CYCLE AND MOTOR NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3, 1 May 1912, Page 5

CYCLE AND MOTOR NOTES.

What is the limit of speed to bo j attained by the automobile and when will that limit be reached? Experts have endeavoured for years to answer this question, and each succeeding 1 year has brought forth a new answer until it seemed that the last word had been said; but again and again (writes an American correspondent) some special speed creation has upset all the prophecies made as to sjxsed limitations, until now the wise ones refuse to make predictions. It seemed that Burman, the world's speed monarch, had about solved the problem when he reeled off a dizzy mile in 2.3.40 sees, on the Daytona Beach course, but now he makes the statement he will accomplish the speed of three miles in a minute this coming season! It is highly probable that human endurance is the only regulator of the speed which a motorcar will attain for the mile or twomile distance, but when the speed limit of a motor car for 500 miles conies up for discussion another factor enters into consideration. In the last big 500 miles road race held at Indianapolis forty big motor speed marvels started out to cover the fivecentury distance in a contest with time and each other. Experts say that seventy miles an hour for the long grind would be wonderful speed quality, while others thought that sixtyfive miles an hour would mark the limit. A few guessed that the winner might do seventy-two miles an hour, and one or two, who were said to ho fanatics on the subject, estimated the average speed at seventy-four miles an hour. The 500 miles was covered in 6hrs 42min Bsec, and average speed of 74.61 miles per hour. Now comes another chance for the experts to prophecy what will happen when thirty big cars start out again over the same course in the forthcoming annual race which will decide just what advance the motor car makers have made as far as speed and endurance are concerned during the past twelve months. It is a remarkable fact that none of the entrants this year so far has failed to state his belief that the average speed will be better than seventy-seven or seventyeight miles per hour. A device for the lighting of motor lamps from the magneto has just been marketed in America. It :'s said to be cheap, simple and effective, and can be attached by anyone. While it is doubtless true that the inherent laziness of man has had something to do with the development of the automatic lighter for acetylene lamps on motor cars, there really are better reasons for its existence. It is not mere laziness that makes a man dislike to splash out in front of his car in the .mud to light the lamps; it is not indolence that makes him averse to undertaking the task of lighting up in the pouring rain, or in a rollicking wind that blows out the match just before it can ignite the gas, or in weather that benumbs his bare hands, and it is not slothfulness that leads him to go without matches and run the -risk" of' being ■arrested" J fot".. .-"<'

running without lights after sundown. On the contrary, the automatic lighter, like the motor starter, comes very near to being a necessity, and doubtloss will be so considered after . its novelty has worn off. The simpler and cheaper such a device can be- made the nearer it will come to entering the class of necessites of motoring.