NOTHING REALLY NEW

NZ Truth, Issue 1197, 8 November 1928, Page 20

NOTHING REALLY NEW

Straight Eight In f 903-HFrbnt Drive In 1907

TN these days of rapid development in jthe motor world, it is interesting sometimes to look back to the years that are past, when the motor industry was m its early stages.

SURPRISINGLY enough, it -will be O seen that many of the things we regard as absolutely new are, m fact, old. ■■■■' - 5 . For> instance, .a front wheel ... driye racinff car competed m- the ,'Grand Prix m France m 1907; alcohol 'was used m a race from Paris to Boulogne m 1901; shock absorbers were regarded as essential to. racing 6ars as early as ' 1904, when they were used oh 1 a Brasier m the Gordon Bennett fcup race; a straight eight engine was used m a race m 1903, and : again inl- the following- years. Another year later, 1906, .a 12- . cylinder "V"-engihed '- Maxwejl • competed m the Vanderbilt Cup,' Detachable rims were invented m 1906 m order to, eliminate time^lbsfc^rfchanging tyres during road races. .

The Renault was the first to fit them, and their drivers gained enorYnous advantage over other 'competitors, so much so that the detachable rim came into its own immediately. .- Detachable wire wheels were to be used m the Grand Prix of 1906, but they were not allowed to be .fitted, as the' committee considered them to be dahgerous. Two years later the dictum was reversed, and the detachable wire .. wheel was used for the first time. ' Even from this list, which. is very incomplete, it can be seen that a lot of things we regard as post-war developments were m use a long time ago, and that we to-day are not quite so clever as we might sometimes think : we.' are.