j UNE 26TH, 1909.

THE AUTOCAR El ]ournal publiabet' > in tbe interests of tbe mecbantcalll? propelleb roab carriagr.

li:OITED BY H. WALTER STANER.

No. 714. VoL. XXII.]

SATURDAY, J UNE 26TH, 1909.

[PRICE 3D.

The Autocar.

(Published WeeJ,Jy.)

Registered as a Newspaper for transmission in the United Kingdom. Entered as second-class matter in the New York (N.Y.) Post Office.

Three Editions every Friday.

The THREEPENNY EDITION, printed on Art Paper. The PENNY EDITION, prin ted upon thinner paper. The !~!!~GN EDITION, price 3d., printed on thin paper for lransmissicn

Editorial Office :

COVENTRY,

Publishing Offices :

20, TUDOR STREET, LONDON, E.C., England

CONTENTS. NorES USEFUL HINTS AND TIPS A FIRE , , ;\II DGET ,, A D EPUTATION TO THE C HANCELLOR OV TII E ExcHEQUER-

H m!E-:'llADE PETROL, AND A S uRr-ACE CARBURETTER

• .

THE S cOTTISl-1 R ELIABILITY TRIAl,S J\" Ews FROM AMERICA- R OAD MAI NTENANCE IN \\

0

0RCESTERSHIRE

THE KI NG OF THE R OAD SEPARATING CrE~l::RATOR ( I LLU •

TRATED)- TII E (O:\IPACT PETROL f- UNNEL AND STRA INERA N I NDICATOR P ErROL FUNNEL ( ILLUSTRATED) THE VOITURETTE CUP RACE (ILLUSTRATED) M OTOR UNlON NOTES THE DE DI ON T YPE DE COURSE A SPARE \'1/HEEL CARRIER (ILLUSTRA1"EO)-A D OUBLE TYRE

RIM ( I LLUSTRATED) • • ON TH E TRACK • . CORRESPONDENCE .• SMALL CAR TALK • • DUST EXPERIMENTS ANO I NTER-CLUB COMPETITION-A ~ EW

BRAKE SYSTEM-DISPOSAL OF OLD TYRl~S

FLASHES

D1n·1cuLTI ES OP IDENTIFICATION-THE MOTOR UN ION AND

T l·rn FINANCE BILL-HENRY EDMUNDS HILL-CLIMB

TUE :\l UIRHEAD TYRE PROTECTOR (ILLUSTRATED)

P AGE 9 .1 -894

895 896

909 9 10 -9 12

9 I J 914

9 1 5 9 16

92 7

928

929

930

CLUB DOINGS

. . 931-932

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Abroad (thin paper edition), 22s. Sc!. per annum. Index to Advertisament& appears on page 40 .

I Notes. Reliability Trials. During the last tll'O or three years th ere has been a tendency to belittle reliability tri a ls. The assump­ ti on 0 11 the part of those ,rho take the ,·iew that re li ­ al >i lity tria l a re quite unnecessary is that a thousand miles er so is no test of the durabilitr of a car, as nothing under 20,000 miles can ue taken as affo rding a sufli ciently protracted trial test of durability . T her-~­ fo re it ,s- urged as trials of such length a re not prac­ ti L·al, 01ring to the immense time they take and th-e i r huge cost, anyth ing less is usele s. This, like a g:: >:x l m[lny oth er arguments, seems a 1·ery good one ti ll it is fa ced bY fa cts . \\'bil e ire a re entirely in accorrl with those ,v:110 state that a thousand miles is no rea l test to the car, it is at the same time necessary to notice that quite a number of cars fail ed to cO\·er that distance in the Scottish Trial s last ,reek 1rithout more or less se rious delays. \\"e are not referring to errors of dri1·ing o r to tri1·ial little items, such a the tightening of a fan belt or the changing or a plug. It will b seen that 11·hen these stops for t ri,·ial causes ,rere eliminated there 11·ere still a number of ca rs ,rhicb ga,·e troubl e 11·hich in the hands of the ordinary tourist would be reg::i rded as ,·ery annoying troul > le indeed. In addition to some more se riou defects, the mos~ prevalent complaint appears to ha,·e been in connection 11·ith the water cooling system, thouc;h defects we re by no m<: >ans confined to this. Petrol pipes and carburetters 11·er-.c responsible for a good many annoying delays, and quite a number of cars of respt'ctable power sh01red themseh·es to he oH·r geared for the Scottish hill s, a ncl 11·ere compt > lled to drop passengers. As we ha1·e a lready said, the driYing stop.- should not be taken too se rioush·, because the v may in some cases merely indicate lack· of skill or jL{dgment Oil the part :)f the d ri,·er, hut in the majority of ea. es they may be taken as indirect e,·idence of the control of the car being in some 1ray or another unsatisfactory. Either ,he gea r change ,ra diffi cult. the l'iutch unduly fi e rce, or the carburt >tter unsuitalrle, so th,1t e1·en the most skilful dri,·er coulo not a,·oicl stopping his engine or missing his changes . Ho11·e1·er, the rt' is no nttd to go into the matter in detail. It is onlv necessan · to refer those ll'ho aclrncate the abol it ion < )f re li abilit1· trials to the tabulated daily results of the Scottish· Trials ,rhich appea r on pages 905 -7.

\\'hile referri ng to the. e trial 11· should like to ,1gain express our si ncere admiration fo r the 11'a1· in 11·hir h the,· ll'e re conducted . The o ri.;anisation was in eve r~· respect excell ent. ~rnd al I concenwd from \I r. Robert J. Smith, the sec retan ·. dmrn1rard, desen-e rnngratulation for the 1rny in 1rhich they 1wrked. for tlwy not only 11·orked hard (a go:: >cl many do that) . but they cl id their 11·ork effi ciently, because e,·erything had hC > t >n carefully systematised beforehand . \\·e make one e r t\rn suggestions for impro1·emt >nt. in our report of th e tri a l, but these in no wa,· affect the 11·a1· in which the rul es 1r-e re carried out .by the officials, and are merely suggestions tl should he a ltered.

7

1at in certa in re pects the rules

Motqr Cars and Motor Cycles. In tl-i e ('UJ"rent issue of The llf otor Cycle editorial attention is de,·oted to a sad fata.1 accident 11·hich c,ccurred to a young officer near \\"o rk sop. He was ricling a rn ntnr bicycle uphill in the wakt > of a car 1rhich 1\·:1., :;mning much slo ,rer than he and making c·:: >nside ra hie dust. As he s1nmg out to pass the car he collided end on \\·ith another car which " ·as coming clmrn tlw hill . and 11·~<; i11sta:1th kil lc I. .'\o blame 1rhate1·er is attached to either of ·th e cars, but the sad incident reminds us of the fact that there is un(Juestional >ly ,L large number of motor ca r drivers \\·ho do not quite understand the difference bet11·een clri,·in g a motor car and a motor cycle, and before now ll'e ha,·e