Passing Comments
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Page 29
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Something Like a Test
OPERATORS, bodybuilders and chassis manufacturers alike have learned to respect the motor Industry Research Association's test track at Lindley, for in the early days the number of failures discovered on the rough-track section was most distressing. That everybody has learned from these unfortunate lessons is now quite clear, and better products are the result.
Recently, one of.the first Leyland Tiger Cubs fitted with Metropolitan-Cammell-Weymann Hermes bodywork was given a thorough try-out on the rough section of the track without suffering any ill effects. This may not seem unusual, but what was remarkable was that the body was not completed, some of the unstressed panelling and all the interior fittings having been omitted from the vehicle, so that it was the bodywork pure and simple, without aid frbm furnishings, that took the full brunt of the test.
This particular type of body will be absent from the coming Show because the first examples are already in service, and have been put through their paces in Wales, Scotland and wherever conditions are toughest. Only in this way can the industry produce vehicles to meet world-wide conditions
Great Increase in Refining
THE important Coryton refinery of the Vacuum Oil A Co., Ltd., has been under construction for some two years and is now taking shape after many difficulties with steel and other shortages. The two-stage distillation unit is expected to be in production this autumn, as will be a "thermal reformer," which will produce theessential ingredient of high-grade motor fuel. The thermofor " cat-cracker " rises to a height of 272 ft. and may be producing in less than 12 months.
The lubricating-oil units, a main feature of the new refinery, will permit the cpmpany to manufacture in this country for the first time stock oils for Mobiloil, Delvac, Sovac, Gargoyle and other wellknown lubricants; all four should be on stream by early spring.
The total cost of this new refinery will be over i12m., and it is an excellent example of AngloAmerican co-operation. Socony-Vacuum of New York has provided the technicians, whilst the whole labour force is British, as is 95 per cent, of the equip ment. Last Month the first supplies of crude oil began to flow into the storage tanks.
Gilding the Pill
AGAIN Sir Graham Cunningham, K.B.E., chair man and managing director of Triplex Safety Glass Co., Ltd., has brightened the annual report in its appearance as well as in the results shown. The directors' contribution is in snappy paragraphs, "Totals for Tyros," is a simple analysis of the incomingsand outgoings, whilst "Loading the Bandwagon" is a review accompanied by humorous drawings of the Triplex " lorry " being loaded with capital and other expenditure and finally almost crushed by taxation. Another interesting section of the report is devoted to drawings and descriptions of some of the group's products.
Air Coach Ferry
iN a few years' time, Silver City Airways, Ltd., may be operating aircraft between Cormeilles, north of Paris, and Gatwick, that will be capable of carrying coaches. It will have to be discovered, however, how far the rates for the transport of such vehicles will compare with those for surface travel, bearing in mind the space that a single-decker would occupy inside the aeroplane to the exclusion of smaller vehicles, such as private cars.
The company already offers facilities which merit attention by operators of Continental tours. A Bristol Freighter can be chartered to fly from Lympne to Le Touquet with 44 people and their luggage for only £55.
Leading or Back Answer?
WITH regard to the humorous drawings by Philip " Wood on page 109 of our issue dated August 29, a reader H. Milne, has put forward the following query:— " If the NSR rear means the NSR trailing axle and NSR front means the NSR leading axle, are we to understand that NSF front means NSF leading axle and NSF rear means NSF trailing axle? If this be the case, it appears that the near inner front rear is missing from the illustration."
He asks also if this has been lost or whether the abbreviations he gives are incorrect. Having developed a stutter in reading his letter, the matter is being left to other readers to solve.