| Show s ROLLING ALONG WITH RALPH STEIN mmem Secrets Non-ski- d 6 41 o They’ll help make you a good winter driver IIow can you cope with the different kinds of stuff the wheels of your car have to run on in winter? One minute you might le plowing through nice fresh snow the next and slippery it will be An hour later you may find yourself road on glare ice or even a Itone-dr- y hard-packe- d snow runs are fine when you're driving on loosely packed snow They’ll dig in nicely and will accord' ing to tests made by the National Safety Council give you 51 percent more traction than regular tires Don’t imagine that snow tires will allow you to get gay The tires’ stopping distance even on unpacked new snow is still more than twice that on a dry road — 52 feet as compared to 21 feet from 20 miles per hour (with locked wheels) And you can get into some pretty scary skids with them too Ice is the tricky CHAINS stuff It gets more slippery as it gets warmer An ice culie fresh out of the freezer is sort of sticky and not too slippery but after it sits around a while the thing is so slippery you can hardly maneuver it into your drink Similarly when the temperature of the ice on the road is down around zero you have fair traction and braking with snow tires or even ordinary tires But if the surface of the ice warms and forms a slick film of water you may find your car trying some very fancy skating Reinforced chains — the kind with cleats welded to the links of their cross chains — are the remedy Chains are a bit fussy to put on (see how below) and you have to take them off when the roads dry up They’ll wear and break if you don’t But on ice chains can stop your car ON ICf N - What After Shave can you give him this Christmas that’s new and different and very very special? STUDDED IIUS If you A NO NOW watched movies of Rally drivers attacking an Alp and wondered how they could possibly roar up slippery hills and around icy corners at such crazy speeds here’s their"' secret They used tires with tungsten carbide studs sticking out of them which claw into ice with a grip like an angry tomcat’s These studs are a Swedish device called the Season Safety Stud in the US Their tungsten carbide cores are surrounded by tough plastic to prevent tire damage and are injected into the tires with an airgun They sit flush with the tire and can be used on dry roads Although you can keep studded tires on your wheels all winter Rally drivers carry a pair in the trunk and slap them on the rear wheels when they hit slippery conditions Currently most of the big American tire manufacturers are experimenting with Season Studs some of them will offer lires with holes to receive them this winter Studs cost a dime each — you’ll need about 150 of them for a normal sized tire pre-ca- st Model racing boom This Qiristmas an awful lot of (and their fathers) are going to give up being railroad engineers They’re turning into Grand-Pri- x drivers in the still booming hobby of miniature auto racing which will have model cars buzzing around some 5000000 new tracks this year In 15 minutes (for a simple small-fr- y HOW TO PUT ON CHAINS Allow eigfil feet in rear of chains on ground hooks up 2 I 8 11 in less than half the distance of snow tires — 77 feet compared to 174 feet from 20 miles per hour at 20° Fahrenheit And chains have about four times the starting traction of snow tires car Spread Hang chain on loops of Applier 3 Press Applier on lire near fender and gather cross chains in back 4 Drive car foruard until Applier has come full circle Remove Applier hook up THIS WIEK Mtoiln Dtctokr I 194) |
