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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 59

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES BY DEMON.

Bicycle Team of Four, Rescue Race (Motor Cycle), Musical Chairs (Motor Car), Potato Race (Motor Car). Heads and Posts, Turk's Head (Motor Car), Steering Competition (Motor Car), Obstacle Race (Motor Car). fcrush and Bow Tying (Motor Car), Avoiding Danger Steering (Motor Car), Twomile Motor Car Race. Mr White, secretary of the Wellington Racing Club, is at piarent in Dunedin, ♦md jouiik'Vi ,-outh on Thuresday with a \ im\ to a tour round the Lakes diftiict. Mi White is dm ing his handsome 12-14-mecn Argjll on the tup. ' Long looked for, come at last."' Mi E K. St<u k's green 14- h.p. Vulcan has -it lii-t airived. and by the time this appear- in pi ml will be cairying its enthusiastic owner on our local streets. — — Mr Acton Adams came down from Chrialchuif h last week in hb 40 h.p. sixcylinder Napier. This Napier is a fine-look-ing and powerful machine. Mr Acton Adams's brother, of Moa Flat, is also possessed of a fine big car — a, handsome red 30 h.p. Beeston Hum Dor. The English tourist, Mr A. Gibson, who ia touring New Zealand in his $0-40 h.p. Beeston Humbei* oar, js at present on 4 ; tour to the Lakes district. Mr A. Gibson leturns to Cujiedin before continuing his journey round the world. Dlt (Jolouhoun leaves on Thursday in

his while 14 h p. Vulcan for a trip to Invercargill. On the doctor's return to Dunedin he leaves again and goes straight through to Christchurch. Driver Furminger will bo z\ the steering wheel. Mr F, Cooke drove through to Chn^tchurch and back last week in a 12-14-horse-powor Stuart. He had a splendid! run, the roads being in good order, especially between Oamaru and Dunedin. Mr Cooke has a ■very entertaining story of the difficulties encountered in securing- trucks to comey cais, per railway, over the Rangitata River, the traffic bridge over which is at present hems; renewed. The sooner the bridge is put in order again the better, says Mr Cooke. At the last meeting of the League of Now Zealand Wheelmen the secretary f of the Otago C\ cling Club wrote stating? I that the club had boon disbanded, and ths I club was consequently struck off the roll. During the course of the recent greafc '■ six-day race in New York one of the ootn1 petitors. M 'Donald, fell heavily nearing the 1 close. While in the course of a sprint ho rode into the barrier and pitched completely over into the jjeople. sustaining serious injuries in the head, from which he eventually succumbed. As before recorded, the finish .resulted in a eprinb between the American team, Fogler Moran, aiid the European combination, Rutt-StolJ, the latter team winnincr by a length. "Plugger Bill" Martin, who made a fortune ouf of cycle-racing, and then took to hotel life, has sold his hotel. He now ha*, a big fancy goods store in Bourke street. Melbourne, and se\eral in *the country towns. Martin has well invested the money that he won on the wheel. — —The following -wonderful paragraph, iaken from an American paper, was quotitl at a banquet held recently at Eltham : — ''Mr has just landed at Auckland, New Zealand, and motored through to the Bluff. He says Ihe country is very barren, and comments on a flock of sheep he met en route."' An Eketahuna resident, writing from Berlin, states that there are more motors plvinpr for hire than horse cabs in that city. ''At oiip ■stand," he says, "we could count 56. and tho stench Trom them was the reveise of agrepnble. Tlipv have only a year's grace, however, ns they have boon si\pn notice- that cabs must be driven by elecHioity." The larie increase in the use of Dunlon lyres by French motorists was a noticpable feature at the recent motor exhibition in the Salon. Paris. This make of tyro was fitted to no less than double the number of cars than wa = the case at the !• previous year's motor show. H. Thomas, the Victorian crack, is 1 w ithout doubt the finest handica-n ride* Austral a, has produced since the days ol XV. C. Jackson (says an Australian writer). Thomas, who finished second! ii. the Austral Wheel Race of 190*. and won the big event from 20y<In in record time in 1906, again proved at the Melbourne A.N.A. meeting what a oreat handicap rider he is by winninsr the A.N.A. Wheel Race, one mile, from 25vde. ir> the fast time of Imin 57 3-s^eo, after carchiner the field and taking up the run- ' nine of the last lap and a quarter. Thomas , rode so strontrlv that TO. Pve, who trailed l j his wheel for the last 700vds, could make ' no impression on him in the final rush lot the tape. Poulain. the e\-professional cycle j champion of France, is about to appear in, a new role. He is at Clermont-Ferrand superintending the erection of a portable track. With this track — which is abouti 150 yds to the lap — and a tent and half a dozen racing men of more or les« repute. Poulain intends touring the country during! flic winter. Much h/is been said and Written ofi the neceisitv for the accessibility of parts' in a motor, which, it is thought, is op-3 j posed 1 in some dearer to permanency in!' j design. But the finished design of any,! machine is a crystallisation of the thoughts.} and purposes of its originator. So long ml the intention is to construct a car that shalK be accessible and easily repaired in ally its parts, jusf> so long will the demands ol permanency be more or lesa subordinated; to the former, and the finished product wilt bear evidence of th« relative importance attached by the designer to those too fretf quentlv antagonistic requirements. "' The average motorist understands that the brakes of the- car must be efficient! , and he will, if they fail to hold properly*; 1 I attend to them before he has cause to re- [ gret any neglect. Sometimes trouble ig ex-

jperienced with the brakes through faulty sdjustment, and in such case it is only a matter of a few minutes to set matters siright. i The wise motor mechanician will not STesort to emery to grind petrol or compression taps, as it has been found to practically ruin them ; his experience has taught him that the best compound for this work •b the damn sand from the bottom of a grindstone trough. Much has been said against the sixdays' race in New York, chiefly on the •lleged harm it works on the participants; tout according to the N.Y. Bicycling World, whatever of belittlement may be said of it, ' the big race not only attracts an enormous , crowd and stire its enthusiasm to a high pitch, but it gives the bicycle more publicity than all other of the year's events put together. It receives columns wkere flic others receive inches or no mention at all. The only unfortunate part of it from A trade point of view is that the event takes place in the middle of winter. To what $xtent the race might stimulate oyoHng tSFere it held on the eve of the riding season is a speculation that ie interesting a both in and out of the trade. — The longest of the French road races 'vTour de France, occupying several days, j

of elated distances per day — will have this I \ear £200 in prizes, and one of the condi- i tions is that detachable tyres must be used, j This, really, is a -ondition which origin- ' ated with the Dunlop Rubber Company, and was applied to the big annual race from Wavrnambool to Melbourne. The obj<?ct is to induce ro<td lacere to adopt t_\ies suitable for the work, and not the light pathracing pneumatics which are not available to all classes of riders. It therefore tends to place all the contestants or an equal footing, in this respect at leasl The motorist's winter outfit should on no account omit a pair of the good old-fashioned "goloshes." Especially if he drive his own car, the motorist will find oold feet unavoidable in wet or frosty weather, because he must nol allow his knee-apron to descend so far as to imperil the free action of hia clutch, brake, and accelerator pedals ; but with a pair of rubber overshoes, donned before his boots get wet, bodily warmth is retained throughout a long journey. ORMOND-DAYTONA BEACH RACES. The date of the above races has been fixed for the week beginning March 2, when there will be from five to 6ix hours daily of good beach. |

Arrangements have been completed to ! provide an approximately 16-mile straightaway course, with loops, one at the northern end of the beach at Ormond, and one at the southern end at the inlet. These loops will be constructed of 2in planking, furnishm a roadway 32ft wide, and providing an easy curve by grading away the sandhills at the edge of the course. The loops will be banked 6ffc high, at the outer edge of the curve By this means a 32-miles circuit is a\ailable. The laces decided upon are 288 miles (nine, lapt and 32 miles) for the Automobile Club of America Cup, for strictly racing cars, to be run under the Vanderbilt Cup rules, moviding a weight limit of 1100 kilos (24241b); 128 miles (four laps); invitation race lor gentlemen amateur drivers, prize j and conditions to be announced later; 100 | miles International Record ; two-miles-a-1 minute race, record speed trials for a mile, j and a kilometre. i j Cars in order to be eligible to compete in the mile international record race, the two-miles-a-minute race, and the speed trials must make a speed of at least 50 miles an hour in the long races. It was at the Florida meet in 1906 that a car was driven a mile in 28 4-seec, and two miles in 58 2-ssec. This year much highei speeds are anticipated. SPEEDY MOTOR BOATS. Recent European experiments with hydroplane motor boats have given some remarkable speeds. In one instance an Italian hydroplane attained a speed of over 50 miles an hour ; whilst M. Santos Dumont has built a fine boat for the purpose of wanning a £2000 wager tha,t he will attain a speed of 60 miles an hour on the water. At the rate experiments are progressing, Dumont has a good chance of winning his wager. The ideal hydroplane craft, according to the inventors of these boats, is that in which the hull, when under propelling power, is raised by the plants clear out of the water. This happy realisation would seem to ha\e been reached in recent expenments, for at a speed of 20 miles an hour the hull of the craft was right out of the water; whilst at 40 an hour theie was quite 18 inches cleat ance between hull and water. When travelling at a iair speed the hull is virtually suspended upon two stilts. Naturally, a hull carried in this fo&hion has to be made extremely rigid. In the case of small boats this rigidity is easily obtainable, but whether one could build a large ship on this principle capablf of can j ing a number of passcngeis and heavy cargo is another question. At piesent the Continental maiine engineers are of opinion that the theory is only pra< ticablo for small boats and smooth water. The propelling power is supplied by , one or more immense aluminium aerjal i piopellers, driven by high-powered petrol motors, idnging from about 50 to 100 hp. J

I ABOUT SAUCER TRACKS. j I had a talk with a couple of cycle ! sports-promoteit; the othor day, Loth of whom had been over to Melbourne to we the new saucer tiaek racing, and while both agree that the -aucor track racing is very attract no, c\on sensational, they do not fa 1 oui :t a^ a -tending attraction (says "Wheelman," in >S\dnev Refeiee). "Of conr-e to look at the lading on tiie first night you aie ditractcd by it." one of the loading piomoters; "the men awing at the banking a* if they were goaig to ride up the sklo of a. "house. A3 they stnke the banking it swings them round and keeps them on an even keel until they swoop down on to the straight, and this is all the more sentational when there is a bunch of riders together. As they strike the banking it looks as if there would be a crash, but they sprint round as if they were packed in rows; and then with a dash i down into the straight they scatter for the finioh." But there 16 a sort of weary monotony about it. and it lacks many of the features of the wide open tiack, as the riders have practically no time foi manoeuvring or altering places, and tho man on the nole or inside ha* an undoubted advantage-