MOTORS AND MOTORING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4364, 11 January 1922, Page 3

MOTORS AND MOTORING.

(By

“Clutch.”)

Fbur-wheel Braking Systems. In well-informed trade circles it is believed that in the near future tnw four-wheel braking system will be adopted on most high-grade European motor-cars, and that, in fact, it is only a matter pf time when the fourwheel brake will become universal, at least so far as high-powered cars are concerned. The safety of a .car and its passengers often depends entirely on its stopping powers, and it must be plain that since the modern automobile engine enables higher road speeds to be attained, improved powers of retardation are essential. Apart from their advantages in cases of emergency, four .wheel braking sysi terns provide for far more pleasant control of a car. The driver feels that, when one is fitted, he is normally only utilising a tith cf ap enormous reserve of stopping force rather than continually making full use of a less powerful system. The retardation of the car is altogether smo,other and more progressive. The adoption of this system of braking will add slightly to the cost of a car, but it is an expenditure that motorists and potential motorists will be quite willing to meet —for its advantages are undoubted. Repainting the Car Body. A- coachpainter and bpdypainter offers some advice respecting the use of polishing preparatiorfs and the care that must be exercised when it is decided to repaint the car body, Admiti ting that .the preparations when used enhance the tone and colour ofl the paint, impart a fine polish, and give the car a smart appearance generally, he insists upon the Necessity of the removal of every vestige of the old paint from the panel, so that there is a perfectly clean foundation upon which to commence the new work. He finds that the preparations used for polishing soak right through the paint to the wood, and if not burnt off—an impossibility in some parts—they will eventually prevent the varnish from drying. Continuing he says: "The peculiar, point about it is that the applied preparations cannot be seen on the paint, and the first coats of lead colour or "quick" colour, will dry perfectly, but the varnish colour and varnish will not dry at all. or will come put In blotches after the car goes out, when people blame the painter for making a bad job of it.” Small Car Development.

“A surfeit of small cars” is th<> term used by the “Daily Mail” when referring to the car show in. LondonSo many new models were promised that the paper found it difficult to see. how they would all find a market. One of thr most interesting of the new small cars has a 90deg. engine, designed by Mr Granville E. Bradshaw. This engine is not merely air-cooled, it is oil-cooled. Of course, all aircooled engines are largely oil-cooled, but in the Bradshaw design the oilcooling is intended to cover a much larger number of working parts than is usual.. The cylinders, for instance, are surrounded by oil. and further departures in the design are made by the incorporation of the gear-box with the engine and the placing of tfop clutch behind the gear-box in-; stead of in front of it. Responsibility for-Accidents.

A Melbourne motoring writer makes some remarks which apply with equal force in Wellington. No one regrets mpre than the decenfemlnded motorist (he writes) the far too many fatal accidents in which the motorcar has been involved, because he knows that he—one of the most numerous class of car drivers —v/ill suffer equally with the most negligent motorist from criticism, invariably adverse. It seems always to be taken for granted that in accidents in any way connected with motoring the driver is necessarily to blame, regardless of the fact, in known instances, that the accident would have occurred had any other, vehicle been in the place of the motor at the time. It means, perhaps, that as time goes on, there will be more accidents in which the motor will be involved, th.ough not necessarily implicated, simply because there will be in the future more motors on the roads. The time surely has come when every road-user should share with the motorist the same responsibility in traffic. At present he carries nearly the whole of it It-'— freely granted, no doubt, that no car drive.’ will deliberately run down a man, woman, or child ; and very often, too, the driver has to perform a miracle to avoid accident through the negligence of the irresponsible pedestrian; and so long as the foot passenger is uncontrolled and irresponsible, and until children are educated in the home and in the school to the need for great caution respecting modern road traffic, there cannot be that de-, sirable immunity from accident, and which we cannot have unless all classes of people co-operate. Impulse Starter Magnetos. On cars that are not fitted with electric starters the impulse starter is a great boon to the owner, and on cars . that have electric starters it makes feasible the starting of the engine by the handle, and so gives the starter batteries a rest that they require but too often are Compelled to go without. Hitherto the impulsestarter has suffered from ,one defect; it could be obtained only complete with magneto. In other words, It wps impossible for the car-owner to buy an impulse starter and fit it to his own magneto, but if he wanted the benefits of the impulse starter he had to scrap his magneto and buy one sc equipped—a course that obviously very few motorists would seriously consider. But there is now available an impulse starter which can be fitted to any existing magneto. This impulse starter is brought into action by the operation of a cable brought hear the starting handle, and, like all others, it is thrown out of action Continued in next Column.

Continued from previous Column, automatically by centrifugal force as soon as the engine starts up. Big Capacity Motor-cycle Engines. British motorcycle engine manufacturers are turning their attention to the production of large dimensioned motor-cycle engines of 1000 c.c. There is every reason to suppose that if the same amount of success is gained by British manufacturers in this field of production as in the 500 c.c. class, 1000 c.c. British engines will soon be available for continental purchasers. In this connection it is worthy of note that in many recent speed trials where the entries have been unlimited in size the 500 c.c. British engine has proved very few miles slower than the 1000 c.c. foreign makes.—Dominion.