NEW TYPE OF MOTOR CAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 45, 16 November 1917, Page 9

NEW TYPE OF MOTOR CAR

A PETROL ELECTRIC MACHINE.,' A motor-car of a new typo.was running in the streets of Wellington, yesterday. It .was a petrol-elk'ti'io lwl--ster, known- as the Owen-Magnetic,. im,linrtecl ■by the sole New Zealand agents', the Nattrnss and Harris Motor Company, Limited. This'six-cylinder, CO horsepower (American rating), car has a petrol motor coupled to.a dynamo, which in turn operates an ' electric motor.' The electric motor drives the car by means of a magnetic-dutch. The. peculiar advantages claimed for .this, system, which has attracted a. great, deal of attention in Britain-'and America,'are great flexibility, complete freedom from jars and sudd.cn strains, and unusual simplicity of operation. An electric.self-starter sets the petrol motor running; current from the dynamo becomes available at once, and the electric motor which, drives.the cor is controlled by an arrangement as simple as the driving' mechanism of an electric traincar. Thercis no changing of gears, nnd the range of speeds is,, from five miles to sixty miles per hour. A simple movement of- a lever reverses the driving dynamo, which can'be used also, as a brake without imposing any strain upon the petrol engine. The car has other special features that, commend it to motorists. It has been sold to Mr. R. T. Anderson, of Hawkc's Bay.