MOTORS & MOTORING

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 286, 27 August 1920, Page 2

MOTORS & MOTORING

. ——.-♦ (By '""Clutch.") Tyro Wear and Running Costs, It is not usually realised that tyro wear represents approximately one-third of the running coats ot n car. Every motorist has at some time or other experienced trouble with tyres, and it is trouble of such a nature as to moke-' him desire to leave them well aloue when they aro apparently in order. Thus these expensive accessories become neglected, and by reason of that neglect deterior- . ato much more quickly than thej should. Therefore, they need replacing more often than should really be necessary, and the running costs of a car are not kept no low n« they might be. First and foremost, the life of * tyro depends mainly upon the degree of inflation. The nontechnical owner is apt to connect nuy article made of rubber with the term elasticity. He argues that because rubber is flexible, it is tho business of the rubber of a tyro to (lei and absorb nny inequalities of the road, and he subconsciously thinks that because hie covers 1 aro flexible they arc working under proper ' conditions when they bend and 81 read out considerably on passing over a stone or projection. In point of actual fact, this is far from being a correct assumption. The duty of a tyro is to absorb very minor road chocks. It is meant to act as a cushion, and not as a spring. Within limits, the Jess ft tyro (loses, tho longer will it last. Tho Trade and Mass Production. Mass production of motor-vehicles was so locsely talked about in the early part of the year that many people . believed that a manufacturer had only to say how many umpteen thousands of cars ho in-, tended.to produce in a given Ijmo and they would materialise as by a wave of tho conjurers wand (writes J. Owen in. tho "Westminster Gazette"). Now he ia beginning to think differently, and tho motor trade itself is also beginning- to realise that mass production, even in tho . English sense, is not possible;' Of course, it was never possible, in tho way some manufacturers imagined, for the reason that tho supply of materials was all against it. One or two laudable attempts biivo been inado to increase production beyond any figures attained More tho war,' but they cut.littlo ice when viewed from the standpoint of quantity production in the American sense. That ia hardly attainable in any case, btcanso our mental make-up is averse to it, so much so that makers are now swerving round to tho view that the surest way to promoto their interests is to build for the individual, and do all possiblo to encourage his fad 6 and fancies. This ia oil right as Regards expensive designs, but it is practically certain to provo ■ ruinous in the end in tho case of lowpriced cars. Some firms arc even now advertising the fact that their cars aro not mass production yclvjjeles, and those who know anything aboutrcars will ogreo that they never could Ik. The general tendency, therefore, is-to abandon the newly conceived methods of swift production in favour 6f the cM leisurely, practice of building to satisfy individual tastes. The luck of ample capital has had something to do with this, but tho more.important-reason, I am assured, is that tho actual difference between the . cost of production on a large scale ofuniformitv and otn a small scale or shifting improvements is so trilling ns not to make it worth while. The large firms, it is recognised, are penalised by their immense capital and establishment charges, whereas the smaller concerns without these handicaps are well able to hold their own both in the matter or prico and quality. Discovery in Lubrication. "A-paper recently read befowj the Society of Chemical Industry will give much food for thought to tho manufacturers of motor-car and motor-engine lubricants. Previously it • has always been the am- , bition of. lubricant' manufacturers to avoid the slightest suspicion of acid in their oil, nnd many manufacturers have mado a strong talking point of the tact that no acid, content enters into the-oil they sell. -Messrs,..ll: JL".Wells and J. E. Southcombe, however, have given carefut study to the question ,of lubrication, and the result of their investigations is among other things the discovery that the presence of a fatty acid in a lubricant increases its efficiency enormously. Corrosion,, they maintain, docs not result from tho presence of the acid, and what they call the inter-facial tension of the lubricant, on the townees cf which it mainly depends for its 'efficiency, is much, reduced by the presence of a fatty acid. The lees tho inter-facial tension, the mora , difficult is it to effect a shearing pf the oil film, and it is, of course, already well known that the function of an oil film depends in large measure on its inability to "shear." The addition of the correct amount of fatty-acid to a lnbric ; nnt these investigators call the germ process, ae the fatty acid is the activo ''germ" which performs the required duty. Just wliftt; practical results wilL follow as the result of these, lnvestigatious remains to be seen, but tit may be expooted that they will bo considerable. Air-Coolsd Cars. . Interest in air-cooled engines es power Units for motor-cars'continues to increase, although from some recent experiences (aasy an English authority) we have been forced to tho conclusion that there is likoly to be' as much' difference between different air-cooled ears in tho-future as has been the case m the past. Wlnlo some engines, made by manufacturers to tho order of designers who-know what they aro about as the result of extended aircraft experience or long pre-war experience, aro in every way satisfactory, and, in fact, quite startling to the motoiist who has had no experience of air ' cooling, there ore being placed on the market air-ocoled engines by manufacturers whoso knowledge.is simply united to what they have gamed from other* experience. They appear to have seen one- air-cooled engine working properly and to have thought, that if they designed another on similar lines it weuhl bo as satisfactory as the original; I hi., does not.by any means follow, assome - of them arc now finding to their sonow, and it is unfortunate that the placing en tho market of a few inefficient air-cooled cars may spoil the lot. There is, how- «„ the collation that the ears hat are likely to be soonest neforo the. public are those that give the best promise. A Novel System, To the city of London (Canada) belongs the credit for installing a very novel systern bv which the radiators of motor-caw may bo kept warm and safe from Ikming, while standing out-doors ."i !')f « d f est weather. The'-local electric ligl t and power company has installed bimpo current taps at convenient points abt the city. Anyone wishing o take advantage of this system of Keeping the automobile'warm, pays an annual fee to the electric company and utwb <i W that gives acceßS to the current taps, as Veil too radiator heater and coimectit cord. Tho cord is provided with a rckd license plate, so hat the company's inspectors at any lime can detect freudulent U6ers. , Registrations of Cars and Cycles. His Mniesty's Trade Commissioner, supplies the", following statistics of registrations d motor-cars and motor-cycles during the.year 1919,. compiled from returns supplied by certain registering authorities in New Zealand:Country of Origin. Cars. Cycles. United Kingdom ......... Ml 2.059 United States ■ \M\ !.««> Canada .; -• '. ■* _ l'Vanco » { „. Belgium v ... M f Other foreign countries • li |» Origin,or make unknown s'> *■> Total S.3SO 3,918 Districts in Which-Registered. Auckland and Pc-v. Bay 2.821 ' 1,H6 Hnwko'e Bay I.<M« Taranaki ®' $ Wellington •• 1,«8 ™ Nelson and Marlborough 40.1 lw Canterbury 1,195 ( ™ Weotland JS .$ Otago and Southland ... 902 ■ M ' Total m , 3 ' 918 - Tho heading "cure" includes commercial vehicles. >Lighting-up time: To-day, 5.21 p.m. Next Friday, 5.28 p.m. -