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AUTOCAR ROAD TESTS
Austin Twelve-six Sports
Tourer
Strength is the "characteristic Dit the larger Austin models, and the Twelve-Six sports tourer is no ception. This is not to say that The car is unduly heavy, for it
cales 20 cwt. But the whole con- truction of the car is substap- fal, and the performance which
xives has not been obtained by he use of a small chassis and } {egg-shell" coachwork. :
In the first place, it has a four- joor body, now becoming some- hing of a rarity in the small-or j nedium-sized
sports-type car. This gives a clue to the fact that is perfectly feasible to comey Hour adult persons in the car, sod he rear seats "are of sufficient
th for the inclusion of a full- depth permanent arm-rest in the entre, built into the upholstery, Lind, incidentally, including a poc- fet which houses the tyre pump.
On the occasion of the test, the car was taken to North Wales with hree persons on board, while the ourth seat was used for the ac- Commodation of luggage,
A CTI- fcism occurs here. for the rear Beats have very deep cushions. which cause the seating position n be on the high side. It says a 1reat deal for the comfort of the bringing that for almost the en- re Journey the rear passenger lected to sit on a thin, ordiňiary Bushion, in order to take advant...- age of the protection of the creen, and felt no undue discom- fort from road shocks. In this comfort the arm-rest plays a very arge part, while the body sides are deep enough to give excellent protection when the passenger Bite low.
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Pleasant Drive
With the hood erected there is Still plenty of headroom in both Gront and rear seats, ant driving in rain was quite pleasant. A single screen-wiper is atted, and the screen will either fold for- ward fat or open outwards. The Ide-curtains have well-designed laps, secured by fasteners in Either the open or the shut posi- on. The back panel of the hood extended round the rear quar- ers and the side-curtains them- selves are in four parts.
The car was taken over many rough roads in the Welsh moun- ains, yet, in spite of the shaking It often received, not a body queak or rattle of any kind de- veloped. The wings, which are considerable solidity, remained qually firm. Great credit is due
the car in this respect, for ome of those roads were of the Bruine trials variety.
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The famous Allt-y-Baby Hill, Llangollen, was climbed thout difficulty, though the and Ignition control was found seful in preventing "pinking." useful performance is available
both second and third gears. ad Indeed. In hilly country the handles very pleasantly. The pressure remained steady, and signs of overheating developed ven on long pas585.
H
The driving position is good, ad needs little adjustment for vers of widely varying heights, d in the
the same way the forward alon exceptionally good, hiefly owing to the fact that un- bcessary wind gepops are absent. the springs of the upholstery. wever, were found to be some- hat hard during a long, journey.
Gear
Change
The gear change is simplicity Self. A synchromesh mechanism used for third and top gears, with its use the gears can be ged either slowly or quickly. the occasion demands. Chang- down from third to second. "no synchromesh, and fram
to first, also presents no fülke, The gears are reason": quiet both on the drive and the overrun.
steering is light gad post. either on fast bends on the Lroad or on" hairpins in the intains easy control was pos- The general road-holding bove the average. Hydrauliç Absorbers are used in front friction at the rear. The
mggel lested had the 148 1,496, x-cylinder engine, the larger 15.9 hp, engine is
extra cost. An excellent point is the accuracy of the speedometer, and in the maximum speed test on Brooklands track 70,31 m.p.h. was maintained for a quarter of a mile with the assistance of the wind, sa compared with 68.13 m.p.h." mean speed taken in both directions.
The sports engine as fitted to these models has a higher com- pression ratio, a special induction and exhaust manifold with a sin gle downdraught carburetter and A high-lift camshaft; and on the long, straight stretches of Watling
Street it was found possible to cover mile after mile at 50-55 m.p.h.--not perhaps a very start- ling speed, but one maintained without the slightest feeling of effort.
Sturdy Build
This is one of the great points of the car, the sturdy build and steady springing lending them- selves to high averages without fatigue. Indeed, had only two persons been in the car it would have been possible to cruise at an even higher speed, but it is al- ways rather hard on rear-seat passengers to travel really fast, though, as far as the car is con cerned, it is obvious that addi. Lional weight means nothing.
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2
"The engine starts easily, and the lights are excellent, while the dipping control at the centre of the steering column comes read!- ly to hand, as does the ignition control. A automatic governor for the advance and retard is also provided. Direction indicators an an open car are scarcely neces sary, but they are provided for use “ if desired. The battery is acces- sibly housed in the dash, and the tools are also stowed in a locker. in the dash, where all the sepa- rate oddments-for instance, the Jack, jack handle, and so forth- re wrapped in small leather cases, an arrangement which cer- tainly prevents rattle,
Generally speaking, the Austla Twelve-Six sports tourer is a car. eminently suitable, apart from its main road charm; for one who lives in rough, hilly places, who has little time or facility for con- stant adjustment. frequently car- ries more than two persons, and who likes an open car.
ACE DISC WHEEL IMPROVEMENT
In order to remove the only blemish upon the clean and un- broken surface of the Ace Super Wheel Discs, that is, a small trap "door hitherto necessary for gain- ing access to the valve of the pneumatic, the makers have pro- duced, in co-operation with A Schrader's Son, Inc., an ingenious valve extension. With the latest type of Ace disc, therefore, all that is visible is a tiny valve" cap partly countersunk into the face not far out from the hub cáp. When this cap is unscrewed a nipple reddy for the tyre pump or pressure gauge, is at once. disclosed. By means of this nip ple the tyre can be inflated or defated in the ordinary way. In detall, the device is quite simple: It consists of an extension tube of copper, one end of which is permanently attached to the nor- mal tyre valve by a union nut Passing through the tube is à stainless steel flexible core, which couples the stem of the valve tó i 3.econd valve in the free end of the extension tube. This free end passes through a small fork shaped, anchorage lug on the side of the Ace disc mounting, and ter- minates in a small flange with a screw-threaded extension which passes through the disc itself when the latter is placed in post- tion. In the face of the disc a shallow recess is pressed, and into this socket a fibre washer is. placed. A screwed collar is then whole atting solid, resulting in a clamped down and makes the
good "creep stop" for both the disc and the extension. The out- side portion of the collar is re- self is partly concea cessed so that the galve cap it
concealed.
In order to avoid any possible senturion when the discs are first Atter to the wheels, an arrow on the diac mounting is marked "At opposite valve," and in this post- tion the bend of the extension is goteft for the quchprage lug.
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1934.
TOLL OF THE MOTOR JOTTINGS A PADDED CELL CAR
ROAD
2,553 Killed In
19. Weeks
(Special Air Mail Service)
London, July 28. The Ministry of Transport's re « turn of deaths and injuries from road" accidents for the week end- ed July 21, issued yesterday. showed that 143 persons, were killed or had died as the result of accidents occurring in previous weeks, and 5,263 were injured.
The return was as follows:--
Killed in Died Injured in accidents as result accidents reported of reported during the previous during the
week accidents week England H
4,575 Wales 9
21
2
Scotland 11
8
228" 459
114
29
*
5.262.
143 deaths
REAR VISIBILITY
ESSENTIAL
Properly Adjusted Driving Mirror
Designers pay meticulous atten- ton to-day to the arrangement of windscreens and windscreen pillars, so that most cars provide reasonable visibility ahead but what of the view behind?
Lacking eyes in the back of. his head, the motorist
tises a mirror above windscreen, so. ar-
Į ranged as to reflect a view of the
roadway and the vehicles behind.. This mirror usually rotates on a universal-joint type of mounting which enables the driver to ad-. just it to suit his own require- A comparison with the preylous ments. The mirror should always week showed that, while the total reflect the maximum area of road
surface, for
driver's upon the number of killed was the same, the injured had gone down from 5,582 knowledge of conditions behind to 5.262-a reduction of 320.
dependa, very often, the action he The totals for the 19 weeks from shall take about trame in front. March 11 to July 21 were:—Eng-'. land, 2,178 died, 77,001 injured: Wales, "119 died, 3,433 injured; Scotland, 258 qied. 7,484 Injured: totals for Great Britain, 2,553 aled. 87,918 injured.
For the week ended July 14 the respective totals were:-England, 124 died. 803 injured; "Wales, six died, 237 injured; Scotland 13 died, $42 injured-Great Britain, 143
died, 5,582 injured.
In the week ended July 21 the figures were:-England, 115 died. 4.575 injured; Wales, 11 died, 228 Injured: Scotland, 17 died 459 in- 'ured.
Metropolitan Area
So far as London is concerned it s noteworthy that during the past three weeks the number of killed In the Metropolitan area showed a decrease from five to three per day, while there was not one fatality in the City, the number of injured being 16, eight, and seven respectively. The figures for the Metropolitan district are of parti-. ular significance in view of the introduction on July 9 of the new experimental pedestrian crossings at uncontrolled junctions (paints at which there are neither traffic police on duty nor automatic signals). Only one case of minor injured was reported during the two weeks, Indicating that pedes trians as well as motorists are exercising greater care, as a result of the efforts of the authorities to regulate the method of crossing the roads.
Dyzing the 19 weeks to July 21 the police districts having the fighest totals included:
England:
.
Adjustment
To adjust the mirror for maxi- mum road reflection, take up your normal driving position and then ask some one else to tilt the mirror up and down and then sideways, wälle
the you watch effect. It will be found that the best rearward view is obtained when the lower edge of the mirror just to reflect the bottom edge of the rear window. This adjust, ment should allow you to see the front wheels of a car behind when it is 95 to 40 yards away. So far as side adjustment is con cerned, the ideal position is one which reflects the maximum area of road on your of side.
The actual area of visible road- way to the rear will depend upon the size of the rear window. The microscopic, widows usually Atted to taxicabs and landoulejs render an interior mirror useless, so that such vehicles are usually Atted with mirror projecting from the off-side screen pillar. This, to some extent, explains why the drivers of sych vehices often fail to give an overtaking signal as soon as they might. An out- side mirror, although quite legal, is not so easily nor so frequently consulted as an interior mirror. the legality of which has been' questioned when a rear blind is used. There is something to be said for fitting both types;' but in the ordinary way an interior mirror is by far the more useful to a keen owner-driver.
Vision
.
Some motorists decorate the rear window with transfers and others delight in grotesquely- Died Injured shaped dolls, hung close to the glass. Some rear windows. again, Metropolitan
511.. 22.548 are partially obscured by tiny Lancaster County... 99...
3,181 curtains made of thin silk. With-. West Riding......... 89 2,140 out denying that mascots can be Stafford County..... 45 1,849 very amusing, and that silk cur- Kent
61. 1,796 tains add to the privacy of the Durham County.... 50
1772
rear expipartment, the net result Wales:--
in both cases is a reduction in the field of vision. Sp soon as a motorist realises the importance of knowing what vehicles are following him, and their speed and exact position, he abolishes anything that may restrict his view rearward.
-Denbighshire Scotland-
Glamorgan County. 37
15
1,099 291 223
43
27
2,098 539 198
Glasgow Lanark County
Edinburgh...
On the other hand the return reveals a number of places in which there were no fatalities dur- ing the whole of the period, in. cluding:
England: Congleton. Macclesfield and Staleybridge, Hartlepool and underland, Winchester, Margate, "Accrington, Bacup, Burnley, Clitheroe, Kings Lynn, Bath, Kid. Cerminster, and Dewsbury
Scotland: Ayr, Dumbarton, and Hamilton, Palley Ross Cromarty. Selkirkshire and Zet- And County,
LUCKY ESCAPE
In wet weather the rear window should be kept free from mud splashes; in dry weather it is un-. wise to permit the accumulation of thick dust. When driving & car with the new anti-glare glass in the rear window. It is essential to exercise great care at dusk, when this otherwise efficient glass is at a slight disadvantage.
The rear mirror ought to reflect as much as possible of road sur- face behind. Pa tering over strange car, one * abould adjust the mirror as a matter of course," In the same way as one moves
ded. She pulled up in the safety zone;
Skids After Beating the eye.
Record
(Special Air Mail Servion)
London, July 28, Mzs. G. M.-Stewart the British mobor racing driver the “fastest woman on earth”—had a narrow escape from death at Montlhery yesterday after breaking the re- cord for the fastest speed on the track with an average speed of about 148.65 miles an hour.
She was travelling at about 125 miles an hour when her car skid-
The car was damaged, but Mrs. Bewart escaped with a cut over
Mrs. Stewart is the only woman driver to hold world's motoring records, and has earned for her- self the motoring male of the "fastest woman on earth.
Just over a year ago she broke the Montihery record with a speed of 145.9 miles an hour. The pre- vious record had stood for years.
Fly TATA 259 Mr. Stewart who is the wife of Lieutenant- Colonel R. N, Stewart, Iate of the Cameron Highlanders crossed tha North Sea from Aberdeen to Nor- way in a speed boat.
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the driving seat into the most convenient position.
With some of the now fashion. able streamlined' sqloons having sloping rear windows, the interior mirror in a normal position can- not give a good view of the road behind the car. This is easily overcome by fitting one of the mirrors small panorama-type such as made by Lucas and Desmo, near the bottom rail of
screen. the
A
Improvement
car
To discover exactly what diffe- rence there is between a good and a poor adjustment, the writer re- cently took a 16 h.p. family saloon and, before making any adjust- ment whatever, placed the within one yard of the left-hand kerb on a 30-ft. roadway. · Only a limited amount of road surface could be seen in the mirror, the maximum being 26 yds. from the car, and only 6 yds. wide at this point, Having made some ad- justments, without "altering the posttion of the" car, a greatly im- proved range of vision was ob tained giving 35 yds. maximum from the car, 9 yds. wide at this point, extending 2 yds. beyond the car's width on the off side and 4 yds. on the near side. This wide near-side margin is useful when pulling out to overtake a slow vehicle.
These results
were obtained
with a standard mirror... and a driver slightly over 6 ft. in height. With appropriate, seat adjust- ment all motorists, tall and short... ought to have at least the same amount of rearward vision. Many cars are now being fitted with the wide-angle type of mir- ror which gives a still larger field of vision.
American Conception To Prevent Injury
When a car is stopped violently by collision the unfortunate
driver
and passengers continue to travel forwards at unabated speed. Through obeying Newton's Arst law of motion in this manner they are flung with considerable violence against" one or other of the many hard and angular ob- jects with which the interior of a saloon is encumbered.
The violence of the impact de- pends, first, upon the conditions of motion-speed, deceleration. etc-and secondly,
upon the
nature of the supstance with which the passenger's body "con- nects." as they say in pugilistic circles.
which
A System of Fashiong While unable to control the former of these conditions, an American inventor has set him. self the task of producing new type of saloon 'body every danger-point is cushioned; consequently, the passengers can be thrown around with a mini- mum of personal injury. In short, he has evolved the car equiva- lent of the padded cell, in which. the more violent Inmates of Lun- atic asylums are incarcerated for their own protection.
The Safer Car Body, as It is called, is arranged on perfect lines Every harsh obstruction is shielded with thick layers or rolls of sponge rubber, and in the words of the inventor, "this is accomplished without sacrificing either utility or beauty and with- out increasing the cost."
The thickly padded "elder- down" in which the instruments are recessed is so comfortable as almost to invite the passenger to fall against it. Sponge rubber. covered by trimming, also pro- tects the heads of the unwary from, painful contact with the roof structure, pillars and other parts. Similar padding is placed behind the front seats as a yiel- ding buffer for impetuous rear- seat passengers
There remains the problem of the windscreen and windows. In the Safer Car Body, the screen
is placed much farther forwardi than is usual-out of reach, as it wete-in innovation which has the incidental advantage of as- sisting the body designer to uchteye a streamlined shape. Windows “Fali Out When Struck”
The inventor suggests that each of the windows" might well be made of several pieces of safety glass, tongued and put to- gether with rubber channels, sp that they would fall out whep..
struck.
The plece de resistance, how ever, is found in the treatment of the steering column, ordinarily * nasty object to strike should a crash pccur. The solution sug- gested is to employ a telescopic column embodying a coil spring so that when the driver strikes the wheel it at once, gives way before the impact. His head 15 then gently received by the cus- hion above the facia-and ap harm is done.
The inventor concludes his argu- ments in favour of this novel type of body with the following cogent peroration:--
"Anyone who risks an accident in an automobile, without this safety body, at any speed that would not be considered slow, is taking more risk than the man ip the circus who allows himself to be fired from a cannon into a net, He has something yielding to fall against,"
"Awkward Projecting Parts "One must respect the serious. concern which the inventar ex- presses (in his publicity matter) with regard to the large numbers of people injured in cars in the United States year by year... It is also perfectly true that the interior of the modern saloon car abounds in awkward projecting parts, many of which might well be obviated if only to save minor · · injuries to unwary. passengers when entering or leaving the vehicle.
But a padded cell the de- duction would be just a little top obvious; don't you think?u?
EPUNI A THORNYCHOFT WIts You2 [Pax
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THORNYCROFT
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4 or 6 Wheels
4 or 6 Cylinders
80 Cwt. to 10 Ton Loads
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Foneer Building, Nathan Rand, Kowiges.
TEL. 66789.
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