DIESEL ENGINE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 205, 22 April 1932, Page 7

DIESEL ENGINE

INTERESTING ROAD TEST OF NEW BENTLEY PRODUCT. LOW FUEL COSTS. A correspondent has forwarded a clipping from an English journal illustrating the motor of the GardnerBentley Diesel car, which, when recently tested in England, covered 30 miles on fuel costing 4^d. The test of the car was deseribed in the Autocar by Mr. Donald H. Smith, a compression-ignition engine expert, who said the results of fitting the four-cylinder Gardner engine iri the Bentley chassis was not merely tolerable, but faseinating. The engine could be felt idling, arid at vefy low speeds on top gear, a state of affairs only to be expected with a four-cylin-der motor of over 4in bore and a top gear ratio of 3. to 1. The senSation was distinctly one of power and not of harshness. Impression number one was that with the Cold engine the response was instant when the starter button was pressed down, Mr. Smith stated. Impression two was that the engine did thump a little while standing, but not by any means as much as he had expected, and eertainly not enough to be uncomfortable. impression three was that almost at once the car was moving, without any hesitation top gear was engaged, and the car ticked round several right-angle corners to the main road, accelerating at once to 30 miles an hour without a single indication of being stone-cold. In the course of the teSt, the car reached 80 miles an hour without effort, and there was a tendency for any heat feo be transmitted to the passengers. Acceleration from 10.30 miles an hour in second gear of 6.25 to 1 was 5s, in third of 4.36 to 1, 6 3-5s, and in top of 3 to 1, 7 l-5s, and that with a car weighing almost two tons.