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CARS OF TO-ADY QUEER NEW CAR
12 h.p. Renault Airline
The 12 h.p Renault Airline saloon comprises A well-tried chassis with new coachwork, and interesting features have been added to both.
The body has four doors and side windows of good size, en- trance in front and behind is ex- cellent, and the driver can get in also from the near side. There is "enough room everywhere, and it is an advantage on a small car to have ample foot-room when get- ting in or out in front. Here there is one cushion with broad separat- ed squabs having sleel tube fram- ing. The seat, as a whole, can be moved backwards or forwards by slackening two butterfly nuts at the sides. Behind, the seat is well sloped and the squab high. The wells are not deep. Each door has a slip pocket and there is a fair- sized cupboard with a door in front. Opposite the driver are the instruments clock, ammeter, oll and petrol gauges, and speedo- meter
mileage recolders— and
combined under one glass front. The screen only opens for ventila- tion, the tandem wiper blades. should lie off the screen when not in use, and the mirror might be extended downwards to give fur- ther length of view behind. In a neat tall at the back the spare wheel is carried horizontally and is easy to withdraw., Tools and the jack, for which there are runners so that it can be slid into place, are here also. The door can be locked and there is an outside petrol Aller et either side. There is space for a fair amount of luggage behind the back squad, which is hinged at the top but might well be fitted with a stay,
ADJUSTABLE BELT
a
Under the near side of the bonnet the generator, which shares a V-belt drive with the combined fan and impeller, The belt can be adjusted, as also the water gland, there is sufficient clearance for repacking, and thermostat controls the water cir- culation. Aft of the generator are. the filler and breather, the all cleaner, the dip-rod, and the .pedomatic starter. Tuere 15 ал outer ring to the oll-filler, so that the clutch thrust race and the universal joint of the propeller- shaft can be easily lubricated. Pedomatic starting is fully des- cribed in the Glossary in Cars of To-day. The coil is on the dash. The sparking plugs are fairly EC- cessible in the lead, and above are the make-and-break and distribu- tor.
On the offside of the engine is the downdraught carburettor with.. an air cleaner. The mixture for starting is automatically regulated by a thermostat. The valves are on this side and the tappets can be got at after a plate, with a number of small, studs has been removed. The water tap is get- at-able enough, though, the petrol filter, next to the mechanical pump, is rather obstructed by the steering. The steering box con- tains worm and sector. The drive is passed through a single-plate dry clutch to a three-speed cen- trally controlled gearbox having synchro-mesh for second and top. The unit assembly is flexibly niounted. The propeller shaft is enclosed, and leads to
a half- floating spiral bevel driven axle The four mechanical brakes are applied by pedal or a pull-out hand lever in the dash. The chassis suspension in front is by half elliptical springs shackled forwards. At the back end of the offside spring there is a steering shock damper. The rear suspen- sion is by a transverse spring which is held behind and below the top of the axle,
ON THE ROAÞ
LETTERING
Wives' Initials For Registration
The
system
BONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1935.
MOTOR JOTTINGS
LOOKING BACK
NEW MANAGER
of
Thirty-Five Years
For Cathay Motors
three-letter motor-car registration leda itself to some peculiar combinations". Many owners are seizing the chance of getting" their own ar their wives' initials on their new cars. In Middlesex the Council has been adding to the honours list more than 500 CMG's
Until last year it was possible with fair accuracy to tell the age of a car by its registration let- ters. The YM series. for in- stance, were allotted in London to cars Arst registered in 1927 Since the, introduction of the three-letter system this is. Do Innger possible
There are only 999 cars to each three-letter combination against 9,999 for the two-letter. ·
When the two-letter combina- tions and permutations were used up, the Transport Ministry. after considering a dozen diffe- rent numbering schemes, decided on the simple plan or prefixing the letters of the alphabet in urn to the old two-letter com- binations previously allocated among the count'es and boroughs ---ALA. AGF.-AYY, to be followed in due course by BLA, BGF and CLA, COF for London, and APA. APB and BPA, BPB for Surrey.
In this way all the territorial Identifications were retained; and. it was calculated that the system would last out the nex 30 years. As London has nearly finished the B series and Middlesex and Surrey are well into the C's, it appears that the calculation was optimis- tic.
MATTERS OF COURSE
used to set out on lang trips full" Not so very long ago, motorists of misgivings, particularly countries with roads of distinctly varying quality, and their fears were often justified. Now, how- ever, there few routes which the owner or a modern, reltable car, will not tackle with confidence. As an example, a-Wolseley coupé model in India was recently driven by a woman single-handed from Monghyr to Secunderabad, via Calcutta, distance of nearly 2.000 miles. The driver had to negotiate dense forests for hun- dreds of miles, with only rough tracks in addition to journey was accomplished in ́eight, and cne-half days.
Again, an Australian and wife have just completed a holiday trip from Brishane to Sydney, Melbourne Adelaide and back in. a six-cylinder Morris. The dia- tance covered was 4,307 miles, and the average petrol con- sumption 24.5 m.p.g. The time taken was approximately weeks,
three
While motoring in Australia an American stopped at a garage to have a small defect in "his ac- cumulator remedied.
"Waal" he inquired, when the youthful mechanic had complet- ed the task, "what's the charge fer this battery, son?"
"Six and a half volts, sir." was the Teply,
The American scratched his head "Yes," he said at length, "but how does that work out in American money?"..
that the synchro-mesh has been Improved and that delay need no longer be made in changes. The hand brake lever is accessible while being out of the way. The brakes by pedal wanted a certain pressure, but this is better, in my opinion, than too quick response, provided the action "la powerful enough and even-as it was on this car. The steering was datis- factory. The suspension is good for the size of the saloon, especial- ly at medium and higher rates;: the car travels comfortably. The general handling is simple and there is no bother when travelling slowly on top in restricted speed.
reas
The saloon looks well balanced and modern without exaggeration, and the general lines are attrac- tive. The sturdy engine gites the impression, like the rest of the chassis, that it does not mind hard work. Honesty bi purpose" rather than brillianty in its chief trait. At the same time, the car can accelerate rapidly and there. is no fuss or hesitation. It is not an engine which requires nursing in order to get up to the higher The comfortable greatest rates speeds. It is reasonably quiet on fast, second, and top, allowing though there is a little exhaust for rather fast speedometer read~ drum, and for its type the engine Ing. were 20, 40, and about 58 miles mounting passes on but Uttle an hour. There were two persona vibration. The car should be in the milnon, the roads were dry, economfest to run with its 4-cylin- der engine, reserve of power, and capacty for hard work without getting tired: The clutch acted properly, and the change speed
and the strong wind was favour- able. On the upgraded stretch the 15 Yol to 53, the 30 at the foot of the 1 in hill was increused to 42 at the top, and with a standing
was simple. Rather long waits for start on second on the old Dash- silent straight-through changes Wood Hill the crest was passed at were necessary, but I understand 30 miles an hour
•
"Information and complaint having been laid this day by --, » Superintendent of Police, than you, M. A, on Angust 12, 1898, in the Parish of in the County of
were the owner of a locomo- tive propelled by steam or by other than animal power on a public highway, which locomotive was not worked according to Rules and Regulations of the Locomotive Act, 1865, which re- quires that at least three persons shall be employed to drive or con duct such locomotive. and that ane of such persons while the lo comotive is in motion shall pre- cede by a least 20 yards the lo- comotive on foot. You are there- fore summonsed...
Thirty-nine years ago a friend of mině received a summons 80 worded, and with it an alternative in case the first was not proved. The second crime was that he "did
drive unlawfully
a locomotive. along a public highway within the town of at a greater speed than two miles an hour, to wit, at about Ave miles an hour." »
DETERMINED SPIRIT OF EARLY
. MOTORISTS
In due course my friend duly appeared in court and was fined. Such were the trials and tribula- tions of the pioneer motorist in this country. But, fortunately for the modern motorists, the at- titude of local magistrates did not deter the ploneers. They spurred on the manufacturers, and with- in a few years of the start of the movement this Act of 1865 had been more or less forgotten, and there were 5,000 motorists car- eering about the roads of Eng- land.
Motoring at the beginning of th's century had its advantages as well as its disadvantages, al- Though to modern eyes if would " seem that disadvantages far out- weighed the advantages. There was no traffic congestion then, and a motorist could travel for miles without seeing another au- drawback, for breakdowns were tomobile. This, however, had its
frequent; there were no scouts or R.A.C. patrols: garages were few and far between; and the motorist had to rely upon himself or a companion to help him out of trouble.
in
or-
Messrs. Cathay Motors, dealers Studebaker products an- nounce the arrival and appoint- ment... of Mr. Jay W. Myers BS general manager of their
Mr. Myers is no ganization. stranger to the Orient, "having" at one time represented Auburn and Brockaway lines. He arrived last week and is now superint- ending realignment of old policies and the incorporation of new methods.
:
Coming from Java and the Straits at about the same time was Mr. Dewey W. Smith recantly the elected vice-president of Studebaker Export Corporation. Mr. Smith reports Studebaker sales booming in Hongkong and Java while in the Philippine Islands registration of Studebaker cars during the first half of 1985. was exceeded by two much lower priced makes.
truck Studebaker
sales in America, show a decided increase this year having increased 58 per cent, for the first quarter of this years as compared to 1934.
Mr. Smith Intends spending about two to three months in the China market. before start- ing on another trip to India and Java
WILLYS THRILLS IN TESTS
IN AUSTRALIA
The Willys T, led the field in whole open competition for a year in successive tests of re- lability and speed conducted by the Royal Automobile Club of Australia, and other trials, ac- figures recently re- corting to ceived
The Willys. captured" ninetzen" first and five second-place victo- ries to establish what the Royal Club officials declare to be the most sensational series of motor- car test accomplishments in the history of Australia.
Then events, held during ten months of 1934 and in which both American “and European-. made automobiles took part, in- cluded rellablity, acceleration. hill climbing and speed, and in three instances the Willys entry established new club récords.
In one trial, for instance, 2 Willys broke exciting records for a mile acceleration for auto- mobiles, over 3,000 cc, previously held by an eight-cylinder entry, the and in the same event A
Toledo-made car recorded the fastest hill-climbing, time Irre- spective or class,
Petrol was cheap then-a mat- ter of 1s 3d, or 1. 4d, a gallon. The horse-power tax was unthought of, and the motorist had to pay a mere 4 4s. annually-£2 28. for carriage duty and £2 28. addi- tional duty for motor cars. driving licence cost 5s., so that the net annual tax for any make of car was but but 4 88. "
As to the prices of cars: for £175 you could get a Baby Peu- geot thirty years ago, and there was a variety of medium-priced cars, as well, of course, as those running into four figures.
Tyres, however, were expensive. The soild tyre was in vogue at the beginning of .he century, and it cost anything from 4 to 6. A Bet of tyres at £20 or so was, therefore, hardly cheap, espe- cially as the life of a tyre might be only a few thousand miles, and certainly never more than 8,000. Pneumatic tyres made their ap- pearance early in 1903, and were sold for no less than £40 apiece. Twelve months later they were only £15 each, while their solid brethren had dropped to £12 for
a set of four. -
1
YEARS OF REVOLUTION The years 1903 and 1904 really saw a revolution in motoring, ånd a complete change in the motor ing outlook. In 1903 a man drove 137 miles in 9 hours and was con- sidered a national hero. The ex- perts of the period considered that 12-20 hp. would be the usual asa tor work-a-day cars of the future, even for those of the wealthy, with 30 to 35 m.ph. as the limit of speed at the very outset. Twelve months later and even an 8 hp? angle-cylindered "baby" was dri- ven from Land's End of John e Groata in 62 hours. The distance of 898 miles was covered, in 183 hours actual running, un average of very nearly 20 mph.
The luxury car of 1964 was the Mercedes. The 60 hp model cost about £2,500, and the 18 hp. about £1,250. It was definitely
In another test, which in- cluded a one-half mile accelera- tion and a flying one-half mile hill climb, a Willys sedan covered one mile from a standing start in 59 2/5 seconds, equal to 60.8 miles per hour.
the
On
another occasion, Willys broke existing records for for Australia's Maldon Hill Climb, lowered the Royal Club's time for the same climb and clipped the club's record for the dying one half mile for cars over 2,000 c,c., time being 21 2/5 seconds for an average speed of 84.1 miles per hour.
an average speed of 49. m.p.h.. In an official test it reached 80 m.p.h.
£66 ANNUALLY
The cheapest car of those was the 6 h.p. Oldsmobile, wäich cost £150. It has one cylinder, was chain-driven, and could reach an proximately 30 m.ph. carrying its two passengers. And to do all this It required a gallon of petrol every 30 m les. Its tyres--pneumatle worked out at about £20 every 10,000 miles. Taking 10,000 miles as the distance run annually, the Oldsmobile cost at a minimum about £66 a year in running and maintenance expenses. Petrol took 222, and £21 went in re- newals and upkeep of engine, transmission and body: £3 WIS accoun for by Battery renewals, lubricating 0.1 and such odd-
allowance is made in this
garave," insurance
and
a poor man's car, for upkeep ran to about £700 a year, Thefd a 60 h.p, model could in 1904 travel from London to Holyhead, & dise tance of 270 válles, in 54 hours
items
2900.
Taken all in all, they were s days, and every pioneer will agree with me in thir
TOO MANY
EXTRAS?
RANDOM NOTES
From Here And There
"Already this year the Minister of Transportį has approved four (. times more roadwork to be carried out under Road Fund grants than last year.
A WONDERFUL MODEL In The Autocar of January 18th. last detalls of A clever mödel chassis with a wheelbase of 15in.
Are some standard cars atted with too many accessories? A plan is being considered on the Continent whereby a pery "bare" chassis and body are sold, at a low agure, the purchaser flating. better upholstery and even such components as a starter later on as he can afford more money. By this means manufacturers hope to tap a new price-class of owners. It is more than questionable whe-Its weight is 13lb. It has three
ther anything quite so drassic. would appeal to motorists in but some modification of the Contin- ental idea seems to have possibil-. itles. Is it not, time to consider, for example, whether the cigar-` lighters, roof-nets, visors, and so on, of at least some British cars-- - all of these are comparatively re- cent Introductions--could not be 'dispensed with, the denuced mo- dels in question being sold a few pounds cheaper than, but as an ' addition to, the standard range? We all of us like the extras, but we cannot always afford them'at once.
Many of the numerous secessor- fes now included in the standard specifications have been fitted to provide "selling points," and "uri- doubtedly they are Instrumental in persuading many people to buy. But manufacturers should ..consider seriously whether they could not market some specially cheap models devoid of all the smaller extras. In our opinion. there should be no removal of the major refinements, such as elect ric engine-starters. though "con- ceivably some mechanical device hand-operated from the driver's seat might, in these specially cheap models, be substituted for the electric starting motor. There is already the distinction between "standard" and "de luxe": the trouble is that so many "standard" cars are already "de luxe," while the "de luxe" models so named deserve an even more superlative title. We should welcome the views of readers on the desirabil-
.
were
published." It was. 'con- structed by Mr. J. H. E, Chapman and is insured for £100, "Some, 2,700 parts make up the model,, Including .589 nuts and 558 bolts.
DERITEND BRIDGE:
After a century and a half of service Deritend Bridge, Birming- ham, on road A41, is to be, de- molished and a new one substitut-. ed at a cost of £24,000, towards which a Road Fund grant has been made. The new bridge will be of steel and concrete and have a total width of 110ft. S
TRIALS ORGANISERS NOTE! * Complaints that moorland lanes in the Peat district are in "bad condition as a result of frequent motor trials were made at", the
forward speeds and a reverse. This
annual meeting of the Buxton model is now
`and District branch of the Coun- on view at theil for the Preservation of Rural [showrooms” of'S. Smith and Sons
(Motor Accessories), Ltd. 179-185, Great Portland Street, London, WI, where it will remain for about a fortnight.
PARODY
This means efficient knee action and perfect trouser suspen- ston over any kind of surface at any speed-without the necessity" for shock absorption by the owner or anyone else.”—Advertisement for braces...
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DISADVANTAGE DISCOVERED
With the object of attractiny tourists the Irish Free State Gov- ernment will shortly consider al- terations to the present arrange- ments for entering the country for touring purposes.
ity of adopting some modified" form of the Continental plan.
It has often been remarked that, while foreign Governments take great interest in the exploits "of their country's racing cars, 'no official encouragement is given to British" racing drivers. The Min- ister of Transport has inaugurat- ed a new state of affairs. Prior to the Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance he sent a telegram to the RAC representative wishing all the British cars and drivers the best of luck) This action is much appreciated.},
I
said to have been absolutely ruin England. Jenkins Chapel Hill was
ed and the stone walls knocked down. Eltton. Black in the same district is in danger of being closed, as was mentioned in the leading "article on the subject recently.
SCOTLAND'S FIRST MOTORIST"
A defendant described as "the... first man to drive a car in Scot- land" was fined 10s. at Jedburgh recently for leaving his car un- attended with the engine running. He said he forgot to switch off the engine, The last occasion he was fined for a motoring of- fence cost him 6d.--this being last century.
POLICE STEAL CARS.
It is reported that hundreds of motorists in Budapest. recently found cars, which they had left. parked in the streets, stolen. They had been temporarily confiscated by the police in order to test whe- her car owners were taking pro- er precautions. against theft. Their owners were registered as "careless motorists,"
· WATERLOO BRIDGE,
An experiment allows north- bound traffic to proceed over the temporary Waterloo Bridge from 8 pm. to „6 am: on Mondays to Fridays, instead of from 10 pm. to 6 a.m, Week-end arrangements are unchanged.
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