SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1905.
THE AUTOCAR B Journal publisbeb in tbe interests of tbe mecbanicall\? propelleb roab carriage.
EDITED BY H. WALTER STANER.
No. 519. VoL. XV.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1905. [PRICE 3D.
TlfE AUTOCAR.
(Published Weekly.)
Registered as a newspaper for tran smission in the United Kingdom.
Entered as second-class matter at the New York (N.Y.) Post Office.
EDITORIAL OFFICE :
COVENTRY.
PUBLISHING OFFICES :
20, TUDOR STREET, LONDON, E.C., ENGLAND.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
NOTES : Nexr YEAR'S TouRIST TROPHY RACE-THE WEIGHT LIMIT-
PREJUDICED OPINION .. .
383-384
USEFUL HINTS AND T IPS. By Lieut. Windham, R.N.
. . . 385
To CONSTANTINOPLE (illustrated).. .
A NEW 40 H. P. CROSSLEY CAR
386-387
... 387
THE SEASHORE MOTOR SPEED TRACK
A RuN FOR THE DEWAR Cur 1illustratedl THE NEw 18 H. P. WHITE STEAM CAR (illustrated) INTERESTING TESTS OF T OURIST TROPHY CARS THE EXAM I NATION OF S ECOND-HAND CARS
388-389
389 ... 390 ... 39! 392-393
THE MARKF.T OF THE AUTOMOBILE WORLD,
NEVER D0 11
THE HENRY EDMUNDS HILL-CLIM BING TROPHY
II THINGS HE MUST
. . . 394 ... 395
THE AUTOMOBILE CLUB DusT TRtALS (illustrated) .. . CONTINENTAL NOTES AND NEWS (illustrated) ...
396·397 398-400
THE NEW LEMPEREUR ANTI-SKID tillustrated1 CORRESPONDENCE : THE MOTOR CAR JN J AMAICA-LUBRICATJON AND
Ov&R-LUBRICATION-HOTKLS . AND GARAGES FOR MoTORISTSMOTORS, ACCIDENTS, AND LUNATICS- DETECTING SHORT CtRCUITS-P&TROL CONSUMPTJOM-ATT&NTIOM TO WHEELS-THE ROLLS-ROYCE CAR-SOLID T YRES V . PNEUMATICS-TH& PROPER CARE OF TYRES-THE TOURIST TROPHY RACE- UNWARRANTED MAGISTERIAL SEVERIT Y-PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES- SUMMARY OF
400
OT HER CORRE~PONDENCE
401-405
OccASIONAL Goss1P. By II The Autocrat " ...
... 406
SOME QUERIES AND REPLIES
... 407
FLASHES...
408-4!0
CLUB DOINGS (illustrated): CLUB F1XTURKS- NOTTINGHAM A.C.-
MoTOR UNION OF WESTERN INDIA TRIALS-MANCHESTER M.C. HILL-CLIMB-SOUTHERN M.C.-BRITISH MOTOR BOAT CLUBYORKSHIRE A.C.-SOMERSET A C .-CLUBS AND THF. LEGISLATION AND DEFENCE FUNDS • • • 4 Il-4 l 2 How TO Us& CoLLAN O IL • • • THE MOTOR CAR IN SOUTH AFRICA
... 412 413-414
"THE AUTOCAR " SUBSCRIPTION RA TES :
British Isles, I 6s. Abroad (thin paper edition), 22s 8d. per annum.
j Notes. Next Year's Tourist Trophy Race. It i. agreed on all hands that the fi rst T ourist Trophy Race has been a con.spicuous success, and everyone is looking forward with the greatest interest to t he 1906 e,·ent. It appea rs to us that the sooner next yea r·s rules are discus ed b,y the Automobile Club a.nd settled. the better it will he' for all concerned. We hope, too. that the fuel limit fo r the Isl e of ~Ian course will be ettled at the same time. Pre.sumably, it will be the same as thi year-one gallon for 22 . q miles; but ,rhate ,·er it is. it should be stated as soon a.s the 1906 rule.s are publish ed . an.d it should not be alte red. I t is urged on behalf of the Automobil e Club that the fuel limit never was a lt ered. ina.smuch as it was plainJy stated in the rules that one ga.llon for twell!ty-five mile.s on ly applied to an average road like the London-Oxford road.
This i perfectly true, and we made it plain in ou r report of the raoe that twenty-two and a half mile s on one crallon fo r the I.sle of Man course was regarded by the ~lub as equal to t,renty-five miles upon the LondonOxford road.
This, h01rever, is hair-splitting. The poinrt: at issue is that, a the race was fixed for the Isle of Man, competito rs should have been in fo rmed much earlier how many miles they were expected to do upon a gallon in the I sle of Ma.n, a.s they could not tell what the club would consider the correct fuel allowance, and they were bound, therefore, to have cars which would, th ey be lie ,·ed. do tlrenty-five miles to the gallon in the I.sle of 1Ian. The whole tro ubl e over the fuel has arisen from the late declaration. Everyone knew that proYision ,rns made b,· the cl ub to increase the allowance of fuel if the Isle of Man course had been e xceedingly hea,·y from rain, but the majority were entirely unpr epared for an announcement the day before the race, with the roads practically dry, that they would be allowed a gallon mileage of twenrt:y-two and a ha.If instead of twe nty-fiYe . We have no wish to lab our the point; all we wish to urge upon the cl ub is that it should tate definitely, a.s soon as possible, a.nd after full discussion the rules and regulations for next year. what th e rules are. and what the fu el allowance is, and the leave the makers to get to work.
The Weight Limit. We think t he re is verr little doubt that 11-hen the Races and T echnica.l Committees discuss the matter fully they will decide either to abolish the weight limit so fa r as the maximum is concerned, or to increase it from 1,600 lbs. for the chassis to some higher figure. If a weight limit is imposed it should be ri goro us,ly adhe re l to, and ca rs which are over the weight limit by more than a very few pounds shu,uld be ru led out of the contest entirely. because it is not encouraging to those who meet the regulations fairly and p resent machines perfect in every respect within the weight limit to find partially stripped machines running against them. ~o competitor could reasonably suggest that he was caught unawares by the weight limit. as it was clea rly stated in the regulations many months b efore the race, and how it came about that machin es so hop elessly above it were presented we cannot understand. The excess was not a question of pounds, but of half hundredweights in several instances.
Another alternative has been suggested, which is at least worthy of considera6on, and that is, instead of giving many months' notice to the competitors as t o weight limits and other matters. these houl d only be announced a fo rtnigh t before the race, so that no one could bu il d special ca rs for the eYent. as it is desi red that the Tourist Trophy should be for standa rd car rather than fo r machin es specially built. There are a good many points in favour of this suggestion, which we offer for what it is worth. but we regard it as somewha.t premature. In any case, the two extreme courses are the ones to adopt--either , as for the r905 event, a very ea rl y declaration of all the conditions, or e lse a
