1932-09-17 — Page 8

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. MOTORING SUPPLEMENT. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1932.

MORRIS MAJOR SIX

THE MOST COMFORTABLE

& ECONOMICAL

SIX

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE MORRIS MAJOR SIX

New chromium radiator with automatic shutters. Air clooning and pro-heating units on the six cylinder engine developing 32 B.H.P. Triplex safety glass windscreen. Light but accurate steering.

Instant approval is given to the extra refinements in this popular model. The now "Twin Top” silent gear box gives speed and accoloration on steep hills with Wider half the strain on engine and transmission. track and the new chassis frame make for more room and better road holding qualitios.

Coupe and Saloon models have Pytchloy sliding heads and Triplex Safoty glass all round, including window louvres,

A.P.B. 72.

DODWELL & CO.,

ICE

LIMITED HOUSE. STREET HONG KONG AND AT CANTON,

Trust A Thornycroft With Your TranSPORT

DEAL DIRECT.

THORNYCROFT

SIX-CYLINDERED

COACHES & OMNIBUSES

MOTOR VEHICLES

Pioneer Manufacturers of Commercial Motor Vehicles

4 or 6 Wheels

4 or 6 Cylinders

30 Cwt. to 10 Ton Loads

20 to 70 Passengers

· JOHN 1. THORNYCROFT & CO., LIMITED Pioneer Building, Nathan Road, Kowloon. TEL. 50752.

Trust A Thornycroft With Your TRANSPORT

MOTORING AND MOTORS.

The 20-H.P. Sunbeam.

(By John Priolcàu.)

I

It was with particular interest that I took the Întest model of the 20-h,p. six-cylinder Sunbeam over my favourite tost-route. The Sunbeam works have produced a fairly large number of typos since the war, varying botween the now defunct 30-h.p, eight, the excellent 24-h.p. aix (about ton years ago), and the 16-h.p. four, but of them all I have always preferred the 20-h.p., partly because its power, size, and weight have always been nicely balanced to produce a car of all-round utility, partly becauso in has consistently improved. I know an old 16-h.p. four intimate ly. Its mileage must be well over and it goes; and continues to go, in a manner which comparos very well with the performance of quite a number of new sixes I know. I recognised In the be haviour of the 1932 20-h.p. six cer- tain important qualities which give the old four its enviable character.

Some Good Points

The Twenty has not a 20 but a 24-taxed engine, the bore and stroke being 80 by 110, and the cubic content about three and one- third litres. The valves are operated overhead by pushrods and rockers, and the cylinders have linera which, it is claimed, reduce wear to a very large extent. This is an interesting point, as there is no doubt that the neces- sity for roboring after, say, 50,- 000 miles, and fitting oversize pis- tana, to serious drawback In high-speed engines. Not all such efficient engines require it, as I happen to know from very plea- Bant personal experience; but, generally speaking, any but the very best workmanship and material must suffer under high piston speed. With liners which can, if necessary, be renewed from time to time there is no need for new pistons.

The ignition is now by coil and battery instead of by polar Induct. or magneto. In one way, at least, I regret thin, having a particular affection for the elasticity, so to put it, of a magneto's snark, which is at its hottest and best at high speed. On the other hand, the change has made, for better accessibility. It was one of the drawbacks of the old Sunbeam design that the make-and-break of the magneto was difficult to get at in comfort, being too close to the dash. Gas is supplied by a single vertical Zenith carburettor, fed from the fourteen-gallon tank by. petrol pump. A sort of leader tank is mounted on the dash, hold- ing about half a pint, which en- ables the engine to be started in- atantly after the carburettor has been drained for adjustment pur- poses.

Slow Running

BUS FOR WORLD'S FAIR

SIGHTSEERS.

Visitors to Chicago's 1988 Century of Progress Exposition will get their eyes full sooing sights from a fleet of buses like the one above, a few`of which have already been put in operation. The buses will make a tour of the exposition grounds, stopping at various placos. The vehicles will travel over spcefal ronds and be directed by a special truffleTM system put

into effect for the duration of the exposition.

GAR WOOD'S RECORD-BREAKING BOAT.

Here are a few shots of America's greatest motorboat speedster, Gar Wood. Above is shown Wood, left, and Mechanican Orlin Johnson, testing out the new boat, Miss America X. Lower left is Miss America IX when.ahe.act a new record of 111.32 miles an hour in Florida last winter. Lower right is the latest photograph of the grey-haired speed demon.

Four Engines for Speed

BRAKING POWERS OF CARS.

Results of Official Tests.

From time to time somo re- markable statements are made by motorists in respect to the dis- tances cinimed they can pull up their car, when travelling on the road. Recently one motorist in- volved in a court case stated that. from a speed of 40 to 45 miles per hour he could stop in 20 feet,

Other statements of a Ithe nature are not uncommon. Such claims are far beyond the stopping powers of any brakes, good as the modern type of four-wheel brakes

Inre.

If many motorists are under the erroneous impression that they Jean bring their cars to a standstill from 10 m.p.h. in 20 feet, then it is little wonder that motor ac- · cidents are on the increase, -

With a view to enlightening the optimista, who have such an ex- alted opinion of the decelerating power of their cars, figures are here cited representing really high-braking efficiency.

Official teats made by the Royal Automobile Club, England, with an 18 h.p. six-cylinder sedan car, equipped witir Dewandre vacuum servo brakes-one of the most powerful systems of braking mado gave the following results:- At 10m.p.h., car stopped in 6 ft.; at 20 m.p.h., in 15 ft.; at 30 mp.h., in, 134 ft.; at 40 m.ph., in 72 ft.:

50 m.p.h., in 108 ft.

A Rolls-Royce, one of the most powerfully braked cars in the world, can be stopped on dry roads from 30 m.p.h. în about 27 ft.. Of official tests conducted by the

A Vital Factor

(The following article was writ racer claimed 6400 horsepower 'English Club with 41 British-made This new Zenith gives the Sun- for The Hongkong Telegraph short from its four engines, almost cars, including many makes of beam the slowest idle running I Ly before the recent contest which twice the power of Miss America small types, the average stopping IX, with which he set a world's distance at 30 m.p.h, was 37.8 ft., can remember-the slowest and Gar Wood won).

Detroit, Aug. 10 record of 11.71 miles an hour last the average with 12 American care the most regular. It is almost

You may

ace the motorboat (winter bofore Kaye Don broke It. at the same speed was 34.3 ft., and possible to count the revolutions per minute by watching the start speed record of the world go Sixty-four hundred horsepower with 17 Continental maken of cars. ing-handle notches on the end of higher than 120 miles an hour this 'is considerably more than that 85.4 ft. the crankshaft. At all events, I year when Gar Wood, grey-haired contained in the record-breaking estimated the speed at not more authority on that type of racing, craft of Kaye Don. The latter's

a boat was rated at 4000 horsepower. i

These figures were attained-un- than 100 r.p.m. Another excel- and known the world over as

der conditions favourable for lent now feature is the design of record holder, pilots his newest the strangler, which automatically craft, Miss America X In the

quick deceleration, and over B returns to the open position as Harmsworth Trophy race to he

The new Miss America has four predetermined stretch of road, and on the engine has started. held on Lake St. Clair in Septem-engines, super-charged to the last with the fore-knowledge that the This is an invaluable improve- ber. ment, when one thinks of the de- Of course, you may have to wait degree. The craft is much larger car was to be stopped.

than Wood's previous boat. It is

This is a vital factor, as the structive way in which the cylin-until after the race to see that 38 feet long and 10 foot 6 inches ders and sumps of many cars are speed reached, for it will be a wide. The engines are arranged element of surprise, which so often gear boxes be- obtrudes when brakes are sudden- flonted with free petrol every win contest between Wood's latest in tandem with tor's morning because the owner craft and Kaye Don, foremost tween them, each pair supplyingly applled, was absent in these insists upon astranging till the en- English racer, who recently set a gine is warm.

now world's record of 119.81 miles power to propeller, one located on

ench side of the boat.

In most instances where an an hour. Such speed is dan-

The engines will turn the pro- emergency calls for a sudden and The four-speed gear-box, which geroca over a course on which two pellers over at a rate of 7500 rev- has right-hand. control, has the boats are competing, and speed lolutions & minute.

unexpected application of brakes- there is a decided physical and following ratios: ton. 5; 3rd, 7; records have, in the past been set

The extreme width of the boat

mechanical lag before the brakes 2nd 10.2: Arst, 185 This is over measured courses with only 1s expected to give it greater staare brought into contact, conse "allent," and genuinely 90, Tho

quently it may be reasonably single-plate clutch gives easy and one boat making the attempt at ability in the water at a high rate!

of speed. Last year Don's boat assumed that the distance in which in racing with Wood during the

30 m.p.h., even when brakes are in at all in changing up or down. The

But there is enough power in Harmsworth event, capsized and one can stop his or her car at Joarte enmfortably close to the Wood's boat to do that speed on threw the pilot into the water first-class order, is more likely to driver's hand, as is the ide-brake any course. The craft was re-Such an accident is thought im be over 40 it. than under. fover, which lies almost horizon- contly christened at Algonac, possible on the turns with Wood's tally in the off position. The Mich., and at that time the noted craft.

smooth engagement and there is no excuse for making any nolso

chauals is lubricated on the cen

traliandayatem, a sinalo nyah on

a pedal onposite the near-side

time.

Power of G400 Horses!

avorayo

front seat boing all that in neres-, out of 100 the Fare for a day's work. A sanatble would not notice it, sized lever to the right of it turna

off the petrol-sunnly. Cooling is

by pump, controlled by thermos- tatically-operated shutters.

Hill Climbing

teats.

It will be noted that this about. double the distance soms motorists. claim they can pull up in, at from. 40 to 50 m.p.h.

driver.fortable. Draught-excluding lou-

Over-estimation of the power of vrea are fitted to all windows. The finish is plain and good, free brakes on cars or motor trucks. of offensive ornamentation. I constitutes a risk, for unwittingly 'specially liked the instrument It may easily cause an accident.

It is an excellent hill-climber. board and the dash, which has a that might be avoided, if the

I took it up Westerham Hill, start lock-up cupboard. (Indispensable driver had accurate knowledge of

The chief charactorfatics of the Ing from the cross-roads at adjunct) as well as the usual cab- the pulling up power of the vehicle- Sunbeam twenty on the road are foot's pace on second. At the and by-hole. I consider this car to be handled. Its liveliness, its swift nick-un, of about twenty yards I changed a striking example of British com- and the unobtrusive behaviour. It into third and the car accelerated fort and efflatency at moderate 14s autte fort-I had no dificulty steadily to 80 miles an hour, a cont.

In reaching 78 miles an hour on speed It maintained to the end.j the level, and the comfortable This is exceptionally good for any cruising speed is 60-but it speed car of this weight, and the result in very degantiva. At 50 miles an compares very well with cars of hour you would estimato it at not nearly twice the horse-power. The more than 40, and evon with the suspension is satisfactory without ihsakála, vide anafi, and the angine being remarkable, but the road- working at full prossura, thare is holding is excollent at all speeds. Vore litt ennek a offert Thora is. The steering is light and firm and Fervent därres of tremor re-not too low-reared amese

OIL FROM CEDARS

The modern four-wheel-braking systems are remarkably efficient,. but they have their limitations, and it is for the careful driver to deter mine by test on the open road what are the decelerating powers of his or her vehicle, at varying speeds. on a dry road.

Glenn Farr, Marshfield, Ore.. On wet surfaces the stopping chemiet, is said to have perfected distance will be increased, it is ja method of extracting lubricating a wise precaution to under oil from white codar stumps. Ho estimate the stopping powers of orted, tas motor vehicle rather than ko k