THIS
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
The Pontiac Sedan
With the Style, Speed and Beauty that appeals to all.
HIIS is a car that has lúxury and refinement at a price that compels the attention of all who are contemplating a car purchase. It is engined with the famous Pontiac six-cylinder engine, and is fitted with all that is latest in motordom,
A. LUNG
&
PRICE NOW.
H.K. $2,500.00
Completely Equiped
CO
19, Queen's Road, Central,
Telephone C. 1919.
If you would experience the atmost in tyre per- formance fit the new All Weather Tread Balloon.. No other tyre can deliver, such positive traction and safety or such long, "slow and even wear.
"Goodyear's Greatest Tyre"
GOOD YEAR
GOD
DISTRIBUTORS
4007
ALEX. ROSS & Co. (China), Ltd.
PRINCE'S BUILDING, HONGKONG.
MOTORING SUPPLEMENT SATURDAY, MARCH
FRONT WHEEL DRIVE IS COMING,
if supplied and fitted after the car has been delivered, 600. The open two-seater without a super charger will be guaranteed to lap Brooklands at 90 m.p.h., and with
Alvis Produces a New 4 supercharger to exceed 100
Sporting Chassia. -
m.p.h.
Somo idea of the low build possible is given by the fact that Successful evolution has now a proper saloon body giving 48in. brought the mechanism of the of head room has on the now Alvis modern car to a pitch where it can an overall height from the ground | quite safely be subordinated to the of about 5ft. One of the reasONS arrangement of the conchwork. for the production of the new car, This is a truth that the imagina of which quite a number are now tive designer has begun to realise. going through the works, is to No longer need the body be built make a response to a number of to suit the chassis. A new era requests already made for it, and ja arriving whan the chassis can another is the particular auftabili- be designed to suit whateverty of the design, to many of the arrangement of body is considered forthcoming sporting events, such best for the coachbuilders to stan-1as the Fsacx six-hour race and the dardise,
Le Mans 24-hour race."
SNOWY PASS
Big issues are involved in this
There is a deal of technical in- statement, for it implies that the terest to be found in the mechant- motor car has not, by any means, cal specification. The engine is a reached the settled form which new design, but in it many of the people have come to regard as standard Alvis parts such as finality. Care a fow years hence crankshaft, connecting rods, and may be na far in advance of valves are used. It has four. o-day's products as the latter are cylinders, 68X103 mra. (1,496 cc.), superior in comfort, speed, and blockcast, and dropped into a deep safety to those of the pre-war aluminium crank case which sup- period: Greater knowledge, more orbs the crankcraft in threat experience, finer machining and bearings. The sump holds about better materials combine to bring three gallons of oil and the pumps into the realm of serious possibiliare submerged. A train of gear ties all sorts of ideas which would wheels provides the drive for an have been shunned as freakish overhead camshaft enclosed in an few years ago:-
aluminium cover, beneath which Very steadily the average speed the valves are set in a straight nt which the motor traffic of the line in the detachable cylinder world" proceeds is increasing head. The cams wipe over small Concurrently the need grows more platons interposed above the upper Insistent for improved stability of and of the valves, so that the the car on the road, niore comfort-Hatter receive no side thrust.. 'A able springing, and greater free-nent mounting at the side of the dom for the use of powerful cylinder block carries the super- brakes and rapid acceleration on charger, whilst the dynamo and bad or treacherous road surfaces. B.TH. polar inductor magneto are To satisfy this need cars will have forward of the engine, high up. to be built lower. The weight and accessible. A 12-volt electric must be closer to the ground, and system is employed. the seating accommodation more nearly inside the wheelbase. How an Ultra-low cg: is Secured. At the forward end of the engine are a flywheel and plate clutch, One of the simplest ways of enclosed in a bell housing which securing some of these advantages makes engine and four-speed gear large trunnion bearing provided in garded as a mechanical breakdown is offered by applying the drive box Into unit. Forward of tho the bracked just below the and no damage could be claimed,“' from the engine to the front gear box and Integral with it is a anchorage for the butt end of the wheels instead of to the rear, easing containing the spiral bevel spring. Attached to the levor not Quite distinct from any virtues final drive. and differential. On far from the spring shackle is the which the front wheel drive may each side of this easing are drum hub of the rear wheel. have from a mechanical pólpt of for the front wheel brakes, and There are brakes on all four would allow - compensation in the view, it makes a clean sweep of universal joints for the short wheels, and these are. mechanical- special circumstances, "I think it most of the difficulties incidental shaft that run out to neatly ly oporated throughout The probable that they will meet their to building a tow body on the enclosed universal joints, in the arrangement of the chassis is such clients, say, half-way. The smaller orthodox type of chassis. By a front wheel hubs, the arrangement that the frame can be built extra companies will not be able to go low body is not meant a body with being similar to that on the latest ordinarily lów, and, indeed, the so far." a lower top and leas head-room, Alvis racing cars, but most neatly clearance between the ground and but a normal Lody set closer in and tidily enclosed in the manner the bottom of the frame is in the
དྷཱ、、“
..
The Power Unit.
The last trip over the McKenzie pass in Oregon was through canyons, of snow, like that in the upper picture. Ploughs, na shown In the lower photo, had to cut through deep snow drifts to find the road..
its entirely to the ground; no needful to a privately owned neighbourhood of 9in
sacrifice of space or comfort should be entalled.
With orthodox rear wheel drive the middle of the frame of the car
is cumbered with a propeller
veilcle. The front wheels are independently sprung, each with 2
a battery of four quarter-elliptic SPECIAL NEEDS OF THE leaf springs, and down the central
axis of this clustor passes the
shift, which must have room to universally jointed shaft for rise and fall, and a massive axle driving the wheels. From expert-
DOMINIONS.
casing across the rear. Thus the ments which the designer has re- Attitude of Insurance
floor of the body has to be high cently been carrying out It has enough to give clearance to the been found that thi afront wheel propeller-shaft, and the rear seat drive, together with its Indepen-
Companies.
The
high enough to be clear of the dent aleering for each front wheel, Are motorista whose cars have protruding bevel case of the rear entirely eliminates the possibility been damaged in snowdrifts likely axle. When front wheel drive is of wheel wobble occurring, even to obtain compensation through in- used, however, the frame of the when the tyres are deliberately surance companies? car aft the engine is entirely, un-under-inflated to a considerable The question was put during the encumbered, the wheels can be extent.
recent bad weather by The Daily separately carried and sprung so The Alvis Company state that Chronicle representative to con- that there is no rear axle at all. eir reason for making a super-panies and associations, and con- and then the complete body can charged optional is that, ns the tradictory answers were given. be mounted on a dropped frame so result of long and careful exporl-
An official of one of the most im- that the floor boards are barely mental and testing work, they do nortant companies said, "There is a foot above ground level, or about not consider that sufficient pro-not the smallest possible chance of twelve inches lower than they are greas has been made to warrant such claims being allowed." on the usual type of car,
The opposite view was, It the adoption of the supercharger amounts to lowering the centre of for all purposes. Whereas in the larger companies will almost cer claims. We gravity of the body with its full right hands and with reasonable tainly allow such
shall." load of occupanta by nearly 50 per attention and consideration. the
Giving an Instance of a claim cent., so that the gain in stability supercharger may be relied upon most likely to be allowed, the is very great indeed.
to give no actual trouble, on the other side of the picture is the official of the second company anid that one of their cllents was motor- fact that, in the hands of a care ing through Brecon, Wales, when It is a pleasure to record that a less or not well-informed owner, huge, bank of snow fell from the British firm has been the first to the results quite likely would not hillside, and so completely buried recognise the possibilitics of probe satisfactory over prolonged the car that the occupant was in ducing cars for general use based periods. There are, in addition, danger of suffocation. Before on these principles of design,ery many people who would like starting the journey he had taken namely, the Alvis Company, which to enjoy the benefits which a front the precaution of buying a shovel. has been experimenting very wheel drive and independently He was able to dig himself out and seriously on racing cars during rung car would give them, but minimise the damage to the car. the past four yours to determine do not necessarily require the the efficiency and soundness of highest maximum speed perform
Results of Racing Experience.
as a fance.
Frame Only 9 Inches Above Ground.
Impact Only" Policies. Where claims are disallowed it will be because the insurance policy covers only damage done by im pact, "When a car has been buried in a snowdrift," said an official of
the front wheel drive mechanical proposition. This in- tensive experience standard Alvis parts such as crank-shaft has been reached to produce, additionally to To return, however, to the a, third company, "it cannot be the models already standardised, a mechanical details, in the ordinary said to have been damaged by im- front wheel driven, fully equipped sense of the word there is no back pact with an extraneous object. four-seater supersports touring axle at all; the extreme rear end. "Damage by snow, as by sun, car, with independent springing, of the frame is very stiffly crosswind or rain, is categorised as an and, if desired, a supercharger for braced with, a tube, and at each act of God, and go insurance policy If a car Its now type four-cylinder engine, end of the tube is a bracket carry-covera suh damage. The prices of the new cars aro:ing the butt end of a quarter- skidded and collided with an ex- four-or two-senter opon car, £675; elliptic spring" pointing forwards, traneous object the damage would "Alvista" fabric saloon, £650. If The thin end of the spring lathe covered by the insurance. But In aupercharger fe aupplied with shackled to the end of an arm or if a car skidded into a deep snow- the car the cost is £50 extra, or lover which swings about a very drift and while embedded the cylinders cracked, Impact could not be proved and a claim could not be sustained."!
A WARNING TO
WIVES,
He sat at the wheel; so's to steer While his wife poured advice in his ear; "Turn to left! Turn to right!" "Mind that car! What a fright!", Now she's had her last ride-on a bler;
There are somo 200 motor In- surance companies with offices in London, and most of them are allied to the Accident Office Association. It is understood that the association' will give special consideration to, the question of claims for damage sustained in the present severe con- ditions. An official of the associa- tion told The Daily Chronicle that nothing had been .... done! in the matter yot, but that. a) discussion of the subject was "highly probable.”
The Automobile Association pressed the view that insurance.
An official of the RAO, unid he believed that, while no claim could
be sustained, it was not improb- able that the larger companies
NASH
LEADS THE WORLD IN MOTOR CAR VALUE
Engina 6 cylinder.
7. Bearing Crankshaft.
4 Wheel "Mechanical Broker.
6 Disc Stoel Whenin
5 Full size balloon cord tyres. Automatic windshield wiper, afr cleaner, oil purifier, petrol filler, col vent Intor, force feed lubrica tion, front & rear bumpers, rather upholstery, bydrostalo gasoliner
gouge,
Naah Standordix Tourer. ... G$11.50; Nash Advanced-Six 7 Tourer G31650 Prices for other models on application
Free rides to prospective hugera. Bele agent for South Chine
Wong Siu Woon,
21 Pottinger Bt. Phona: G. 1474- Service Station, 70 Des Faux Roud C.
JOIN
THE HONGKONG: AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
A Fow Advantages: 10% Off Motor Car Insurance Free Legal Advice Bellable Drivers Supplied- Free Mechanical Advica Assosiate Membership. of (the E, A. O. sud A. A. London,
All Communications for Membership, sto to REY. G. 8. UPADELL Hon. Secretary
might be claimed if accident could C/o "Hongkong Telegraph
be proved. "If the cylinders were
frozen and cracked it would be re-j