AMERICAN EXPERIENCES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 616, 19 March 1929, Page 7

AMERICAN EXPERIENCES

CARS PARKED FOR TWO DATS Coast to coast motoring in America h- been the enjoyable expert -.oe of i Mr. Jim Gerald. Seville diau. ! who is well known in Auckland. While in An. a v he bought a | Studebaker President straight eight cabriolet. \ Mr. Gerald stated that his was the first car of that model to be delivered in California, and the firm was not anxious to let it go. as a large number of orders had been booked for prior delivery. -Oil that occasion,” he continued. “I travelled at S 5 miles an hour on a well-known American track. This perfor; - further convinced me that I had purchased the right car. “During the whole of my 10.000 miles of motoring from coast to coast, Los Angeles to New York and return, and New York to San Francisco, some of the worst country in America was encountered, which meant crossing Arizona and New Mexico, where there is no habitation for hundreds of miles. Most people are a bit wary of taking a desert trip, because of the alkaline nature of the soil in the volcanic region of Arizona. I had been told that the body work would he ruined, but the car showed no signs of deterioration. In addition. I have been half-way across Australia in connection with my work. Since taking delivery no adjustments have been made, and the | car is running exceptionally well. On i one occasion I did a non-stop run of ! 17? hours, partly over difficult roads.” i Mr. Gerald said that some idea of j the growth of motor transport in j America could he gathered from the ( fact that during the whole of his | travels he saw only six horses, and he saw no farm vehicle drawn by horses. He visited the aviation exhibition in Los Angeles. So dense were the cars that those vehicles located in the inner circle were unable to be driven from that locality until two days later. Mr. Gerald visited the exhibition as a passenger in the airplane of Colonel Lindbergh.

NOW THE “CABIN SPEEDSTER” UNIQUE ROAD PLANE BY AUBURN It lias taken the conquest of the I air to supply Auburn engineers with | the necessary data to produce a j unique model Auburn car, known as a ; cabin speedster —a veritable roadplane, with wheels instead of wings. This is really a racing model, fully-: equipped for comfort, and embodying j all the lessons of wind-resistance ; taught by aviation and speed motoring. Cars, as well as planes, have to j minimise wind resistance to attain in-: creased speed. They must also avoid j the vacuum, or the retarding suction ; of after-draughts. The new cabin-speedster is designed by the famous racing driver and avi- | ator, Wade Morton, and has a guaran- j teed speed of 100 m.p.h. The height is only 4ft lOin from the ground to the highest part of the ; body, there are no running boards; j and the interior is decidedly that of the airplane cabin, with two wicker basket airplane-type basket seats, a dome light, periscope window at rear, j and a sloping >‘V” type windshield 1 which enables the driver to look up at ! the sky as well as down at the road. Entire body is aluminium metal, and is entirely panelled in underneath. ! The whole weight, including petrol, oil. and water, is only 3,0001 b. Here, indeed, is a car to intrigue I the fancy of the road sheik.