MOTOR NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 23701, 8 October 1940, Page 11

MOTOR NOTES

fßy ‘ Radiator.’] LIGHTING-UP TIMES To-day 7.23 Tuesday 7.24 Wednesday • Thursday 7.2 V Friday 7-29 Saturday 7.3 U Sunday 7.3 a This month's coupons—lo and 11. Due to the shortage of paper and the consequent necessity of saving space it is with regret that '/Radiator” announces tnat this column will be discontinued for the duration of the war. “ Radiator ” has been conducting these notes continuously for 18 years, and this is the 979th time of their appearance. When the piping times of peace return and petrol coupons are a thing of the past, motor notes by “ Radiator ” will once again bo a feature of Monday night’s ‘ Star,’ LESS DEADLY THAN THE MALE That the mechanised female is loss deadly than the male is the conclusion to be drawn from a recent study of 3,000 mixed motorists in Connecticut. l>r Harry R. de Silva, who conducted the survey as head of the Yale University Safety foundations co-operative research, found that women drive about half the mileage of men, but get into only one-third as many accidents, “ This shows that women are still safer drivers,” Dr de Silva concluded, “ and that they do not have fewer accidents merely because there are fewer women drivers.” This certainly should discourage those people who try to explain away the fact that only 6.6 per cent, of the motorists involved m America’s 32,600 automobile deaths last year were women. It may be, however, that Dr de Silva just didn’t gel around among the right female drivers. At any rate, most people do not see eye to eye with him at all. Investigators for the Gallup poll who went around the country last year asking citizens “ Would you rather ride in a car driven by a man or a woman?” found that 60 per cent, preferred men drivers, 8 per cent, felt safer with women, and 32 per cent, apparently were fatalists or pedestrians, and did not care. TREE AS GARAGE An American motorist is using as a garage the stump of a huge redwood tree which grew for some l,stt) years in what is now his garden. The tree was struck by lightning 50 years ago and the stump has been a bit of an eyesore in the garden for many years. Recently the motorist had a brain-wave and cut an opening in the •tump, turning it into a garage. VOLTAGE CONTROL RESEARCH Compensated voltage control is a familiar phrase to the motorist nowadays. He may realise its general meaning—i.e., that the dynamo output is regulated to give exactly the correct charge to the battery under varied kinds of running conditions; but he probably has very little idea of the amount of experiment and research which has been necessary to secure this satisfactory state ot affairs. Within the past few years exhaustive research has been conducted into the problem of voltage control, and in particular the effect of temperature variation on the battery charging current from a dynamo of the compensated voltage type. It yas found, that to charge a 12-volt battery at a rate •f 7 amps, requires voltage'’some 2 volts higher under cold conditions than under hot, and this led to the introduction ot the thermostatic control, automatic in action, which is now a feature of modern Lucas dynamo equipment. TRACING EXHAUST LEAKS Slight leaks in the exhaust pipe are hard to trace, although the fumes may be very troublesome to the occupants of a car. A simple way of discovering it is to have the car placed on a hoist and while the engine is running, inject a little paraffin through the carburetter intake. Then, with the tail pipe partly plugged, smoke will be forced out of the leak. Tapping the expansion chamber lightly with a hammer or repeated rapid throttle openings will sometimes show up loose baffle plates MOTOR CYCLING FIXTURES. October 5. —Slow hill climb. October 19. —Scramble. October 21. —Monthly meeting. October 26. —Labour week-end three-day trial, Christchurch-West Coast. November 2.—Mystery run. November 16.—Miniature T.T. November 18.—Monthly meeting. November 30.—Hill climb. December 14.—Social run. December 16.—Monthly meeting.