Cycling and Motoring Notes.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 April 1913, Page 4

Cycling and Motoring Notes.

From the Dunlop Rubber Tyre Co., Christchurch, for week ending March 22nd, 191'3.

An official count of horse drawn vehicles, and mechanically propelled conveyances (motor cars, lorries, ctc.), was made last week, on the St. Kilda lload, Melbourne, and the traffic figures were 1500 horse-drawn vehicles and 1100 care, etc. for the 24 hours. These figures convey in no uncertain manner the growth and use of motor vehicles in Melbourne. The Indianapolis motor speedway, on which, tho great 500 miles race will be run next May, is really tho American "Brooklands." Tho Indianapolis course measures two-and a-half miles round, has a surface of vitrified brick and turns banked 1G feet, with a radius of 1500 feot. There is a cement wall of 3 feet high and 11 inches thick all round the course, with a safety wall between the wall and the granstands. A feature not seen at Brook Lands is stout wire netting in front of the grandstands to protect the spectators from tyres thrown off tho wheels of the cars. In the grandstands and boxes there is seating room for 40,000' persons and the entire grounds will accommodate 200,000 visitors. The total area of the Speedway is 328 acres. In tho centre of the* grounds arc an aviation station garages and workshops for the uso of competitors in tho races. Altogether there are forty-one buildings round tho course. A system of electric timing is employed, and all tho score boards are connocted up electrically with tho main timing station. In the 500 mile race the method of starting is as follows: The 30 cars are lined up in two or three rows, and on tho start being given nil the cars move away together with the pacemaker car ahead of them. The pacemaker travels about 70 miTe« an hour, and at the end of the first lap pulls in to one side, allowing the competitors to shoot past him. As each racing car makes its flying pas- | sage over the- Tine it is timed electrically. this constituting its official 'start. Starting 20 to 30 cars together is a common practice on American tracks, and. when the start is made at night, as in tho case of 24 hour races, the moment is one of intonse excitement. Only cars capable of 75 miles an hour are allowed to start. Amongst the entrants this yoar will bo the. victorious Pengot and Sunbeam cars that carried off the honours in last year's Grand Prix road race. * * * W « i Although there is a great difference in automobiles generally this year that there ever was before, it is not tho kind that the average person has as yet come to realise. In other words it is not so much difference in lines or appearance—tin's year's cars

will appear much the same as their predecessors—as it is a deeper rooted difference that reveals itself in greater efficiency, greater stamina, and greater wearing qualities. The difference between goodness and mediocrity lies now, more than ever, in detail rather in general. Tfio use of a bettor grade of materials, primarily. is responsible for the improvement. True economy, apparent in the use of comparatively expensive vanadium and other alloy steels, rapidly is coming to the fore, and that it lias had a beneficial effect in simultaneously reducing weight an decreasing strength scarcely can be denied. Latterly, vanadium has been alloyed with iron for cylinder contsruction, thereby directly increasing engine efficiency 'by reducing the ratio of weigh't to power. It is much the same with copper and aluminium alloys.; great strides have been made in metallurgy during the j comparatively short spaco of time embraced in the past twelve months. Design, too, has made strides that are n'ot to bo disputed. There is a marked tendency towards the greater rigidity and simplicity attained by the method of casting cylinders in a single block; the integral casting of intake and exhause gas passages is only one of the plainly visible evidences of successful attempts at better construction. More attention has been paid to the generally recognised necessity for segregating the magneto and the carburetor in order to reduce the hazard of fire, and, as a rule, ignition apparatus has been more carefully located where it is less exposed to the insidious action of dirt and .water. I In the construction of engine components, the careful attention which has given the lightening and balancing of reciprocating parts has played an important part. Pistons and connecting rods are now considerably lighter than they were. In the majority of factories crankshafts and even flywheels are carefully balanced both statistically and in the running balance machine which bias come into extensive use only within the past year, and which has been of recognised value in detecting and directing the correction of faults fhat result in vibration.