Motor Show

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 52, 24 May 1927, Page 10

Motor Show

Fine Exhibits Expected

CLOSED CARS WILL PREDOMINATE

“We are expecting that the motor show this year will be one of the most successful ever held in New Zealand,” states Mr. F. G. Farrell, president of the Auckland Motor Traders’ Association. “Closed cars will, of course, predominate, and we are expecting that there will be some very fine models The casual observer may not notice much change in the engines, but he will be shown some very well designed coach-work. “Because the observer may not notice engines and chassis improvements that will not mean that they are not there. During the year since the last show there has been a great deal of improvement in essential details, including oil and air rectifiers, or filters, of varying design and operation; better, yet lighter, valve gear; better carburetion and exhaust systems; better transmissions; and, finally, better power development and increased economy of operation. “The improvements for 1927 therefore specially involve metallurgical technicalities, for they lie mainly in the improvements in the qualities and tensible strength of all components of the chassis and engines, of the various makes.” THE “BIG GUNS” VISITING AUCKLAND Visitors of considerable influence in the motor world are visiting or are ex- : pected in Auckland. There arrived to-day Mr. L. M. Rumely a vice-president and general manager of General Motors Export Co., New York —a millionaire and more to boot —and Mr. Innes Randolph, also a vice-president and regional director for Australasia for the company. Mr. Rumely has just completed a business tor of Australia and New Zealand, and is on the point of returning to New York. The two are accompanied by Mr. D. F. Lodin, managing-director for New Zealand, and several other New Zealand executives, including Mr. D. V r Bay, sales manager, and Mr. F. W. Tufts, advertising manager. Representing British interests, Mr. W. E. Rootes, managing-director of Rootes, Ltd., London, exporters of wellknown cars like Daimler, Rolls Royce, Hillman and Clyno, is arriving in New Zealand this week to investigate conditions for British cars and organise intensive distribution. Rootes Ltd. are the largest British world distributors of motor-cars, and it is Mr. Rootes’s intention to make the closest personal examination of the New Zealand market from the distributor’s point of view. MURIWAI DANGERS QUICKSAND IS PREVALENT Motorists visiting Muriwai Beach should be careful in the matter of parking their cars. Hard sand is not always just as hard as it appears and sand for that matter is always treacherous. Three cars left on the beach on apparently hard sand on Sunday, got into difficulties, their owners finding later that the wheels had sunk in. Two of them were got out without a great deal of difficulty, but the third stayed fast and was caught by the tide. Freed shortly afterwards, it had to be towed to the nearest garage in soaked condition. PARRY THOMAS, PHILANTHROPIST Anyone who knew the late Parry Thomas intimately knew of his intense affection for children, but of his many generosities towards them little was known until after his death, when it became known that he had endowed two cots in children's hospitals. When these gifts were made two conditions were imposed. One was that the identity of the donor should not be revealed, and that the bed should be known as the “Babs” cot. He was a constant visitor to the hospitals after the endowment, but always alone, and shunning any publicity that might be given to his kindness. It has been suggested in London by many of his friends that his memory would best be perpetuated by the endowment of a cot, and a fund has been opened by a well-known English motoring journal. WHEN WORRIED— A sidelight on how the 1,000 horsepower Sunbeam, which reached over 200 miles an hour, came to be thought of was cast by Mr. Louise Coatelen, the famous designer, at the farewell dinner to Segrave given on his departure to the United States to attack the world’s speed record. Coatelen was returning from Paris and read that the late Parry Thomas had broken the record, and no sooner did he get back to his flat than he had a caller. “It was Segrave. He was very worried,” said Coatelen. “When he is worried he bites his knuckles. On this occasion they were bleeding. When you ask him if his car is all right, you don’t ask him; you just look at his knuckles.” It is his left hand, by the way.) “What are you going to do?” asked Segrave. So I told him, “Never mind, Segrave, you shall have a car with two engines instead of one.’ And so I had to design this car.” If you now do thirty-five or better, whenever you can, you will enjoy an increase in gasoline mileage of from two to four miles per gallon by consistently driving between twenty-five and thirty, and you will be surprised to find that you can reach your destination in almost the same driving time.