New Plug for Sports Engines.
New Plug for Sports Engines.
THE Massa Sparking Plug Co., Ltd., of 178, High Street, Teddington, Middlesex, have placed on the market a new sparking plug specially designed for sports engines, and we have recently tested a set of these in a 41-litre supercharged Bentley.
These plugs, which are known as the M.S.H. type, are mica-insulated and are of the detachable pattern with the usual gland-nut. The central electrode is in one piece, aud at the gap end is threesixteenths of an inch in diameter ; a single point is used.
A feature of the M.S.H. is thee’ thermic” washer, which is thimble-shaped and of copper. This is pressed into the body, and it is intended to dissipate heat and prevent oiling up. The plugs have a large gas space which further aids in obviating this. The whole is well made and the body is finished in chromium plate.
The Massa is not intended for racing engines, but the makers claim that it will withstand high temperatures and is entirely immune from oiling up. In our test we attempted to oil them
up by running the Bentley engine slowly when warming up, and then indulging in about two hours of town driving, and we found that they withstood this treatment quite successfully We then tried them for heat-resisting qualities by running for lengthy periods at a speed of approximately 80 m.p.h. (3,000 r.p.m.).
At this speed the plugs behaved quite satisfactorily, and on dismantling them, we found no signs that the running had been too much for them. It appears, therefore, that the M.S.H. does all that the makers claim for it. Its price with standard reach and metric thread is 5s. 6d.
The manufacturers are making a special offer to readers of MOTOR SPORT, and attention is drawn to their announcement appearing elsewhere in this issue.
A Motoring Novel.
NOVELISTS, almost without exception, display a lamentable ignorance of motoring terms. Such sentences as” He started up his engines,” “The panting monster leapt forward,” and” He threw the car into top gear” are common occurrences in novels by well
known authors, and it came as a refreshing surprise to motor-racing enthusiasts to hear that the Earl of Cottenham had written a motoring novel.
In ” All Out ” (Cassell, 7/6 net) Mark Pepys, the Earl of Cottenhant, describes how Tom Furness, motor sportsman, his wife Jill, their friend ” Fatty Strut,” one of England’s leading road-race drivers, and Madeleine, a French girl, fall foul of an international gang of crooks, headed by a crazy American dilettante, and how after many thrilling rides in Tom’s “Boulogne ” Hispano, and his front-wheel drive Alvis, Fatty’s” Herz “saloon, and a friend’s ” Puss Moth,” the gang is eventually brought to book.
The chapter on the French Grand Prix run on the ” Montbleau ” road-cum-track course near Paris, is a most thrilling affair—and incidentally contains a terrifyingly realistic description of a car leaving the road at high speed, and crashing into some trees. It is interesting to guess, by occasional clues, the identity of the ” Rugotti,” ” Larone ” and” Betz ” cars.
“All Out” is a most welcome addition to the all-too-small shelf of motor-racing books.