MOTOR CAR PISTON
must be a difficult problem. The 45 Separate Operations tion fully realise the amount of
tyres have only been on my car for a few hundred miles, and this is no more than a preliminary report, which will be followed by others an the condition of the tyres demands At present they fulfil the first two
A First Report. They dead silent on all sur faces and at all spends up to well over sixty miles an hour. I have
clains.
work necessary to produce it. Actually, there are no less than 45 separate operations, commencing The rapid development of the with the die-casting for the head high efficiency engine during the and the blank from which the irt past few years has made piston deis machined. In its initial stage.. sign a matter of paramount im-the latter is just a piece of steel portance. Earlier types of pistons, tube of special quality, but after though entirely satisfactory for con-passing through, a succession of, temporary engine design, were not interesting processes, it eventually suitable for the modern high speed becomes the finished skirt, grooved engine. It became necessary, there at the bottom for the pil scraper fore, to design a piston which would ring. The bearings for the gudgeon
quantities than for some time past,ing is thia. Certain rather youth-ney, which is covered at high speed famous ear, even though it is only not been able to skid the car, even give 100 per cent. efficiency under pin are formed from the tube itself ful drivers, full of joie de vivre i practically nou-stop. When amo in the second official year of its exis-on chalk roads just wetted or jus the new conditions and, as a result, and the whole emerges considerably vinced that recovery will continue and excitement generally, anable Florist wishes to make the journey tence, writes John Prioleau in the drying, but as I have not had a slid of exhaustive research and experi; ! lighter than the original blank.
Jon his own car, he is. obliged toi Loudon Observer. Usually it takes of any sort with this car in overment, the Sunbeam patent steel
and many route observers are con steadily if not rapidly.
trade. The well-known Austin Motor Company is now employing 300 extra man at their works. For the history of the firm. It recently broken during the past few weeks. more workpeople than ever before in pedal cycles all records have been created a new record for weekly The Hercules Cycle Company of output, and such is the continued Birmingham, the largest manufac- demand for Austin cars that large turers of bicycles in the world, re- Extensions of the works have been cently received orders for 27,000 put in hand. The Wolseley Motorcycles in one week, representing 100 Company's only trouble is to meet per cent. increase on their previous the demand; while the Singer Car record week; and a similar state of Company have recently employed affairs is reported from other cycle
manufacturing works. (Continued on next Column).
"house-
INSIST ON
RIV
Bearings
the
The head of the piston is a light- usually to use genuine racing as a join up with a convoy as otherwise a good deal longer than that for 40,000 miles, using all sorts of tyres skirt piston was evolved.
alloy die-casting from the Sunbeam worn conditions,
In its finished form this piston foundry, and consequently The motor industry is having an wort of steam yalve; have been con-
From a Hillman owner who recent what is so oddly called n excellent time, and a number of verting trials into an approximate journey is altogether too risky car of any type to make of its name 100 miles, usin
go to the excellent balance and does not look an intricate piece of finished piston combines the extreme- tion of a road race, that is, driving had occasion to cross the desert hold word "-(the cook in my house some, at least, of the credit must Banufacturers are full up with or
as though the Old Gentleman were
comes a thrilling never mutters, darkly," Daimler !" dars. Birmingham, which is a cen
For the moment a far more interest- motorists who are reaping the alloy pistons with the superior tre of both the motor and cycle in after them, and as they've not been on bis Minx
arranged that I should follow one although there have been several dustries, is experiencing a boom in (Continued nt foot of next column)tory of his experiences: "It was or "Rolls-Royce that cat and weight-distribution of the car itself. engineering, and few of the many lightness usually as the extreme of the convoy's cars, complete with swift arrivals" since the war Ig fact is that the petrol-consump- bruefit of its design and construc- wearing qualities of ferrous metals. tion, tested with scrupulous care any quite so over very familiar roads on which trailer containing three passen. cannot remember
"he writes, "and the driver quick as the Austin Ten. New I have constantly driven the car for told me to follow at a distance of models generally go through an em-five years, is twenty-five miles to geza, a mils or so, so that I should avoid barrassing period, when they make the gallon instead of twenty-three. some of the dust and sand which friends slowly (the friends are, on he would be throwing up. He told the whole, to be commended for Frankly, I cannot understand me that I could not fail to see his their caution), and it is not often this. The tyres weigh about 7 lb. dust in the distance, and all would that any one of them takes a high more each than the discarded set, be well. The trailer was carrying place, at once in their makers' list. their sectional width is 5 in., aa my spare water and petrol, and I The first Austin Ten I tried for against 41, and the overall diame The ac did not want to lose sight of it, THE OBSERVER, a year ago, I had ter of the complete wheels is four- bat owing to a following wind it the hardihood to describe as the fifths of an inch more. was not long before the dust was beat the works had ever made. Iceleration is unimpaired, neither so thick that had to slow down and still stick to that opinion, so far as better bor worse. By my admitted- let him go on at least 4 or 5-miles my experience goes. It has not gotly amateurish mathematical calcula ahead. It was very hot and the the best coachwork, nor does it go tions the gear-ratio has been rais sun was pouring down mercilessly as fast as some of the other Aused, the speed of the car, at 1,000 re on the white sand...
I found the going good for the tins, but at the price, £168, and drying, but as I have not had a skid power, it is and will remain, unti under 90 miles, an hour, instead of first 10 or 15 miles; then the sand, they do something to it or to an IS.S. These three factors, increased got deeper and the heat more in other model, the best of the range.
dead weight, wider hearing surface, tense owing to the warm follow- And it has attained the distinction and higher gear should noticeably ing wind. I still saw the dust of becoming a "famous" car (for-affect consumption, steering, and ahead of me, and as I had con- vive-the unavoidable
acceleration. The steering is as be quotation. sumed the contents of my thermos marks) long before its time.
fore (or I should not have left the flask, decided to catch up with my
tyres on-one does not lightly spoil escort and get some water from
perfection), but so far I do find, as him. I was ploughing through the
my only criticism, that the ·car sand now ot steady 40 mp/h, So far as I know, there is no rides a shade harder. This is not hut, although I increased my speed, change
in
the design of the 1923 a considered judgment, hs when I could not gain on the wisp of model. The £10 taxed engine has a they are older they should be more PLUGS dust ahead. We had done nearly cubic content of 1,123 c with a flexible. We will see.
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A Good Plain Car.
130 miles and I was getting anx by and stroke of 63.5 by 89, the ious about my petrol supply. plane engine has plain side-valves, "All of a sudden, the dust ahead the peer-figure is rated at 21, and disappeared, and I stopped to take the four-speed gear-box has twin- my bearings. Right away, far on top speeds. I confess to an endur- the horizon, I saw my dust clouding preference for all cars that re- again and chased after it. When main unchanged for decent I reached it, I found it was one period, It tells a tale of success to of those little cyclones which in that part of the world are called which the greatest competition or racing triumph is a poor second. 'ennd devils'-a cloud of dust suck.
The saloon-de-lure (I could wish ed up towards the sky by the wind My escort had gone! It was an somebody would replace this hoary erric feeling to discover, oneself phrase by some thing simple and alone in the desert with no living English) is still the attractive body thing in sight, completely surit was, with most of it between the rounded hy mirages which hid the axles instead of projecting beyond horizon from view. A more hope-Both, and if alterations, have been less feeling cannot be imagined: innde you only notice them in a indeed, panic has to be fought general result and not in detail. down with a very definite effort." I took the Ten over a three days' In the present case, careful study trial in Berkshire... Wiltshire, and of compass and map resulted in a Oxfordshire, and looking over my. course being steered in the right notes! I find there is very little to direction, and after two hours of criticise and a good deal to praise very anxious driving our adven. It is a lively car, with a quite re- turer camb up with the convoy, markable reserve of power on both which had halted for a cool down, top and third speeds. It picks up not yet having missed the lonely rapidly after a check on a moderate follower.
slope and gets into its stride with After this the Minx was kept in the least possible waste of time. It a good deal nearer proximity to climbed one of my specially tricky the convoy, although the dust-cloud hills, Fawler, with a very steeply through which it had to travel re-increasing gradient of 1 in 10 to 1 sembled a pea-soup fog, and alin 6, on second from a standstill. stream of annd lashed coatinuaHy Its speedometer showed a comfort- against the windscreen. Baghdad able, maximum of fifty malies an was reached eventually, but not be hour, and at no speed is the engine- fore our motorist had suffered vibration disagreenbly noticeable. agonies from split lips and smart It exists, but in a very mild form. ing eyes. "The little car was run The clutch action is much improved, ning like a bird, however," he and gear-changing is what it should concluded.
be, the brakes are smooth and powerful, and the springing and. steering of the right kind.. At this rate it should continue to be famous, Its far away predeces 19h.p. Rover and the poet-war BOTS were famous, the pre-war 10-h.p. Fiat-both classics.
doing it very cleverly, the result has been a considerable, crop.. of phenomenal avoidances, in which, unfortunately, non-competing, mo- toriste have been involved.
+
Discretion is the Better Part of
Valour
A New Sort of Tyre.
The new Goodyear silent-trended. tyre, which I have been asked to Now, for the love of Mike, desist. test and report upon in this column, Remember, "wild driving is certain is in many ways the most interest- to end in trials being stopped. ing of its type I have seen. The Ordinary people must be treated claims of the makers are, first, ab- with even more than the usual solute noiselessness; second, im- courtesy, and, properly speaking munity from sideslip (su long, pre- they have a prior right to the road, sumably, as the tread-pattern is Naughty children, who do not play still doep enough to keep a grip on the game cause trouble for sensible the road. below the slime), third, folk, who regard a triál as a trial long life. There three qualities. and who have at all events the rudi- must be rarely found in one type ments of read manters. As a first I have never found them all in any." step the Motor Cycling Club are If you want silence and anyone praetically providing their own who has driven all day in a car traffic police with full powers to act, with screaming tyres will, under- and every intention of being pretty stand the ambition-you must getter- ruthlessly autocratic so that the ally sacrifice amething of your anti- wild men will be eliminated no skid qualities, as most of that med. speedily as possible, Apart from dening noise is caused by the questions of driving, these extra suction of the tread pattern în marshale axe to see that the road is compression on modern smooth kept clear for ordinary traffic, road-surfaces. If you want long.
above all élße
YOU especially just outside checks, so, life
told cut your anti-skid pattern very deep, unless
as far as youthful haughtiness is cannot, I am concerned, you are warned 1/
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