Page
A FAMOUS ITALIAN
DESIGN
The New 28 h.p. Lancia
Lancia
It was with more interest than usual that I took over the new 28 h.p. eight-cylinder (called the "Astura") for trial last week writes a correspondent. Ever snge Lancla broke away from all accepted standards of suspension- design, some five years after the wer, and built the first of those strange-looking cars called "lamb- das," his productions have been characterised by three principal design, features-originality of sturdiness of construction, and longevity,
All tour models. the 12 h.p., re- viewed in The Observer last Jun- uary), the 18 h.p...the 28 h.p.. and the 32 hp, have the famous Lan- cia Independent
front-wheel
springing and the equally famous V-set engine, giving the very com. pact cylinder-block and the use- fully short crankshaft.
No Sxes are made, the two smaller cars being Fours and the others Eghts. It is not quite true to say that no material change has
been made since the first "Lambda" design, hs certain mo- d'fications have been carried out In the chassis plan, but, generally speaking, the twelve-year-old "principles are abtered to to-day. These are decidedly unorthodox and have never, to my knowledg been copied.
H
THE ENGINE.
The Astura is a comparatively new model, 'being a small edition of the "Dilambda" 32 h.p. The cap- acity of the engine is just under three Htres, as against the four of the bigger car, and the wheelbase is about six inches less in both the in all ong and snor chassis. other relevant points the, cars are very similar. The overhead val- ves are operated by chain-driven camshaft and rockers, and there a clever arrangement by which the timing is retained when the need arises for dismantling the drive.
►
A single down-draught carbur- ettor with an acceleration pump" Leeds the engine, the fuel-pump being electric. Ignition is by Besch coll and distributor, and cooling is by pump and automatically controled shutters. The whole engine to very neat, its length be- ing only a little over twenty-four inches. The fourspeed gearbor is of a strictly normal design, with a silent third. The track is 4 ft. 7in., the clearance 7 In, and the two whes bases available 10 ft. 2 in, and 10 ft. 11in. The oll-points on the chassis are supplied by a one-shot control on the dash.
COACHWORK.
1
The coachwork I tred was of Italian manuracture, a saloon of
SMOOTHNESS.
12.."
In addition to the constant, ez- cellence of the front-wheel springing (and it is very good in- deed) there is the variable ien- sion of the shock-absorbers on the rear axle. You twist a handy knob on the dash and bghian or slacken the snubbers as you like. It is odd, feeding the road sudden- ly smooth itself out under your fingers.
The engine runs with great smoothness, and although it is not particularly quiet at high speeds its hum is not disagree- 20:4. The silent third is nearly noiseless, but at high speed sec ond is decidedly audible. changing is easy and quick, the engagement of the clutch smooth and rapid.
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1935.
MOTOR JOTTINGS
MOTORING HINTS COACHWORK COMFORT
Recognisable Symp.
toms Of Car Ills
Just as the motorist should be able to judge from his own" symp- toms that the latter are due to, say, a disordered liver caused by Indiscretions at table the day be- fore, so he should be able, if he has had a little experience in the care and driving of cars, to judge from the symptoms what ails his car when it is obviously "of colour."
Unfortunately, however, like the doctor and the medical specialist, nether the most expert mechanic
nor Gear-
The Astura put up a very good show in hill-climbing. Rebbie- combe, with its maximum gradi- ent of one in five and a half was climber from a standsti: on sec- ond in thirty seconds, the speedo- meter rising straight up to thirty- five miles an hour, without any Intermediate drop. and Box HI! was taken all the way on third The latter impressed me more by reason of the ready acceleration -after the second and sharpest hairpin berd. The lock. is quite extraordinary. The car feels as if it were jointed in the middle.
I calculate that the comfortable maximum speeds on third and second are about sixty and forty miles an hour. The ease and readiness with which sixty-five miles an hour is a cained (that is about its comfortable cru'sing speed is one of the mosa delight- fut features of a very attractive
It costs £875.
car.
NEW OWNER.DRIVER.
DAIMLER
The Daimler Motor Company have just announced the intro- duction of a new model, the six- cylinder "Light" Twenty. It is primarily intended to be an owner-driver's.. car. as distinct from the previous Tweny, which was a chauffeur-dr.vm model
The new car has an engine of two and a half itres, with a tax of £25. The general design of the engine is the same as in the latest, with overhead valves and the cylinder head cast integrally with the block.
It has a top speed of seventy- five miles an hour, and has been designed for long life as well as high performance...
A number of interesting 1:a-
the brakes, which renders the necessary ffort of application ex- tremely light, and the front-seat- ing arrangement by which the driver is enabled to see the near- side front wing.
:
what has came to be known as "tures include vacuum control to the Continental type-that is, a rather short body with a rather low roof and a good-sized inbuilt boot, on the falling lid of which two spare wheels are carried. It is a well-finished piece of work, the chief feature of which is the excellence of the upholstery, the depth of this seats n both come! partemis, the generous elbow- room, and the wide range of vision for both driver and passen- gers. The screen is sharply raked and is conveniently close up to the wheel
Although the roof is low there is enough headroom
The only criticism I have to make is the ancient and inevitable one of leg- room. For the long-legged there is not much more than foot-com in the back, though the full dep.hy of the seat compensates a little for this. It is an ancient grudge and, so long as makers put four- seated bodies on to short chassis, seating the back passengers with- in the axles and providing hand- some luggage accommodation, it will remain inevitable. The Lan- cla is no worse an offender than the rest. The front seats are ex- tremely comfortable.
*
On the road the car's special qualities are such as to make you' forget everything else. There is first of all, that familiar Lancia road-holding, combined with and largely due to the Lanela suspen- son. This is a fast car on all gears, a maximum of well over eighty miles an hour being fairly easily reached and held, yet at mo speed.in any ordinary circumstan- ces was there the slightest ten- dency to wander, from the nar- rowest straight line. You can put that big car exactly where you want her exactly when you want to. The steering is outstandingly good, light, direct, and high-gear-
The prices are £675 for the six- light saloon and £695 for the four-light saloon.
MORE HEAVY-OIL VEHICLES IN USE
A large increase in the number of vehicles with heavy-oll engines is shown in the return of vehicle registrations issued recently by the Society of Motor Manufactur- ers and Traders,
In May of this year 4320 hack- ney vehicles with heavy-oll en- gines were in use compared with 1751 in May last year, an increase of 148.7 per cent.
The total reg siered for Octo ber-May was 1302 compared with 284 for the corresponding period of the previous year, an increase of 358.5 per cent. Three hundred and forty-six similar vehicles were newly registered in May, as against 119 in May last year,{ an Increase of 190.8 per cent. A total of $178 meavy-oil goods vehi cles up to and over 24 tons were in use in May this year, an in- crease of 67.9 per cent. on the figure in May last year, ?
The number of agricultural vans and lorries in use in May was an increase of $1.7 per cent. over May las: year, the figures being 9111 compared with 6007
There were fewer goods vehicles driven by steam and cdal gas, the number in use in May being 2073 compared with 2822 in May last year, & decrease of 20.9 per cent.
the specialist in automobile. equipment is infallible.. For one reason, certain symptoms apply equally to more than one kind of derangement; for another, like the patient in a consulting room, the car owner is sometimes unable to provide the garage mechanic with Information that might form the basis of a correct diagnosis, or. when he tries to explain what is wrong he may miss some point that would. I mentioned, enable the mechanic immediately to put his finger on the spot, whereas his amission of that one symptom causes the others to indicate ar entirely different and distinct cause of the trouble.
LOCATING THE TROUBLE
30
Frequently, too, the car owner is unable to describe any symptoms whatever: he can say no more to guide the motor expert than the nian who could only tell the doctor that he has a pain, but not where.
"My car makes a noise, but I don't know where; I can't describe it and I've never noticed whether anything in particular makes it start or stop.though it never seem to occur when anyone else is in the car but myself." Imagine a motor mechanic attempting to diagnose in a case like that! "And the words quoted are neither im- aginary nor exceptional in their uninformative character.r
The motorist who can do, no better than that to assist the gar- age man will probably have a big- ger bill to pay when the noise has been traced and cured, for the re- pairer may have to drive the car 20 or even 50 miles to identify and locate It.
Admittedly, some irregular noises are very difficult to describe, and the clcumstances in which they are prone to arise are not easy to recognise and recall. But before the car owner seeks the help of a repairer he should try to form ideas concerning any kind of fault, so that he can pass them on in the hope that they will aid, in diag-' nosis.
When an engine misfires, for example, the driver should be care ful to note the running conditions, If any, that always or usually cause it to commence, cease or become less or more noticeable. He should notice whether a knock comes on when the engine is pulling of the" car is over-running the engine, whether it occurs, continues or ceases when the car is, coasting with the gears in neutral and whether it is louder or less evident as and when the engine warms up. Each of such symptoms may carry the mechanic a little or a long way towards quick and correct diag nosis.
A horrible squeak on 'all except very
smooth roads was traced without delay on a car belonging to a friend of the writer when he was able to tell a garage mechanic that it always ceased for a time after the car had been washed and" soon after the car was taken out on a wet day, The body-holding bolts were slightly loose, allowing the body to #Jiggle": "on the chassis; but when water got be- tween the insecure contact surfaces it served for a while as a lubricant and stopped the squeak SYMPTOMS OF IRREGULARITIES
Among the symptoms of irregu larities that should identify them. selves to the owner-driver are the
igWhen an engine mis following ares badly, practically ceasing to fire as soon as it attains a certain speed, irrespective may be of the
gear in use one is fairly safe in diagnosing a partially petrol- choked fiter-etrol" “star
If an engine, has been puiling well and suddenly stops without premonitory or other symptoms, Ignition) coll failure (with batte may be suspected, partic the engine was runnin
The 16-h.p. Standard
A. 1995 car that impressed me favourably on the new Observer trial route is the 16-h.p. six-cylin- der Standard writes a correspon- dent. For several yours Standards have made a name for themselves. in more than one important point, principally in lively per- formance and accommodation and the new car scores in bothe It is one of the few popular cars at the new popular price of £23 that letted with "a good-sized body, and for that reason alone It should be of interest to that much-quoted and often long-sur- fering person, the family man. He should always have sympathy, for he obviously needs. space before anything else-ma¬ terial, workmanship and cffc-. being" admitted-and he lency
very seldom gets it at anywhere... near £300..
0137
You can buy all sorts of very nice motor-cars round about that figure, fast and.quiet and comfor- table for two or three people, but very few in which the power is not wasted and general ease and touring comfort sacrified to the ugly and quite unpractical "sport- ing" outline.
Some of these so-called sporting bödles have not even the excuse of weight-reduction, being nearly if not quite as heavy. as their mure sensible alsters, and the spurting qualities are found only in the coachwork. If a sloping roof, the minimum of headroom end elbow-room and an all-round close it made any perceptible dif- ference to performance or fuel- consumption, there might be samething to be said in their ex-. cuse, but as a rule the only di- ference between them and the or- dinary type is in essential com- fort
*ROOM TO SPARE"
The Standard Sixteen is not of this kind, but a decent-sized car in which a day's driving can be done without that cramped feel- ing coming on after the first hour, the feeling that", makes people
moment before it ceased to fire. But if it would run at idling speed and then stop when an attempt was made to accelerate it, a choked main let would be a reasonable diagnosis. „
On the other hand." pops and bangs
accompanied the sudden stop, coil trouble could be ruled out at once; more likely the cause, would be a "floating" impediment in the passage between carburetter Boat chamber and jet,
When one cylinder only ceases to fire the cause will almost always be in the ignition—a cable adrift or a sparking plug at fault. But it ali cylinders misfire Irregularly the contact-breaker is the first thing: to inspect and test.
It will be seen, therefore, that ff the car owner takes note of symptoms as and when they ex hibit themselves, before, after, or during the occurrence of an irre- gularity, he may facilitate the diagnosis and cure of the trouble by a motor mechanic, even though he may not recognise the fault himself while" nothing "Its "symp- toms.
use the railway for long distan- ces instead of their otherwise much more suitable cars. The catalogue says that five full- grown people can be carried “and. have room to spare." I don't know that I would agree to that, my. experience being that three laïge- people on the back seat can only travel really comfortably when the car is a big one and, especial-" ly, a long one, but I certainly re- gard this 'car as properly comfort table for four. Two on the back seat should be able to stilit poal- tion as much as they like, and that is indispensable on a long Journey It is very seldom allow- ed for.
The available body-space on the
ft. 3 in. wheelbase and the 4- ft. 8 in track (the latter is the usual full measurement) has been made proper use of, very little if any being wasted on luggage-- space. There is a shallow locker in the back panel which carries e'ther the spare wheel or a suit- case, the lid forming a tray for luggage, but it hardly encroaches on the seating-space. This is as it should be. A built-in locker, if it is of useful proportions, is very handy thing to have, but unless the car is a really big one or the overhang is absurdly long, the passengers suffer. This is a sensible body, and, considering its size, the car is not, for to-day, unduly heavy at 28 cwt.
THE ENGINE.
The engine has มิ bore and stroke of 65.5 by 106, the cubic capacity being well over two litres, and the tax is £12. It is a plain job, with lateral valves, pump cooling. machined combustion. chambers and ports, coil ignition with automatic advance-and-re- lard, automatic re-self-starter and a carburetter-lepcer. The 20-hp engine, 73 by 106, can be had without extra charge.
The standard model has an or thodox' four-speed gear-box, with synchro-mesh to top, third and second, plus a free wheel, but the Wilson pre-seleclive box may be had for another £35. The gear- ratios are 5.5, 7.2, 11.1, and 18.9 to 1, but if desired an alternative ratio can be had of 4.75, 0.5, 10. and 17,1 to 1. This is a feature very seldom met with, and I was much attracted by it. There is a good deal to be said for a high gear on Continental roads, for example, and the makers are to De congratulated on offering their customers so useful a choice.
It will be seen, then, that this car has a rather remarkable spe- cification for £285, from, which I "s ngle out the alternative grar-. ratio and the roomy body for spé-- cial notice. Its prformance is Although the claimed lively. * speed is 85 miles an hour the speedometer was showing 69 at maximum revolutions, while the best pace on third was 50 and 35
on second.
ACCELERATION.
The acceleration was good, the engine picking up smartly from a crawl and getting away rap'dly. The claimed figure from 10 to 30 miles an hour is 10 seconds, with two up, and I should think it was Justified..
The Proven STOMACH REMEDY
for Bad Cases
Amaring evidence of the remarkable 'speed. With which indigestion and' stomach pains can be stopped has been revealed by medical" experiments and X-ray photographa of actual cases. These prove the ingredients of Bisu rated Magnesia to be the quickest acting and most effective known to medical pelance. Within 5 mins & conful of
Blaurd
little wate Magnesia in a produced complete relief, in CERA where numberises ather remedlem has failed entirely.
"A.NOTED" ENGLISH DOGTOR SAYS:
"I find that "Bisarated: Magneria taksa. after my meals is the only thing. that keeps me free from pain and discomfort, and I tako it regularly, I often
Its Action Explained-scribe it for my patients, and have
Simply take a teaspoonful of the powder in this water. The moment this soothing draught reaches the kurtured stomach di begins to sweeten the sour, fermenting un- digested food. The contents of the stomach become as bland and soothing milk to the-panaitive" stomach, lining. The pain quickly lement and presently disappears. By Allowing up the treatment after Bench meal, your furasod stomach will soon lobes, lis. tandemask and, grow, strang, until
·YOU HAD · Out whatever you like endanley every meal, without hear of wiod and pain.
had very good results."--
H.G. MA, M.R.C.S., L.R.CP.: ANOTHER DOCTOR SAYS: ***Bisurated Magnesia gives excellent. results and in the ideal remedy for stomach pains and acidity. It is particularly recommended for Dyspepsia, Gastritis, Stomach Pains. Flatulence, and even Stomach Ulcers.
H. L Faculty of Medicine, Paris.
'BISURATED' Magnesia
quickest stomach relief known
Always ase the oval "HISMAO ' trad” mark on every packars
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