Up-and-Down Wiper Clears Entire Windshield

BLIND spots caused by snow or rain accumulating on the windshield are ended by this up-and-down wiper that extends the full width of the glass.

The wiper is operated by a threaded spindle—much like the lever wind mechanism on a fisherman’s casting reel—and pulls the snow or water down into a trough below the hood level.

You might be seeing this new invention, which received U. S. Patent No. 2, 880,444, on some German cars in the future. Its inventors, Bela Barenyi, of Stuttgart-Rohr, and Karl Wilfert, of Stuttgart-Degerloch, assigned it to Daimler-Benz,

A. G., of Stuttgart-Unterturkheim, Germany.

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The Drive-In is Thrivin’

America’s newest major industry was regarded as a newfangled novelty a decade or so ago. Now it’s become strictly big business.

By I. B. Neer

WITHOUT leaving the wheel of your car you can spend the most amazing vacation of your life this summer. For the drive-in is really thrivin’!

Without sliding from behind the steering wheel, you’ll be able, to deposit money in a bank, do all your shopping in supermarkets, buy a bouquet of flowers, mail a letter, go to church, pay your gas and electric bills, have prescriptions filled, get your laundry and dry cleaning done, take out insurance, check into a hotel, visit a zoo, have your shoes repaired and buy a bottle of Scotch for the long cool nights.

The drive-in as a big business may appear to have burst suddenly on the American scene, but actually the trend was being developed for more than 20 years. A few roadside restaurants made their first inquiring venture into the feed-’em-on-the-run field in the mid-20s and found it paid off handsomely.

Then businessmen in the cities, searching for a solution to the parking problem, took a cue from their country cousins. They started to convert their facilities so that motorists would be spared the wearisome hunt for an open spot on the traffic-choked streets. Again car owners hailed the innovation and before long Yankee ingenuity had developed a new industry.

Look what happened at Jackson Hole Wildlife Park near Moran, Wyo. On hand was the nation’s largest assortment of native big-game animals—buffalo, deer, elk, moose and antelope, last remnants of the vanishing American herds. The officials thought long and hard and finally leaped on the drive-in bandwagon as the best way to give tourists a real close-up of the animals in their native habitat.

Accordingly, they veined the large wooded area with a network of roads and strung almost invisible fences through the fields which keep the animals constantly in sight of motorists driving past. The herds cannot escape the enclosure because of a tricky device at the entrances. Timbers, criss-crossed along the first few yards of roads, are easy for a car to traverse but impossible for an animal.

Four years ago the Rev. Norman L. Hammer of North Hollywood, Calif., decided to do something about the 40 per cent slump in summer attendance at his Sunday services. Making a sort of one-man Gallup survey, he’ found that his parishioners were tempted by picnic grounds, beaches and golf courses come Sundays. Dressing for church, then rushing home to get into play garb, took too much time. So the pastor met his flock halfway.

He fitted up a pulpit in a parking lot behind his church and spread the word that parishioners could drop in on their way to play. First outdoor service was held on July 6, 1947, and soon swank convertibles and wheezing jalopies were pulling in side by side for Sunday morning worship.

Says the pastor with a twinkle in his eye: “The outdoors gets them on Sundays, but we get them first.”

Perhaps the most surprising development in the spectacular growth of the drive-in industry is the fact that such conservative institutions as banks have joined the parade. Eyebrows flew upward in financial circles back in 1936 when the City National Bank of South Bend, Ind., set up a teller’s window facing an alley and announced it was open for curb-service banking. But the idea took root and, according to the American Banking Association, has now spread to more than 500 institutions in 18 states.

The country’s largest and most elaborate drive-in bank is the Exchange National Auto Bank of Chicago, 111., where an average of 600 cars purr past the tellers daily, making 40 per cent of the total deposits. It is constructed in the shape of a huge U surrounded by driveways with ten tellers’ cages in the center. Attendants funnel the cars to the windows and tellers push out metal drawers into which customers drop money, bankbooks and necessary papers. Tellers and depositors communicate through a loudspeaker and microphone arrangement. If the services of a bank officer are needed, the tellers shoot him the papers via pneumatic tubes.

Drive-in theaters have come a long way since the first was opened strictly as a novelty outside Camden, N. J., in 1933. Hit by an almost disastrous slump during the war, they bounced back to the point where in Denver 7,000 persons waited two hours to see a movie, the first world premiere ever to be shown in a drive-in.

Some drive-ins which know all about baby sitting and home-chore problems, cheerfully tell patrons not to stay home on those accounts. They supply nurses and bottle-warming equipment and even do the family laundry while the show is on. The patron deposits a bundle of wash when he enters and gets it back clean when he leaves.

Rainy, windy or foggy nights used to strike deep gloom into the ranks of drive-in owners, but they don’t any more as the battle against the elements is being won. Scientists have now developed a glycerine compound which is sprayed on car windshields to drain off the downpour in transparent sheets instead of driblets. Steel reinforcements keep the huge 50 by 60-foot screens from swaying or toppling in high winds. DDT has banished the mosquito plague and fog-filters have been perfected so that projectionists can sharpen the picture when the mists descend.

The drive-in-and-dine spots come in two models—those in which cute car hops clamp food-laden trays to the car doors, and fully automatic ones which do away with waitresses, tipping and leg work. Perhaps the world’s biggest and swankiest drive-in beanery is the $750,000 edifice near downtown San Francisco, which sprawls over one and one-eighth acres and employs nearly 200 persons, including four traffic cops who flag customers into spots along the 250-car parking area. It serves more than 7,000 meals a day from two huge kitchens, filling each order in an average of six minutes. Otto E. Straub, the builder, spent eight years in an intensive study of food drive-ins before launching his enterprise.

The Motormat in Los Angeles, the first fully automatic drive-in restaurant, served 10,500 meals in its first nine days of operation a few years ago. A motorist parks in one of 20 stalls which fan out from a central, glass-enclosed kitchen. As he slips into place, a bin shaped like an old-fashioned breadbox shoots out from the kitchen on a runner and stops at the car door.

Inside the bin are glasses of water, a menu, a pad and pencil. The customer writes his order, pushes a button and the bin scoots back into the kitchen. In less than a minute, back comes the bin with the bill which must be paid before the meal is served. On its third trip the bin brings the order plus change.

With skyrocketing demand, there appears to be no limit to the types of business flocking to cash in on the curbside gold rush. The National Institute of Cleaning and Dyeing reports that roadside dry-cleaning places are opening by the dozen each week. Laundry field experts say that ten per cent of the nation’s laundry business is now transacted at windows which open on a driveway.

In many communities you can roll into a supermarket and make all your purchases without leaving the car. A California market sports a huge sign at the entrance: “If you don’t see what you want, just keep on driving until you do.”

Even the U.S. Government has become aware of the trend and stepped into line. In many cities, the post office has installed curb-side mailboxes with large gooseneck openings into which drivers can deposit mail without dismounting.

There’s really no end to the variations. The Detroit Edison Co. has opened an office where motorists can drive in, pay bills, leave appliances for repair, arrange for service and drive out. A number of insurance firms have set up offices in driveways and a drive-in night club is doing thriving business in Los Angeles.

In Beverly Hills, Calif., a drive-in liquor store has one rigorous rule. When a customer drives up, the salesman steps out, takes a good look and a big sniff. If he detects any tipsiness whatsoever, he sends the driver on his way. The store won’t sell liquor to drunks.

So, if you’re planning to hit the road this summer, don’t worry about missing the comforts and luxuries of home life. You can get ‘em in drive-ins. All you need is the car, the endurance—and the money. •

WHEELCHAIR CAR

HAROLD YOUNG of Downey, Calif., has a car designed expressly for wheelchair users. The driver gets in and out without help. Controls, including a push-stop, pull-go lever, are designed for the handicapped. The three-wheeler has directional signals as well as standard lights. Transmission uses a Togaloc clutch, chain drive to jackshaft, V-belt drive to rear wheels. The car has had years of all-weather use. •

Butyl ‘n Beautyon display at left herald a new style automobile inner tube designed to prevent the rapid deflation of air in the event of a puncture. Waffle-like construction causes a squeezing action around nail holes. Butyl is a synthetic rubber which retains air better than the natural product. The beauty—not synthetic—is Rae Caldwell.

Paris Motor Show in the French capital’s Grand Palais featured this white, two-seater midget—with its petite driver—and the unusual model car at right designed and built by Jean-Pierre Wimille, European road racing ace. The driver’s seat is in the center, as is the American “Torpedo” designed by Preston Tucker (see “Torpedo,” MI, Nov. ’46). This Position for the driver improves is visibility and judgment necessary for new high speeds.

Tiny Tims, all 6,000 pounds of them, cling to the wings of the Navy’s carrier-based AD-1 Skyraider, now in production at Douglas’ El Segundo, Calif., plant. The battery of Tiny Tims, two 12-inch and twelve 5-inch rockets, pack the explosive punch of a light cruiser surface ship. The AD-1 can carry a bigger load farther than any other plane of its type.

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MI Tests the Crosley ‘Hotshot’

By Tom McCahill

A “warm missile” is one way our English cousins might sum up the new Crosley “Hotshot.” Whatever you call it, though, this brand-new, miniature American sport car should prove a fiery shot in the arm to its big, somber American contemporaries. This new car is something to have fun with and enjoy—definitely not a vehicle to carry crepe at your grandmother’s funeral.

In a talk I had with Powel Crosley, Jr., recently, he told me he was going to take a crack at the sport-car business with the Hotshot. You can take it from me—at the price—$849 at the Cincinnati factory— it’s a very strong bid. It’s the poor man’s M.G. and zings along like a Mix Master version of a Mercedes.

I like Crosley himself because he still speaks to me despite some of the things I have written about his products. It gives me particular pleasure therefore to find myself so enthusiastic about the new Crosley.

This little car, as it comes delivered, will beat the fenders off any stock car of its engine size (44 cu. in.). Stripped down, with headlights, windshield, top and spare tire removed, the midget roadster turns into a racer and takes on a very continental look. At a quick glance, as the Hotshot whizzes down the road, you might readily mistake it for a Cisitalia or even a Ferrari.

Crosley has raised the compression ratio of his engine to 8 to 3. If you want to use the car in road races, you can hop up that ratio to 14 to 1. For such compression, of course, you will have to use gas with a very high octane rating. The engine also sports overhead cams and valving in the best racing tradition. As you know, overhead cams are as usual at Indianapolis as buttons on an overcoat. The engine, in its present standard form, develops 26.5 hp. As the entire rig weighs about 1000 lbs., the engine isn’t so small for this midget.

I drove a stripped-down Hotshot hard for over 200 miles on the parkways around New York City and was immensely impressed. At 70 to 72 mph (honest) I found it held the road remarkably well. When I hit turns at high speeds, I was frankly amazed at the little car’s cornering ability. The combination coil and leaf-spring suspension could be a lot stiffer for racing. Yet, in spite of this, I hit a lot of right-angle turns at 40 and 50 and I got around ‘em in one piece. The short, 83-inch wheelbase, however, can take most of the credit for its cornering characteristics.

The most obvious fault of the new Hotshot, in my opinion, are the 12-inch, baby-carriage wheels—same as those on the older Crosleys. I can’t think of a single thing to recommend them. Small tires, because of their limited surface, run far hotter than large ones, 18 or 19 inches in rim size—a definite hazard if you ever race the car over a long course.

Another reason I don’t like tiny tires on a car of this type is because it limits the car’s usage over rugged terrain. The M.G., for example, with its 19-inch wheels actually is used in England and Africa for open-field races across gulleys, ditches and stump-filled plains. If you tried this with the new Crosley, it would be completely disemboweled in a matter of minutes. The two bucket seats ride only 16 inches above level ground.

The Hotshot is the kind of a small car I would like to take across the fields in the fall hunting. But that would be impossible with 12-inch wheels.

While I’m sawing away at Mr. Crosley’s head, I’ll get my other two objections over fast, so I can get back to being sweet. The gear-shift handle is too far forward and awkwardly positioned for fast-racing shifts. My other complaint is this: The hatch cover-over the engine is secured by a lock anchoring it in the center front. At high speeds this cover vibrates like a Bronxite’s tongue “cheering” an umpire. All during my speed tests I thought the darn thing was going to break loose and separate me from my head.

Mr. Crosley, please add to your car’s looks and the driver’s sense of security by installing a good-looking hood strap in the best road-race tradition. A snappy strap would give your car $500 in extra dash and ease up on the racer’s ulcers. Couldn’t cost you more than a couple of bucks, per car. You’ll be doing everybody a favor, including yourself.

Now back to Tom, the fun-loving Rover boy. How would this poor man’s M.G. come out in a road race—such as the Bridgehampton clambake or the Watkins Glen Grand Prix— if it were pitted against the real McCoy, a British M.G.? Well, if M.G.’s Harry Rummins or Lea Francis’ Dudley Froy were driving Crosley’s Hotshots, they’d give any mediocre driver in an M.G. the worst afternoon of his life. The M.G. has a higher top speed by about six miles an hour over the standard Crosley Hotshot. But the Crosley will come close to matching the fancy British sport car in acceleration. I’m not kidding, either.

The M.G. would beat the Crosley’s brains out on the corners, but I’ll say it again: A Rummins or Froy driving, a Hotshot against an average guy in an M.G. would come pretty close to beating the M.G.

From zero to 50 mph with my extra-economy frame, I clocked the Hotshot at 17.6 seconds. But from zero to 60 it took 28.1 or almost ten seconds for the extra ten miles. Zero to 40 took 10.7 seconds. The Crosley has a flat spot in acceleration between 50 and 60 miles an hour in high. The payoff comes, however, in the time it took me to drive it a half mile from a standing start. This took only 36 seconds flat. I was doing approximately 74 mph at the end of the run.

I made several of these runs and they all were 36.1 seconds; 36.0 and 36.2. In other words, I went from 60 to 74 mph in almost 2 seconds less than from 50 to 60 miles an hour. At Indianapolis in May, the Sports Car Club ran an event which I attended, a race against time, one half-mile from a standing start. I can assure you that several M.G.’s in that race didn’t do as well for that distance.

This little Hotshot is scheduled to sell for less than $1000, delivered anywhere in America. It’s no M.G. in quality or performance, but, remember, it sells for only about 40 per cent of the price of the English job. In my opinion, the Hotshot’s a great little car in which thousands of people are going to have more fun than they have had with a car in years. It’s good-looking and sporty—should be a great favorite with anyone having a bit of an old swash buckle tucked away in them. At the price I heartily endorse Crosley’s Hotshot for having fun, blowing it up, hopping it up or just planting flowers. After all, on the market today, it’s the cheapest production-line form of transportation sporting four wheels. And that, brother, means something these days.

By the way, if you want to see just how much safer modern cars are than cars of this era, check out this video put out by the insurance institute on its 50th birthday. It’s a collision between a 1959 Chevy Bel Air and a 2009 Chevy Malibu. Guess who wins.

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McCahill Sounds Off On Safety

Uncle Tom blasts so-called “safety features” and suggests ten ways makers can cut traffic deaths.

By Tom McCahill

IN THE automobile business right now the topic of safety is as hot as a naked Chinaman in a barrel of tabasco. With various professors fronting for them and spouting statistics by the yard, carmakers in newly-tailored angel suits have set out almost en masse to halt highway slaughter.

Now this is a noble undertaking, the good Lord knows, and I am all in favor of anything that will save even one life on the road. But the trouble is, the safety campaign so far has not shown much evidence of being overloaded with realistic thinking. Maybe there are too many ivory tower thinkers doing the skullwork—and by my definition, based on plenty of close-range observation, a “safety expert” often means just a guy from out of town with a new gimmick.

But at risk of being tarred and feathered by my own definition, I guess I have as much right as the next guy to sound off on this safety kick, having spent more than 50,000 hours behind the wheel of hundreds of automobiles, many of them while working as a test-driver. So here goes.

Let’s start off with the manufacturer since he has swung into high gear screaming about safety features. My beef is that these “safety features” tend to lull the public into a false sense of security. And meanwhile the manufacturers are failing to do a lot of things which they could do and ought to do if they really want to cut down accidents and save lives. For instance, in the new car Owner’s Manual the manufacturer should emphasize, with pictures and easy-to-understand words, that this car —just like every other car—will have far slower pickup as weight is added in the form of passengers or luggage. We pointed out this simple but important fact on these pages almost ten years ago —but here goes again.

Take the biggest cars we have, with the biggest engines. Their 30-60 mph time can fall off anywhere from 25 to 40 per cent when two or three extra passengers are in the car. Unless you point this out to the owner he may have no way of knowing that the car he drives alone, five days a week on business, will become a death trap when he tries to pass a line of cars on a narrow highway on the weekend, when the weight of his wife and two in-laws has been added to the car’s load. With smaller cars this danger is even more acute. In my opinion many a serious accident has occurred because an ignorant driver did not realize that his car lost an amazing amount of its passing ability when he loaded it with additional weight. The safety boys ought to point this out, in type THIS BIG, and the Owner’s Manual is a good place to do it.

Another place where the manufacturers fall down on the job is in their recommended tire pressures. The maker of one huge car I tested recently still recommends 24 pounds of air all around, though this low pressure will make the car extremely bobbly and tough to control in an emergency at high speed. All stock car race drivers carry at least 50 pounds of air when racing these same cars. The manufacturer recommends 24 pounds because he wants his car to have the softest ride on the block. The Owner’s Manual should recommend two pressures: one for high-speed cruising, the other for short slow runs. In my years of testing I can recall a number of situations where most likely I’d have been killed at such low pressures but I squeaked by because I always carry at least 32 pounds, which gives me more bite and control.

Here we run into another school of thought which is extremely inaccurate: the hard-as-a-rock suspension philosophy. I’ve read dozens of articles indicating that all we need to make American cars safe is to give them rock-firm suspension similar to that of a Grand Prix Ferrari. Let me point out to the advocates of this school that in most cases suspension on American cars is too soft but that flint-hard competition suspension can be very dangerous too.

The suspension on many American cars has been improved immeasurably in the- last few years (since McCahill started beating the drums—Editor), and in some cars it is pretty close to perfect for our kind of roads. It may come as a shock to some of my readers to learn that over a rough course which includes dips and ruts, such as the Daytona Beach-and-road course, many standard American cars could murder some of the harder-sprung sports cars. In fact, most of those sports cars would be off the road in’ droves after hitting those obstacles while the American cars kept right on going. Mercedes has the right idea. The 300, for instance, is not sprung like a rock; its suspension is a nice compromise between an ice cube and melting ice cream.

Door latches have been given the full treatment, publicity-wise, during the last year. It is a well-known fact that a large percentage of fatalities in highway crashes has resulted from doors popping open and spewing the driver and passengers out on the pavement. Door latches have been improved—but only slightly. The manufacturers must know this. Doors equipped with the latest safety locks are still flying open on impact and NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) still demands that the doors of all competing cars must be bolted and strapped shut before racing.

A couple of hunting companions of mine, riding in the latest model of an expensive car that has been featuring safety door locks regularly on television, were smacked broadside in New York City traffic by another car that ran through a red light. Both doors of my friends’ car flew open and both men were hurled to the pavement, one requiring a dozen stitches in his forehead and the other spending some weeks in the hospital with shattered ribs. If that car’s “safety” door locks had held, as advertised, it is doubtful if either man would have been scratched.

In the opinion of NASCAR president Bill France and myself there is only one way to make a real safety door lock. It must be designed like a bank vault bolt, with the locking end sliding into a groove in a steel girder which is part of a roll bar enveloping the entire body. Ideally there should be one of these Mosler-type bolts at both top and bottom, thus keeping the door firmly closed under nearly any impact. Detroit knows how to make such a lock. It would be expensive but it is the only solution to the problem of keeping doors from flying open. No “safety lock” I have seen so far will do this right now.

And here is another real safety feature which the manufacturers could and should provide to cut down unnecessary deaths on the highway: a steel roll bar. In the event of a roll-over the steel top on the latest style four-door hardtop provides no more protection for the passengers than a well-starched bedsheet. Roll bars are the answer. They can be concealed but they should be there. In the crash photos illustrating this article you will note that the drivers of both cars survived these 100-mile-an-hour roll-overs only because the doors were bolted together and because each car had a roll bar built into the roof.

Manufacturers have done a good job recently plugging safety belts (which we have been plugging on these pages for about ten years) but how about an educational program to get the buyers to use them? It should be pointed out that safety belts alone are not enough to prevent skulls from being fractured, faces from being gouged and a number of other unpleasantries. The ideal safety belt is not just a waist belt but a shoulder harness as well. This type of strap keeps the driver from parting his head in the middle on the rear-view mirror.

However, even a well-mounted waist belt is a tremendous advantage providing the driver knows how to use it correctly. The primary function of a good waist belt is to anchor the driver’s or passenger’s tailbone to the seat. This is no insurance that in the event of a sudden stop or crack-up his head won’t snap forward and conk any hardware in the way of his jack-knifing torso. But the Owner’s Manual can teach the driver how to “head for the cellar,” using the belt for a pivot before the roof falls in. The Manual should stress that the belt is a brace but not the overall answer to surviving a crash.

Here are a few more free-for-the-grabbing tips to manufacturers on how to keep their customers alive: Manufacturers should equip all cars with a mercury switch that will turn off the juice automatically when the car goes over, to prevent fire. Another area screaming for improvement is the current battering ram bumpers that have all the cush- ioned give of an anvil. Years ago we made cars with spring bumpers and some with hydraulic shocks that cut down impact violence considerably. And why were these given up? Because they cost a few extra bucks. But I have a hunch the average driver would gladly pay for bumpers that absorb some of the collision shock and help keep his teeth and tonsils separate.

And while I’m on this safety kick let me repeat the plea I’ve made so many times in the past—that manufacturers give more thought to improving out-of-round tires. Every “safety authority” in the business knows as well as I do that those lopsided doughnuts being sold today as “tires” can become extremely dangerous at high speeds when they develop gyroscopic action and can actually throw a car out of control. Manufacturers should tell the customers in plain words about wheel balancing and demand—repeat: demand!—the tire companies sell him perfectly round rubber for his wheels.

I see I just used the term “safety authority.” I recently had a long conversation with one of this tribe—a guy who has been widely quoted and televised as the greatest thing in safety since the invention of the diaper pin. During our talk I discovered this specialist in safe driving rarely does much driving himself, carefully avoids driving in heavy city traffic, never drives over 45 mph and averages less than 5,000 miles per year—just the guy to tell you how to handle today’s jet-propelled rigs on a six-lane turnpike where you’d be accused of creeping at anything less than 70 mph.

In all fairness, he was a first-rate statistician who could quote such fascinating facts as what percentage of highway accidents are caused by bearded men sneezing unexpectedly. Most of his information was based on analysis of police reports and he knew how many accidents involved drivers jumping stop signs, drivers intoxicated, drivers on the wrong side of the road, deaths caused by doors popping open, drivers scalped by sun visors, etc.

I guess all this is important but it is only part of the highway safety picture. When I asked this same character what he’d do if his car went into a slide at 45 mph or started to loop off a gravel road at 70 mph, he didn’t have a thing to offer. All he could suggest was that the driver was going too fast. This is great advice for a guy sideslipping off an icy corner, heading for an oak tree and wondering if maybe he skipped a page in the Owner’s Manual.

What I’m getting at is this: if manufacturers are sincere in their safety efforts— and I think they are—they should hire safety consultants who really know what it’s all about. Sure, university researchers and statisticians are important. But how about calling on the wisdom and know-how of men who drive, men who might not know a slide rule from a popsicle but can tell you what to do when the right front blows at 60 mph or when some gassed-to-the-eyeballs nudnick cuts you off on a rain-slicked turnpike.

A paid safety council of such men as Bill France, Lee Petty, Fonty Flock, Red Vogt and Bill Stroppe, all of whom know about crashes and how to live through them, would do more good than ten regiments of high-domed theorists who never lived through worse accidents than hitting their thumb with a tack hammer.

A council of race men could really make cars safe. Every manufacturer who has cars competing in the stock car circuits today had to hire outside race men to make his cars do their best and stay together while they were doing it. Race men like those named above can tell manufacturers exactly what’s wrong with their crates, how they can be improved and what can be added for more safety on today’s highspeed highways.

In summing up, here are ten sure-fire tips for any car-maker really interested in safety. 1. Tell your customers about the drop in acceleration time when the car is heavily loaded. 2. Give him two recommended tire pressures, for slow driving and for fast cruising. 3. Try for in-between suspension, not too soft, not too hard. 4. Install double door latches designed like bank vault bolts. 5. Install roll bars. 6. Give how-to-use instructions on safety belts in the Owner’s Manual and try to educate the customers into using shoulder harnesses. 7. Install mercury switches to prevent fire after a roll-over. 8. Design bumpers with some spring in them to help absorb shock. 9. Provide true-round tires and demand that tire companies sell true-round replacements. And finally, 10, set up a paid Safety Council of experienced race men to advise on new safety gimmicks and to rewrite the Owner’s Manual so that Elmer Snodgrass of Goosegrease, Idaho, can do more than take his hands off the wheel and cry “Mercy!” when his car goes into a spin.

Material and ideas published on these pages have been robbed, plundered and stolen many times in the past. Here is an open invitation to anyone interested to help himself to all or any part of the tips given above. It’s all up for grabs.

And if car manufacturers are looking for a slogan to spark their safety campaign, they could do a lot worse than borrow that old one from Frank Buck: “Bring ‘em back alive!” •

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NEW in SCIENCE

Sharpnel-Proof Vest is displayed by Pfc. Ralph Barlow of Redondo Beach, California. While in front line action in Korea, Barlow was hit by shrapnel and knocked to ground, but received no serious injury. Vest stopped the metal fragment.

Bell X-5 is undergoing tests at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It is our first plane able to change the sweep of its wings in flight from the most forward position, top, to a fully sweptback position, bottom, in 30 seconds. It is jet propelled.

Surfagage, precision device used by General Motors, detects scratches as small as one-millionth of an inch. It insures accuracy of finished surfaces of machined pieces and measures roughness of crankshaft, valve and precision parts in autos.

Solar Cooker is demonstrated in India’s National Physics Laboratory. The four-foot polished bowl concentrates the sun’s rays on the cooker and has power equivalent to 300 watts. It is hoped that, mass-produced, it will sell for $10 (U.S.).

Dummy Men will test new parachutes for the G.Q. Parachute Co., England, in the future. Made of steel and covered with rubberized foam, they weigh 182 lbs. and reproduce the behavior of a human body when dropped from high-altitude planes.

Bodygraph gives accurate measurements for tailoring. Felt vests of known dimensions are smoothed into place and have seams joined by photographic elastic bands. Form is registered when seams distend according to shape. D’Angelo, Paris, France.

Lubrication Platform for autos operates like a seesaw. It has a capacity of 1-1/2 tons and is adjustable for cars with wide tread. There is a clearance of four feet when one end is down. Made by Kurt George of Kasel, Germany, and sells for about $90.

Multimonica a novelty instrument, has two keyboards consisting of 41 keys each. With one it can be operated like any organ; with the other it produces tones electronically. It also has a built-in radio.

Shown at Fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

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THISH CAR RUNSH ON BEER

By Rudy Arnold

Liquor for this auto’s engine of distinction makes it run smoothly with that gurgling, surging power.

VERNON G. EISEL has what you might call a lush car. It will drink anything—and often does.

Pouring such barroom concoctions as beer, whisky or even soda into the fuel system of his ’53 Olds makes it purr like a kitten.

The secret, according to Eisel, who lives in Levittown, N. Y., is the “caveator” which lies beneath the hood and gives the car its gurgling, surging power.

Eisel normally pours water into the cavitator which functions satisfactorily on almost any liquid that can be turned into steam. Made with standard steam fittings and connected to the carburetor, Eisel claims his cavitator mixes vapor bubbles and gasoline in the carburetor. The exploding force of the bubbles, added to the force of the gasoline exploding in the cylinders, increases the engine’s power, he says.

When his cavitator is perfected, predicts Eisel, it will eliminate the need for an oil or air filter. You will never have to grind valves or clean spark plugs because there won’t be any carbon deposits and your engine will run smoother and with more power. Eisel claims he gets 25 per cent increase in gas mileage and from 25 to 40 per cent more power.

“…Dr. Porsche’s engineering with such cars as the SSK had the same head-spinning effect as a pipeful of poppy dust to a Chinese playboy.”

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MI Tests the German Porsche

If money is no object and you are looking for a small competition car that’s really loaded with TNT, this is it, our Uncle Tom reports.

By Tom McCahill

THE late Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was the Hopalong Cassidy of the automobile business. For 50 years he engineered mouth-watering cars for generations of big boys to dream about. What Hopalong does for the kids today, old Doe Porsche did for their old man’s old man by building cars with all the intrigue of a Left Bank dive. His fame started back in 1900 with the chassis and power plant of the Austro-Daimler and really came to a boil with his SSK Mercedes and later the famed Auto-Union. Doctor Porsche got more sex appeal on four wheels in a single day than Minsky could cram on a runway in 30 years. To the real gone automotive nut, Dr. Porsche’s engineering with such cars as the SSK had the same head-spinning effect as a pipeful of poppy dust to a Chinese playboy.

‘Before the war he designed the now well-known Volkswagen. This was strictly a political football of the Nazi party and never did get into real mass production until after the war when it was reborn with Marshall Plan dough. During the war years, and for nearly two years afterward while the aging Doctor was in a prison camp, he kept himself alive with ideas for a real gold-plated, luxury competition Volkswagen.

He knew his Volkswagen design was close to perfect for a small inexpensive car. His 50 years of engineering experience were in it and he had licked the bad characteristics that had made man-killers of his rear-engine, Grand Prix Auto-Unions, even though they were among the fastest cars ever built. The Volkswagens quickly proved themselves on these shores after they were introduced by Max Hoffman several years ago (see October 1950 MI).

One of the best compliments I ever heard any car receive was made unconsciously. I was sitting in George Schrafft’s Palm Beach Foreign Motors last winter, shooting the breeze, when a little Volkswagen whizzed by. “That’s Mrs. So and So,” George remarked. “We sold her that job early last fall. She’s never even been back for service. You know, we rarely ever see those Volkswagens again after they’re sold. That’s one job our service department would go broke on—nothing ever seems to go wrong with them.”

This was not said to impress me, it was just part of a casual bull session. George doesn’t make enough dough selling Volkswagens to pay his light bill. His take comes from the Jaguars, Rolls and other big cars he handles. But his offhand remarks were a terrific compliment to old Doc Porsche.

The first Porsche to hit this country arrived a little over a year ago. Early buyers such as Thorne Donnelley and Bill Spear would spend hours bending your ear about the “super deluxe Volkswagen’s” handling qualities. Like the Volkswagen, the early Porsche had a small 1 1/10-litre engine (about 67 cubic inches), only the Porsche engine was a much more refined and expensive piece of machinery. Instead of the heavier Volkswagen block, aluminum alloy was used and this expensive type of construction was utilized throughout the whole car. Some months later, on the demand for more torque, the engine size was boosted to 1-1/3 litres (about 81 cubic inches) and today the Porsche is a full 1-1/2-litre job which makes it a baby tiger due to the car’s light weight of about 1,600 pounds.

The real automotive connoisseur took to the Porsche from the opening gun although the casual sports car fan was backed off by the immodest appearing price tag. The 1-1/2 litre convertible costs approximately $4,500 and the hardtop coupe about $300 less. Of course, this is small change in the Ferrari league but it is still expensive money for a car not much bigger than the average-size bathtub.

Max Hoffman, America’s largest foreign car distributor and Porsche major domo on these shores, personally demonstrated a few Porsche tricks at the Sports Car Club of America’s Equinox Hill Climb last October. Max literally creamed the boys with a stock Porsche despite the worst conditions under which such an event was ever run. Through snow and ice he beat his closest Class 4 rival by more than 18 seconds in the 2.7-mile event. Actually he made far better time than many of the bigger cars in the unrestricted class, including XK 120s and Aston-Martins.

Later at Palm Beach Shores in December, Max in a competition Porsche put on the wildest driving demonstration ever seen in a road race in the U. S. Not content merely to trim the opposition, Max lapped the field and was on his way to the biggest one-sided class victory ever recorded in a sports car race when something went wrong with the cooling system air adjustment and the car was forced to retire. Though Max didn’t win this race, the connoisseurs were bug-eyed at the way the Porsche whipped by blown MGs, HRGs and their ilk. At the Vero Beach 12-hour race, two Porsche coupes gave a remarkable endurance performance. For the whole 12 hours these two 91-cubic-inch cars were right on the tail of Bill Spear and Phil Walters, who were driving a 2.3 litre Ferrari. The Porsches were pushing 100 mph on the straights consistently and at the finish they still were going as if the race had only started. There could be no doubt left in anvone’s mind after the Vero Beach clambake that Dr. Porsche had built himself one hell of an automobile just before he died.

How about it, is the Porsche a good buy? From the stand- point of a true connoisseur who also has a bucket full of loose change, yes. This is a car for the guy who appreciates fine gems, paintings and the best of everything. Frankly, it doesn’t look like the price to the quick eye. There are an awful lot of good cars that can be bought for this kind of scratch. Jaguars, Cadillacs, Allards and Siatas, just to name a few. You can buy faster cars and you can certainly buy bigger cars for this money. But $4,500 won’t buy you a better car even though the Porsche has one drawback, to my way of thinking, and that’s the crash box transmission.

After a few miles in the Porsche I tested, I found that with care you could handle all shifting up and down without double-clutching except to get in the lowest gears from top. It was sort of fun, as it puts the driver on his driving mettle. After a week or so, I feel even the Hydramatic kids would have the handling technique down cold, so perhaps this is only a temporary drawback for the guy who takes pride in his driving.

I won’t go into the virtues of Dr. Porsche’s air-cooled pancake engine as this has already been discussed on these pages before and, besides, the name pancake engine makes my teeth chatter. In the dark days of the depression I had a job for about a year as the head auto electrician for a huge bus company. I worked from seven at night until five every morning and during the winter the company acquired a fleet of pancake buses. Many a snowy night I crawled under these things on the road when the ignition got wet and even though I had genuine built-in hair on my noggin in those days, my head felt like an ice cube most of the time. These damn engines were installed so close to the ground under the chassis that you couldn’t even wear a hat when working on them. A snow pillow, night after night in zero weather, is not McCahill’s idea of a hot time.

The Porsche I tested belonged to (surprise) Briggs Cunningham. It was a well broken-in job with close to 5,000 hard miles on the clock, including a class win at Palm Beach Shores when Briggs drove it to cop the Kiwanis Trophy for cars up to 1500cc displacement. Now, the Porsche has been over here less than two years and during that time it has undergone an almost continuous series of alterations and improvements, including three changes in engine size. The very latest 114-litre Porsche has a beefed-up crankshaft, a hotter cam and additional competition refinements, including a generous chrome plating of many internal parts. The latest 1952 jobs are rated at 65 horsepower and are supposed to wind up to close to 90 in third and have a top speed in high of over 100. Briggs’ car, though only a few months old, was not that hot by a long shot but here’s bow his job shaped up. Zero to 60 took 14.6 seconds. Zero to 30 went 5.3 and zero to 50 took 9.8 seconds. Top speed on a measured mile showed 94.16.

This is fantastic performance for a 91-cubic-inch engine, considering the car’s size though not its weight. The front seat is as big as my Mark VII Jag and there is loads of room for a month’s supply of clothes or three medium-sized midgets behind the seat. The big payoff comes in the way this rig handles and comers. On fast turns and bends the car remains as flat as Stalin’s head. In real right-angle stinkers, old Doc Porsche’s trailing suspension gets it around like a drunk passing a temperance meeting.

As this story goes to press, the sports car characters are reasonably agog over the forthcoming debut of the new Porsche competition roadster, which will develop 75 horsepower and is supposed to hit a top speed of 106 mph. If this job is as good as it sounds, it will murder everything else in Class F, which includes the HRG, Singer, MG and all other cars displacing between 67.1 and 91.5 cubic inches.

The Porsche is a car for the real fancier, the automobile man who demands the best of everything, even in small packages. It’s a car for the guy who pays $1,500 for a Purdy shotgun and $250 for a business suit. And it’s a car for the man who wants the very finest in a class or formula competition automobile.

SPECIFICATIONS

MODEL TESTED:
German Porsche 1-1/2 litre convertible

ENGINE:
4 cylinder, air-cooled OHV pancake-type; bore 3.2 inches, stroke 2.9 inches; brake horsepower 65 @ 4000 rpm; compression ratio 7.2 to 1.

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase 83 inches; overall length 152 inches; tread 49-3/4 inches front, 49-1/4 rear; width 66 inches; height 51 inches; weight 1,600 pounds; standard tire size 5.00×16; gas tank 12 gals.

PERFORMANCE:
0 to 30 mph, 5.3 seconds.
0 to 50 mph 9.8 seconds .
0 to 60 mph 14.6 seconds.
Top speed, 94.16 mph

SPEEDOMETER ERROR:
At 60 mph on speedometer, actual speed 57.14 mph

Automobile Sleigh Develops Speed of 35 Miles an Hour on Snow Roads
LESTER COBB, of Norway, Maine, has invented an automobile sleigh which will not mire in ruts or drifts of snow. It drives and operates like an automobile. A paddle arrangement gives it traction. The auto-sleigh is geared for rapid traction and 35 m.p.h, is a comfortable speed with it. It is declared that the deeper the snow the faster the speed of the sleigh.

World’s First Motor Coach Sleeper Compared with Huge Monoplane
THE world’s first motor coach sleeper has been completed with accommodations for twenty-six sleepers. There are upper and lower berths similar to those of an elaborately fitted Pullman car. The sleeper was taken to an airfield for comparison in size with the Ford monoplane.

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TV’s Sheet-Metal Heroes

Here’s how Grandpa’s Pierce-Arrow might end up on television, co-starring with Bob Stack

By JACK B. KEMMERER

“I’M a co-star with a bunch of old cars,” moans Bob Stack, I relaxing between takes on the studio set of The Untouch- ables. “And if you don’t believe it, take a look at the fan mail. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get more mail than the rest of us put together.”

The Untouchables, ABC-TV’s tale of gangsters and government men in the ’30s, quickly skyrocketed to high popularity in the United States soon after its first appearance on the TV screen. And cars on the program share fan appeal with the human cast.

The series is filmed at Desilu Studios, Culver City, Calif., where the beloved old sheet metal stars even have their own private parking lot. The lineup is impressive: a 1927 Viking, a whole platoon of Buicks, a Pierce-Arrow here and there, a Chevy coupe, some Fords, a couple of Oldsmobiles, lots of LaSalles, both a Yellow and a Checker Cab, and three trucks, a White, a 1925 chain-drive Mack, and a Chevy—about 50 cars in all.

Gold Behind Chicken Coop? Where does the show get all these vintage cars? Aaron Dorn, Desilu’s transportation chief, has the answer—and the job of finding the particular cars needed. Many are offered to Dorn by Untouchables’ fans who figure they have a gold mine in their grandpappy’s old car out behind the chicken coop.

“Lots of people make us a fine offer of a ’27 or ’29 car for maybe only $5000,” Dorn said unhappily. “But the truth is, there are plenty around for a tenth of that. The only catch is, they must be in good mechanical shape.”

Actually, Dorn gets most of his cars from E.O. Smith who owns and operates a Hollywood rental and referral service for old cars. At 59, Smith is one of those rare individuals who retired several years ago, then turned a hobby into a lucrative business.

He took up the hobby about 10 years ago, buying a 1925 Stearns four-door sedan. After acquiring about seven or eight of the ancient cars and restoring them to mint condition, he found that considerable money and even more time were tied up in something that could only be looked at and driven occasionally.

Cars for Lawless Years. “I knew I had to find some way of making them pay or my hobby was over,” Smith recalls. Some weeks later he heard that M-G-M was looking for cars of the 1920s for a new TV series, The Lawless Years.

Driving one of his cars to the lot, Smith showed it, along with pictures of his other cars, to the transportation chief. Several cars were “signed up” immediately and Smith had a new business. Now, only three years later, he has about 65 vintage cars and is constantly adding more. He supplies cars to every movie studio in Hollywood as well as to television production companies.

Smith belongs to the Antique Car Club and the Horseless Carriage Club; most relics come from members of these two organizations. And, now that he’s well known in the field, Smith gets three or four letters and calls a day from people wanting to unload an old car. “Unfortunately,” he says, “most of these people have an exaggerated idea of what their car is worth.”

Judging the Value. There is no set price for an antique or classic car, according to Smith. It depends entirely on the car’s condition, its rarity, and how bad the would-be purchaser wants it. The least Smith ever paid for a car was $30 for a 1934 Oldsmobile; the most: $1000 each for a 1913 International truck and a 1918 Cadillac. A 1918 Dodge cost him $750 and a 1915 Model T Ford, $900. Each required considerable work to restore; in addition to the time involved, about $500 was spent on each car.

With the exception of major mechanical overhauls, Smith does all restoration work. Body work alone requires about two weeks’ labor and can easily take two months if the car is in really bad shape. He farms out his mechanical work to a neighborhood garage run by another antique car fan who thus has a personal interest in Smith’s problems.

Spare parts can be—and often are—a big headache. If Smith can’t find an engine part, he has it machined. Body parts are easier to come by; here again, Smith depends mostly on his fellow car club members.

The First Car He Bought (a 1925 Stearns) caused him the most trouble. “It was a case of pure ignorance,” Smith recalls wryly. “If I knew then what I know now, I never would have bought that particular car.”

It was only after a long search for a missing part and much work that he was able to completely restore the Stearns. Later he turned down $1000 for it. He rented it for use in The Lawless Years but now won’t rent it for any price. The make is now quite rare and, while Smith has heard of other Stearns sedans, he has never actually seen one. Those from our century’s “teens” period are valued from $5000 to $7000.

In The Untouchables, Federal Agent Eliot Ness (Bob Stack) uses a 1930 Buick 8 as his personal car. Actually there are two of these Buicks, both identical and both Smith’s. One Buick is used for the destructive scenes where the car gets shot up or wrecked; in one show it was partially burned.

Destructive Scenes Cause plenty of headaches for both Desilu and Smith. They get sacks of mail from angry fans when one of the elderly machines is consumed in a wreck or a fire—the blazing kind or by weapons of the early 1930s.

The wrecks and fires are all real— nothing is faked. If the car is to be totally destroyed, the studio buys it from Smith beforehand. And, naturally, they don’t destroy any of the rare vehicles. “They couldn’t afford to,” Smith grins. “It would cost a lot of money to keep wrecking cars worth four or five thousand dollars.”

When a car is only partially wrecked or burned, Smith is paid for the total damage and he restores it for further use.

Producers of The Untouchables are constantly amazed at the closeness with which its fans watch the show. During one show, some stock footage was used to show a street scene. The film had been checked thoroughly to see that it fits the proper time period. But 2200 letters received the following week disclosed that each viewer writing had spotted the 1941 Pontiac in the 1931 scene.

Death Car for Schultz. Smith has one car, a 1928 Cadillac, that he calls his Dutch Schultz car. Three times by three different studios this vehicle has served as the death car for the Dutchman.

TV commercials offer another source of steady income for Smith. Many of the filmed advertisements require cars of a certain vintage and model. Smith always has four or five of his ancient buggies on loan at the studios that specialize in these short films.

The rental fee per car varies, depending on the vehicle involved, from $30 to $100 a day, with the price increasing with the age and rarity of the vehicle. Most requests are for cars of a particular model and year. Even with 65 on hand, Smith doesn’t have everything the studios want. If he has time, he’ll get the car and restore it, provided enough rental is assured to make it profitable.

“One thing is sure,” Smith says happily. “As long as they make motion pictures and TV films, they’re going to have to have cars of the right age to fit their time requirements. It looks like I’ve got a pretty good hobby.”

Do you think anyone considers a woman’s shorter reach when designing GM instrument panels?
Fisher Body does.

That’s why you see GM Stylist Joan Gatewood establishing 35 important reference points for instrument panels on the special unit pictured above. Then she tries them out on at least 25 different-sized people to make sure even the smallest drivers can reach all the essential controls from windshield wiper activators to defroster buttons.

As a professional stylist, Joan knows how important human dimensions are to her designs. What’s more, because she’s a woman, she pays particular attention to such things as control knobs that are shaped to accommodate longer fingernails. And, knowing how confining bulky suits and tight-waisted dresses can be, she concentrates on designing instrument panels that practically hand you every control and switch, no matter what you’re wearing!

Joan’s skillful woman’s touches are important reasons why so much of the buy is in the body. And Body by Fisher makes GM cars a better buy. Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac.

Body by Fisher
General Motors Symbol of Quality

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NEW PRODUCTS AND INVENTIONS

Hume workshop hobbyists who own drill presses will find the new auxiliary work table shown at right extremely useful. The top is made of heavy gauge steel permanently bonded to a plywood base. Fits any type drill press. Comes complete with anchor studs, threaded bushings, irregular shaping pin and special pivoting fence with wing nut clamp. Provides a large, flat working surface for all operations.

The new type slip-stream deflectors above are said to keep the car’s windshield clear of all foreign substances. Fastened in front of the windshield, they turn the airstream and dirt aside.

A two-faced clock for desks, tables and between twin beds is the latest thing.

The garbage and waste disposal problem can now be solved by every home owner with the aid of the gadget pictured at right. This unit can be installed in any type of sink and will pulverize waste matter before flushing it down the drain.

Although the gas shortage is apparently over, the price of gasoline remains high, and motorists will want to drive as economically as possible this winter. Those contemplating a new car will be interested in the new light sedan just placed on the market, and illustrated at left. Consuming two-thirds less gasoline than the average small car, it delivers up to 50 miles per gallon of gas. The body of the car is all steel, with a steel “turret top.” It has ample leg-room, and rides very comfortably. The model stretched out alongside gives an idea of the car’s size.

Service stations may soon take on an additional duty with the introduction of a newly patented flying automobile. The novel vehicle is primarily intended for land travel and has the appearance of a conventional car, but it is adapted to function as an airplane with a minimum of additional equipment which can be attached by a service station attendant. So far as possible the standard power and control elements of the automobile are adapted for use with the vehicle in flight. The flight surfaces are designed to be added as a unit, so that the owner of the motor car may drive up to a flight service center, attach the flying unit to his car, take off and fly to another landing field where the flying unit may be detached and used on another automobile. One important application of the invention is said to be in military operations for transporting troops by air and by ground. This would increase the mobility of mechanized units.

Bathing beauties have a new accessory to add charm with the introduction of a novel type of bathing cap. Instead of the old flat and smooth type of cap used heretofore, a woman may now wear a cap to which is attached a wig in the form of a well dressed head of hair. The wig is of molded rubber and is not affected by water. An inner head holding portion serves to maintain the cap on the head. The inner part and the outer part form a closed space which can be inflated with air to fill out the shape of the wig.

A double function barber’s apron serves not only to catch falling hair, but also to protect the clothes of the customer while being given a shampoo. The apron is in the form of a circular doughnut shaped ring and is made of oil silk to render it water-proof. Being washable, it may be kept clean and sanitary.

A new bird-shaped exerciser is claimed to be valuable for strengthening the muscles of the arms, legs, chest and back. The device includes a series of feathering wing sections attached to arm-holding units. When the wings are swung upwardly the sections are open; while the feathers close with the downward motion to give a maximum of lift. The wing motion gives a sense of buoyance and tends to develop a personal sense of poise and balance according to the inventor. This function is stated to be of value in the training of aviators.

Persons who must use a telephone and use both hands at the same time may find a new telephone support of interest. The support is shaped to hold the telephone on the shoulder by pressure from the side of the head. The holder is made of sponge rubber, soft rubber, or felt. A roughened shoulder holding part assists in preventing slipping.

-Morton Leese.

Patents Identified Automobile ……………………………………….No. 2,241,577
Bathing Cap ……………………………………..No. 2,242,420
Apron ………………………………………………..No. 2,243,505
Exerciser …………………………………………..No. 2,244,444 Support………………………………………………No. 2,243,554

Lots of Wheels With VW Push

WITH 16 of its 20 wheels powered, the 2200-lb. Nobel-Amphibil travels quickly over ditches, rocks, mud, snow, or ice— through clinging undergrowth, swamps, and swift streams, according to York Nobel Group, Ltd., London, which holds world production and sales rights.

The twin front wheels on each side are un-powered; they absorb road shocks and help guide the vehicle on steep slopes. The prototype Amphibil shown here, during tests in Norway, averaged close to 40 mpg. It’s driven by an air-cooled Volkswagen engine at up to 40 mph. The one-piece fiber glass body will hold six passengers or four passengers and about 440 lbs. of luggage. Wholesale factory price is expected to be $2,250.

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100 Million Road Maps Can’t Be Wrong

By Irv Leiberman

IN Vancouver, Washington, a quavering feminine voice inquired over the telephone if the tourist bureau of a large oil company provided a service for absolutely any emergency. “Yes,” replied the unsuspecting clerk.

“Well, I’m parked right around the corner from your office,” the woman said, “and there’s a mouse in the driver’s seat. And I won’t leave for New York until he goes away!”

Although this is not a typical question, routers in tourist services frequently are confronted with such out-of-the-ordinary requests. This is in addition to thousands of demands for regular travel information which pour in to them through the mails. And they distribute more than 100 million road maps to Americans on the go.

The questions asked by patrons cover a surprising range. The aunt of a child with rheumatic fever, taking her to the Southwest on a physician’s advice, asked about the climate and the relative merits of the public schools in that area.

A lad from a small town in North Carolina came in hoping for assistance in finding a girl he had known back home.

A Louisville bureau recently had the delicate problem of a man headed for a good job in Boston, who had stopped off on his way, spent all his money and gotten drunk. He had wired ahead for cash, but was afraid that if he wasn’t sober by the time the money came, he would go back to a bar and the job would be lost. So, the touring-service personnel doled out petty cash to him all day—first a quarter at a time for tapering-off drinks, then nickels for the successive-cups-of-coffee stage, and finally the price of a square meal when he could stand the idea of food. When his funds arrived, he was sober and fully capable of driving.

Within a week, he sent the touring service attendants a check for the money advanced and a letter of warm thanks.

A few years ago, a man driving from Washington to the West Coast stopped at the capitol’s biggest tourist bureau and asked the clerk to direct him to some Western city where he could find work. He was in bad health and wished to find a climate that would benefit him. The clerk gave him the address of a friend in Los Angeles, provided him with a card of introduction and a map. The man found work through the friend, remained there a year and improved so much that he returned to Washington. Three years have now passed but the clerk still receives friendly little notes from the grateful man.

Most questions are comparatively easy for the travel counselors, but every now and then someone comes up with a tough ‘one. For example, a Columbus, Ohio, father was going through an animal picture book with his young son—making noises like pigs, cows, roosters, dogs and cats. He was even doing pretty well with the trumpeting elephant, the roaring lion and the howling wolf. But finally he was stumped—the camel!

The father, who was a traveling salesman and had frequently received routing assistance from the tourist bureau, took a chance. He called their number.

It just so happened that one member of the staff once had heard a camel make a noise. So she cleared her throat, took several practice croaks, and calmly made like a camel on the telephone.

Here are some topical problems which came up recently at a metropolitan touring service: a clothing salesman wanted a route including every town of 10,000 population from Pennsylvania to Florida; a trailerite asked for a route touching every one of the 48 states; a Congressman on the Military Appropriations Committee requested a 12,000-mile tour covering the nation’s dams; a father who was going to assist his daughter in selecting a future Alma Mater asked for a trip through the college towns of four surrounding states; a teacher of history who was after the realistic touch wanted a motor itinerary following as closely as possible the course of the Old Tremont overland wagon trail.

Training, experience and constant reference to current road data enable the touring-service staffs of the big oil companies to mark most of the requested routes with an ease and speed that often amuses customers, especially since routers do it with the map upside down, facing customer.

While people always seem to go South in the winter and North in the summer, about 15 per cent of all inquiries concern travel to the West. Any unusual regional attraction causes a sudden increase in inquiries—fiestas, fairs, the Mardi Gras, the Kentucky Derby, the races at Indianapolis, dress parades at West Point, the Natchez Spring Pilgrimage are all magnets for the American traveler.

Diplomacy and tact are necessary qualities for an attendant at touring services. After Uncle Sidney has told a motorist about the fine route he used two years ago, it is not easy to persuade him to use another which the routers know is superior in every way. Prodigious patience is re- quired to suggest an outline for a two-week trip for four ladies, when each has a different idea of what she wants to see.

No maps prepared in advance, however, can anticipate all the personal problems involved in taking a trip by car. The travel counselor, for example, is occasionally an unwilling bystander to a family spat, and must steer a wary course to avoid entanglement when Mr. and Mrs. Jones disagree on the way they are going to drive home.

Although most of the patrons are men, routers firmly believe that the women wear the pants when travel plans are decided. If a couple calls, the feminine half usually has the final word.

All types of cars from Model T jalopies to custom-bodied foreign jobs pull up before the doors of the nation’s tourist bureaus. And the procession of human types is just as varied. When a cold snap hit New York last year and reports of frozen motors were common, a mild-mannered traveler worked his way up to a router’s desk and asked for some hot water.

“There’s plenty of water in the washroom,” the girl said, “but I’m not certain where there’s a bucket to carry it out to your car.”

“Oh, that’s all right, Miss,” he grinned. Then, pulling a bottle of milk from his jacket, “I just want to heat the baby’s formula.”

But the most amazing request to hit any touring service arrived by U. S. mail recently. It was a letter from a couple of potential honeymooners.

“We want details on a 2500-mile trip to almost anywhere,” they wrote. “Destination is no object, just as long as you make sure we never get there!”

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IT’S NEW!

SWAMP WAGON’S nine-ft. tall rear wheels have hickory treads steel-clamped to 28 in. rims weighing 700 lbs. Vehicle is designed to clamber over Florida’s soft muck bogs.

TOTCYCLIST Brad Bradley drives cut-down 125 cc Harley Davidson like a pro. Five-year-old was taught to ride 50-mph machine by his Dad. Brad began career at 18 months.

MANY-LENSED Italian Summa camera has revolving turret housing regular lens, wide angle lens and two for direct sighting. It also has hand grips and flash attachments.

NO FANCY PANTS, Solly Davis holds Geiger counter inside Goodyear’s new one-piece vinyl film anti-radiation suit Inflated by compressed air, suit is air-conditioned.

BLOW-UP house can be inflated by a man in three minutes. British rubber hut is nine ft high with floor space of 30×19 ft. It has all comforts of home—phone, lights.

SINKPROOF claims Danish inventor Clous Sorensen of his novel lifeboat which has its rudder and screw hidden in tube. Mate is strapped in seat under plastic hood.

DIRECTOMAT in Times Square, N.Y., issues a card with directions to get to any station in subway system when destination button is pushed. Great aid for out-of-towners.

SUPER SOFT Terra-Tires allow this plane to taxi at high speed over scattered 2×4 blocks. Goodyear is testing them for use by aircraft on rough ground cluttered with obstacles.

MOTO-VAC sucks up dirt in car when attached to exhaust pipe and engine is started. Nobby British invention comes with 12 ft. hose, operates by exhaust jet extraction.

TINY TV camera developed by Lockheed will give engineers ringside seat when studying the performance of control surfaces on new aircraft during flight operations.

FLASHLIGHT is latest Russian all-weather jet fighter. Sleek craft is swept-wing, twin jet, dual-placed job which gives the appearance of being effective interceptor.

RED TV antennas bristle atop these wooden shacks in the suburbs of Moscow. Soviet citizens like video and many houses that have no running water boast a TV set.

ONE-WHEEL TRUCK
TRAILMOBILE, Inc., the nation’s second largest trailer builders, recently found plans of what may have been the granddaddy of all trailer-tractors—the “motor wheel” shown in the accompanying pictures. Manufactured more than 60 years ago by an outfit bravely styled the International Motor Wheel Co., it was invented by one J.W. Walters. The unit consisted of a rubber-tired wooden wheel propelled by a two-cylinder, air-cooled gasoline motor mounted with a heavy flywheel on one side of the fork; on the other side were twin gas tanks. The steering wheel turned the whole unit; to reverse, you turned it right around. Or you would have, if you’d had the chance to drive it. Few ever did. The idea of a petrol-eating horse for a wagon was great, but the motor of the period wasn’t.

New American Sports Car

The Firebomb, a sleek four-passenger sports car, is now being produced by Detroit’s Dual-Motors Corporation.

A UNIQUE four-passenger sports car dubbed the Firebomb and ranging in price from $5,500 to $6,000 is now being produced in limited numbers by Detroit’s Dual-Motors Corp. The jaunty Firebomb has a 115-inch wheelbase and is powered by a modified Dodge Super Red Ram V8 engine with automatic transmission and power brakes. Its production body, designed by Carrozzeria Ghia, is assembled in Italy.

Aluminum Car Weighs Only 800 lb.

WITH a total weight of only 800 lb., this new European light car boasts a cast aluminum body, top speed of 60 m.p.h., and high fuel economy—65 miles per gal. The French “Gregoire,” named after its designer, Jean Gregoire, has a convertible top, front-wheel drive, and is powered by an air-cooled, horizontal opposed two-cylinder engine.

Planned in 1940, the first model was built secretly during the German occupation. Production in France is expected to be started shortly by Aluminum Francais, while American rights have been purchased by Henry Kaiser interests, which are reported planning adaptation of “Gregoire” design features to their own front-wheel drive model.

Advertising Invades Taxicabs

ADVERTISING has now invaded the taxicab in the form of a panel which fits above the partition between driver’s seat and the passenger’s compartment.

Thus located, the ad cards, which are fitted in separate divisions and separated from each other by means of wood partitions, cannot fail to get undivided attention during long tedious taxi rides.

Above each card there is a miniature panel bulb, with a reflector running the entire length of the display. The lights are connected with the meter, so that when the meter flag is pulled the lights switch on automatically.

Portable Auto Jail Houses Fugitive

A NEW style in portable “hoosegows” was set by an Oklahoma police official when he built a steel cage on the back of his passenger auto. The “jail” was used to bring back a fugitive who had escaped from the McAlester, Okla., prison. He had been recaptured by Pittsburgh, Pa., police.

Alex Watson, transfer agent of the prison, drove 1,000 miles to bring back the prisoner. The “jail” was made by ripping off the lid of the luggage compartment of a regular coupe automobile and screwing down an sill-welded steel cage. An awning protected the prisoner from the sun, and a cushion provided the interior “comforts” of the jail. The prisoner was released from the cage for brief exercise periods throughout the trip.

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Meet The New MG

Completely remodeled, the new MG can now top 90 miles an hour!

By Gordon Wilkins

MG-TF with sweeping fenders, angular outline, is one of most popular sports cars.

WHEN the last MG-TF rolled off the production line in the early summer of this year, an era ended in sports car design. The stark angular outline, the long sweeping fenders, the slab-sided gas tank and the spare wheel hung on the back, had their origins in sports cars which made history at Le Mans back in the ’20s. It was a formula which produced a long line of durable, inexpensive sports models and spread an appreciation of sports car motoring into areas where people had long forgotten that cars could be fun to drive. But rising performance standards brought the MG hard up against the laws of aerodynamics and above 85 mph increases in power brought negligible returns.

Cost and weight of a streamlined model presented problems that had to be solved if the MG was to remain one of the most popular sports cars. The new MG-A two-seater now goes on sale with a successful Le Mans debut behind it, with more power and only a trifling increase in avoirdupois. At this writing the price has not been set but it will probably be slightly higher than the MG-TF.

The type designation is significant in two ways. The Magnette sedan is the ZA, so a new alphabet, prefixed with the letters MG, begins with a new body style and starts a whole new line of cars. For a long time MG owners have had little more than the achievements of the special record cars to remind them of the make’s racing history. But now the British Motor Corporation is stepping up the competition on all fronts. Not for 20 years has there been such intense activity as is now to be seen in the big new shops at competition headquarters. Mechanics work early and late on new projects; next year’s racers, of sensational shape, have already completed their wind tunnel tests and their engines are installed for current road tests.

The old line of MG’s, from the J2 of 1932 to the MG-TF 1500 of 1955, saw a power increase from 36 to 64 hp, or to over 80 if we include approved tuning stages, and they remained fundamentally safe, tractable and economical. The new car, therefore, had to be designed with equally large margins for development, so the chassis was given a secret try-out on the streamlined record car in which George Eyston and Ken Miles set the salt sizzling at Utah in August 1954 to establish 35 new U.S. and International Class F records at speeds up to 153 mph. Its quality was confirmed at Le Mans this year when two MG-A prototypes finished 12th and 17th, the faster covering 2,082 miles in the 24 hours.

The production model looks a bigger car than the MG-TF; longer, lower and wider. Actually, the wheelbase is unchanged, length is up 9 inches, height is down 2-1/2 inches and rear track is slightly reduced. There is much more width inside the body—a total of 48 inches across the seats. External width is an inch less than on the MG-TF.

The new, more rugged frame, has box section side members swept out wide, so that the seats can be set low down between them but driving vision is still excellent over the sloping hood, and both front fenders are visible. In comfort and weather protection, in greater space for passengers and luggage, the new shape brings real advantages. There is more room to turn the new four-spoked flexible wheel and more room for the feet. Twin separately adjustable seats have deep, curved back rests for support on fast corners and there is a comfortable arm rest between them. Big parcel containers now figure in the doors and there are no projecting locks to catch the knees. Main instrument dials are brought back in front of the driver and the long- requested gas gauge is now provided. Speedometer, calibrated up to 110 mph, carries trip and total mileage recorders; the tachometer, calibrated up to 6,500 rpm, carries a yellow segment beginning at 5,500 and a red sector starting at 6,000.

Another dial groups together oil pressure gauge and water thermometer. The loudspeaker grille is in the center, with the horn button recessed below it; beneath the facia goes the control panel for the optional heater which picks up fresh -air from behind the radiator grille. On the right is space for the radio control unit. On the extreme left is the switch for the flashing indicators and on the far right a shrouded lamp for map reading.

The big curved screen, swept by twin electric wipers, is detachable, and braced by struts which form hand grips. A well-tailored top stows away behind the seats and in front of it lies a permanently attached leather cloth envelope with compartments for the two side screens. A new feature is the spring loaded signaling flap, which closes firmly to check rattle and draughts; perhaps a little too firmly for the average feminine wrist. Spare wheel, tool kit and screw jack stow in the trunk, leaving enough free space for a couple of good sized suitcases; an external luggage rack is an optional extra.

Under the hood is the B-type four-cylinder engine. It is similar in mechanical conception to that of the MG-TF but is a more modern unit, with slightly larger bore and with its carburetors and exhaust system on the opposite side. Maximum power is 68 bhp at 5,500 rpm against the 64 bhp at 5,000 rpm of the MG-TF 1500. Torque is practically unchanged but the peak on the new engine comes in at 500 rpm higher.

On the road the first impression is one of easy maneuverability. Despite the extra length, the light, quick steering and 28-foot turning circle allows it to thread its way through the traffic like a London taxi but when the lights turn green any resemblance to a taxi ceases forthwith. The clutch seems better than the old one in combining sweetness and light pedal action with an ability to withstand full throttle gear changes. An axle ratio of 4.3 to 1 against 4.875 for the MG-TF permits a marked reduction in engine revs for a given road speed, to match the reduction in wind resistance; at the same time, the gear box ratios are more widely spaced, so there is not much change in maximum speeds on the lower two gears—about 25 mph in first and 42 in second at 5,500 rpm but in third the car rushes up to 68 before the rev counter needle is too far into the amber and it takes well over 70 to put you in the red. Maximum speed? At the time of writing there wasn’t time for a thorough test but the Le Mans cars, with engines giving 82 bhp, were given production axle ratios and full width windscreens in preparation for the Alpine Trial and with screen up and top down—the worst conditions for speed —they could be wound up to about 103-104 mph. One can therefore calculate that the stock model, with possibly more silencing, should do between 90 and 95 mph, especially with top and side screens erected.

In selecting the axle ratio for a new model the designer has to compromise between higher speeds on the gears and a possible higher all-out speed on the one hand and better acceleration on the other. Despite the use of a “faster” axle on the MG-A, unofficial tests with early examples in unmodified stock form suggest that a representative figure for acceleration through the gears from 0 to 50 mph will be about 12 seconds and from 0 to 60 mph around 19 seconds. Other axle ratios, higher and lower, can be fitted at extra cost, to meet owners’ demands.

Sports car owners are not primarily interested in fuel economy but the new low-drag bodywork combined with the lower numerical axle ratio should show useful economies at a given average speed. Drag reduction brings cumulative benefits; less power is expended in pushing the air aside, so engine revs can be reduced. This in turn means lower friction and pumping losses in the motor; less power spent thrashing the oil about; lower friction losses in the transmission. Tests with an MG-A running at a steady 30 mph have shown 38 miles per U.S. gallon. At 50 mph it does about 32 mpg and at a steady 70 mph, a creditable 23 mpg seems to be possible.

Cornering and general handling represent a big step forward. A center of gravity less than 16 inches from the ground is an inbuilt safety factor and with a well-tuned engine, advanced students will be able to demonstrate the four wheel drift. The oversteer, familiar on the MG-TF and MG-TD, has gone and the tail seems slower to break away. Hydraulic brakes, with ten-inch drums 1% inches wide, are the same size as those used at Le Mans.

For competition drivers, new tuning schedules are in preparation. Meanwhile, items like sodium filled exhaust valves with special guides, racing clutch, racing wheels with light alloy rims, 24-gallon gas tank and racing hood straps are available as extras.

Also on offer at extra cost are radio, heater, screen washer, white wall tires, adjustable telescopic steering column, choice of axle ratios, 5.90 section road speed tires, external mirror, radiator blind and cockpit cover.

There is some power roar from the disc type air cleaners at full throttle and the hand brake, still of the fly-off racing type, seems small and less accessible than that on the MG-TF. But after trying the MG-A, the fact remains that it is more than ever fun on four wheels at a price that the average fan can pay.

SPECIFICATIONS

MODEL TESTED:
MG, Series MG-A

ENGINE:
4 cylinder, ohv; bore 2.875 inches, stroke 3.5 inches; maximum torque 77.4 foot pounds @ 3,500 rpm; brake horsepower 68 @ 5,500 rpm; compression ratio 8.15 to 1

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase 94 inches; overall length 156 inches; tread
47-1/2 inches front, 48-3/4 rear; width 58 inches; height
50 inches; weight 1,790 pounds; standard tire site
5.60 X 15; gas tank 12 gals

PERFORMANCE
0 to 50 mph, 12 seconds
0 to 60 mph, 19 seconds
38 mpg at 30 mph; 32 mpg at 50 mph; 23 mpg at 70 mph
Top speed, 90-95 mph

NEW for the ROAD

Bump-Air invented by Jeff Corydon of Hush Bumpers, Chicago, extends beyond regular guards and takes the shock of minor collisions. It is installed by drilling new holes or by replacing the old metal guards. Made of inflated Plastisol or rubber.

Caddy Pickup Truck carries motorcycles to race tracks. It is made on a 1949 Cadillac chassis and will take three cycles which are anchored in wells in floor. Windows in the rear corners of cab are Plexiglas. It is painted bright red. cost $5,000.

Talking Highways will warn drivers of danger ahead. The panels or sound tracks inserted lengthwise will say audible words such as “crossing” or “soft shoulder” when tires roll over them. Car acts as sound box. Floyd Dofsen of San Francisco.

Garden Trailer, displayed at Motor Show in London, England, proves that a trailer can have the comforts of a home. This unusual model has a roof garden, one end of which is sheltered with awning to protect flowers from wind when driving.

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Horseless Carriage Cavalcade

THE CARS shown here, all on public display at the Carriage Cavalcade at Florida’s Silver Springs, go a long way toward explaining how antique car bugs get that way. For example, the 1903 Crestmobile was loaded with features that are now regarded as pretty modern: steering column shift, automatic clutch, an engine mounting resembling Chrysler Floating Power, and adjustable steering wheel. The 1925 Rickenbacker had four-wheel brakes—but the motoring public fell victim to a whispering campaign that this great safety advance was unreliable. The Rumpler Drop Car was an attempt to streamline the passenger car (racing bombs had been built much earlier). To people who love cars, these old-timers are automotive history.

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Confessions of a Car Thief

By No. 75149

State Prison of Southern Michigan When the manuscript of this story arrived at the editorial offices of Ml, it created something of a stir. While it warned car owners of the danger of theft and even described specific ways to avoid theft, there was the possibility that some twisted minds might be able to use it as a sort of primer for crime. Well, after careful consideration and some strategic deletions, the editors have decided that the good this story can do far outweighs any possible harm. So, here it is—-advice to car owners from a guy who got caught.

IT wasn’t too good as opportunities go— but here was a chance to make a fast $50. The shiny Cadillac was parked in the front driveway of a home in a newly settled area. The porch light that bathed the car in a soft yellowish glow revealed that the windows were open and on the seat lay an expensive camera, a ladies’ purse and a man’s top-coat.

A thief, not satisfied with just these items, entered the car and callously dismantled the radio. The clock, special rear-view mirror, cigarette lighter and compass were also deftly taken.

Was he caught? No. Because the owner was too busy enjoying himself at a party less than 30 feet away.

An isolated instance? Not at all—it happens every day. There were almost 200,000 thefts of cars last year and over a million cases of larceny, many involving thefts from cars. I am as much surprised as anyone to read those figures and I’m an ex-car thief myself. This is big business, breaking into cars and stealing your belongings.

A fellow inmate once told me that cars were the stepping stones to crime. As an example, just walk around for a short while. You’re bound to find several cars that not only have the windows open or the doors unlocked but have something of value carelessly left in plain view on the seat. The streets of America present a veritable Shangri-La for the car thief and pilferer.

Once, in my criminal days, a group of us banded together to increase our income from crime. We held bull sessions and talked over ways to overcome the obstacles we met.

Jimmy, a nice looking lad from a good neighborhood, had a new gimmick—new to him anyway. “We’ve just been taking the milk that’s easy to get,” he said. “These will help us to get some of the cream that’s locked up.”

He held up two innocuous tools. They looked like screw drivers to me but somehow they were different. Both were thin and flat, yet they were well tempered and strong. I noticed that as I handled them. The first had a spade-shaped blade on the end. It was used to pry open the wing ventilator and to press in the lock release button at the same time, if the car had one. The other had a curved hook on its end. “You use this to lift up the handle after the button’s pushed in,” Jimmy said. “From then on, it’s a cinch—just reach in and open the door.” So, I saw that an innocent screw driver can lead a Jekyll-Hyde existence. .

The gang was getting wise. Already they had learned the value of watching for cars with vents closed but not locked. They knew enough to look for a small crack that let air in to ventilate a locked car and the lock button that stood high on the window indicating the door was unlocked.

Al remarked one night that a salesman, who worked for an electrical appliance store, never closed his garage doors. The boys went out and scouted that particular neighborhood. The next day’s papers reported that the salesman had lost $250 worth of appliances. Three other car owners had lost radios, heaters and other accessories and personal items from their automobiles.

Jimmy told about one of the jobs. “The garage doors were open just like you guys said but the jerk had locked the car. I thought I was stumped until I noticed the back window was rolled down about half an inch. So, I just took the wire and opened the door from the inside. The guy must have been on a picnic. There was a bunch of stuff in there—a portable radio, too. What a beaut.” He held it up for our inspection.

The wire was an old wire coat hanger, straightened out with a circular loop at one end and a sort of handle formed by the wire at the other. I asked Jimmy what he would have done if the door handle had to be pressed down instead of lifted up to open the door. “That’s easy,” he replied. “I would have put the loop around the window crank and then rolled the window down by manipulating the wire.”

The car thief has his art down to a science now. A new gadget that seems to be coming into popular use is made from a six-volt door buzzer. It looks like a gun but has a thin steel plate extending about two inches straight out from its box-like handle. Above this plate is a very strong, thin steel wire which is vibrated by the buzzer. Inserted into the door lock and operated by dry cells carried either in the pocket or in a brief case, the tumblers of the lock rapidly vibrate up and down and a gradual turning pressure is exerted through the narrow steel plate. It is only a matter of a few short moments and most locks will give in to the confused juggling of their tumblers.

Every day, perplexed-looking car owners walk into police stations. “I don’t see how anyone could have stolen the car. It was locked and I have the keys right here,” they say dangling a key case in evidence. How was the car stolen? Well, there are several ways it could have been accomplished.

Starting a car engine without the keys really isn’t difficult. In fact, the manufacturers are making it easier year by year. Paper clips, jumper wires and entire units containing a coil and the necessary wiring are used. The method is found in elementary electricity— all that is needed is the simple completion of a circuit.

The ignition system of your car draws its current from the battery but it does so in a roundabout way. The ignition circuit carries the current from the battery to the starter connection, then to the ammeter on the dash and from the ammeter to the ignition switch. When the switch is in the on position, the current flows to the primary connector on the coil. Any connections which will introduce current between the coil and the ignition switch will complete a circuit and the engine will run.

Some of the newer cars have complicated switches with the starter being operated only when the key is turned past a certain point. Or they have the starter button wired to the ignition switch and the starters will not work unless the ignition is turned on (at least, that’s what it says in the service manuals). A paper clip solves the problem. There are few car thieves who do not know the paper clip’s utility. But Figure 5 on page 60 does describe a way to make it quite a bit more difficult for them.

The jumper wire is simply a piece of wire about three feet long which has electrical clamps at both ends to facilitate quickly clamping it to a terminal. One end of the jumper is fastened to the primary connector on the coil, the other end may be connected to any one of several places under the hood which will supply the necessary current. The battery connections on either the voltage regulator or horn relay, the terminal on either the starter or solenoid or the hot side of the battery itself will do this. A simple snapping of the two clamps and the circuit is complete.

One day I was talking to a fellow down at a garage who told me he wasn’t worried about jumper wires—his car had an armored cable which ran from the ignition switch to the coil and ended in a cover cap on the coil which could not be removed. So I asked him how he thought a mechanic removed the coil to test or replace it. Well, the thief does it the same way—with a thin knife blade which is inserted under the lip of the cover cap and then moved around the circumference of the coil until the small spring which locks the cap in place is released. This operation takes less time than a minute for the car thief. Then, a simple turn to the left and a lift upward removes the cap leaving the prized primary connector exposed.

Some car thieves have told me they prefer to carry their own coils with them. They use high-tension coils which deliver a hot spark and are equipped with strong clips fastened to their case to clamp them on the engine or body, two wires with quick action clamps and a long, high-tension cable to deliver the current to the distributor cap.

Possibly right now a thief is casting covetous glances at your car. What can you do to stop him? Well, the main deterrent to a thief is attraction of attention to his deed. Burglar alarms employing raucous automobile horns are detailed in Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 on page 60. Care should be taken not to overload the ignition or lighting circuits by using horns with too high amperage drains.

I do not advise the use of the horns found on Chrysler-made cars, either dual or single, since they now drain 30 amps each and prior to 1948 they had a drain of 20 to 27 amps. It is very important that you select a low drain horn since in three of the alarm systems the current passes through the ammeter before going to the horn. Excessive current flow will damage that instrument or blow a fuse, nullifying the effectiveness of the alarm.

When purchasing the wire used to connect the various switches and horns, specify 12-gauge exterior duty accessory wire. You should be able to assemble a very suitable alarm to protect your car for $5 or less.

You car owners of America must realize the temptation which you place before thieves whenever your car is left unattended. If each one of you will take all the precautions you possibly can to prevent car theft and pilferage, you’ll not only be protecting your own property but also helping some weak-willed potential thief resist the lure of easy crime. •

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America’s Fastest Sports Car…’52 CUNNINGHAM

If the U.S.A. ever wins back leadership in international road racing, this is the car that will do it, says Mi’s own auto expert.

By Tom McCahill

THE 1952 Cunninghams have four wheels and a base Chrysler block but aside from this they look no more like the 1951 models than I resemble Fred Astaire on a ballroom floor. The first cars came in for a lot of hard criticism because of their unfortunate showing in the 24-hour race at Le Mans a year ago. But before the year was out, they succeeded in cramming a crankcase full of words down the critics’, throats by running away with the Elkhart Lake and Watkins Glen races. In finishing one, two and four at Watkins Glen, even the sourest observer was forced to admit that they were about the hottest cars ever to run on these shores. And this year the Cunningham is even hotter.

In basic dimensions, here’s how the 1951 and 1952 Cunninghams differ. Wheelbase of the ’51 model was 105 inches. This year’s is 100 on the nose. Extreme width last year was 70 inches, this year 64. Overall length in ’51 was 171 inches, this year 155. The height of 39 inches remains the same. Road clearance now is four inches, compared with last year’s seven. The tread last year was 58 inches and this year is 54, front and rear.

The big pay-off difference, however, is in the weight. Last year the Cunningham without extra tools, parts or fuel weighed approximately 3,400 pounds. This year in the same condition it hits the scales at 2,410, or nearly 1,000 pounds less! It doesn’t take a Pinin Farina or a Ferrari to see why, comparing weight, overall dimensions and added power between the two automobiles, this 1952 Cunningham figured on the morning line to be the car to beat in the big international grind in France on June 14-15.

The 1951 Cunninghams were a long way from perfect in many respects and no one was quicker to admit it than Briggs S. Cunningham himself, their creator and America’s number one sports car backer. With the necessary equipment to run at Le Mans last year’s cars weighed almost 4,000 pounds. They steered badly and none of the three racing entries had even 1,000 miles of break-in running before the race. In spite of this, at the 20th hour of the 24, Phil Walters and John Fitch had their Cunningham in second place, averaging close to 90 mph and doing as much as 153 on the straightaways. A bearing failure, due to excessive heat from detonation caused by the unexpectedly poor official fuel, finally kayoed its good chance of winning and the car limped across the finish line in 18th place at the end of the 24-hour classic. The other two Cunninghams spun out early in the torrential rain that made the turns as slimy as an eel’s belly.

It would have been a lead-pipe cinch to correct the minor steering faults, shave off several hundred pounds of weight and re-enter the same models this year. Many manufacturers would have done just that but Cunningham doesn’t work that way. He was the one who told me that the Jaguar XK 120C (last year’s winner) was just too hot for his current model. The XK 120C had a lot more acceleration and a top speed of close to 160 mph. Because of this, Cunningham figured this year there would be at least a dozen new entries that could top 160 mph, including the new Mercedes team and the Ferraris. Therefore, to make any showing at all meant building an entirely new car from stem to stern and that’s exactly what he did.

The three Cunninghams in the Le Mans race this year, as last, will he powered by base Chrysler V8 engines. After months of experimentation, the new engines developed close to 325 horsepower on the dynamometer as against less than 300 last year. Two of the new entries will be roadsters, as in 1951, and judging from early tests which I witnessed 170 miles an hour seems a conservative estimate of their top speed. They should accelerate from zero to 60 in 6.5 seconds, which is truly spectacular.

The real ring-tailed dilly of the 1952 Cunningham entry, however, is the two-passenger hardtop competition coupe that will be driven by the team’s best drivers. This job was redesigned in my presence by Dr. W.I.E. Kamm, the famed German design engineer of Mercedes and Auto Union, and it has me completely up the well-known tree. Dr. Kamm came to Cunningham’s factory last winter, armed with more charts and graphs on streamlining, based on actual wind tunnel tests, than you could cram into a good-sized truck. At the Cunningham engineering conference, to which I was fortunate enough to be invited, all present stayed with the Doctor for a while in following his elaborate charts. But when he got into the uppermost stratosphere of mathematics, we all dropped off one by one.

A hardtop competition coupe was in the 1952 Cunningham scheme before Dr. Kamm arrived and a clay model had already been completed. This job was similar to the conventional competition hardtop design used by Ferrari, Porsche and others but when Doc Kamm saw it he turned thumbs down and started reworking the clay immediately. The final result is a coupe with an almost flat station wagon back! The rear fenders are drawn out and the whole roof line is a beautiful upside-down, canoe-like piece of streamlining, until you come to the rear roof line. Here it plunges down like the tail end of a truck. Actually, this flat rear section is no bigger in area than the broad side of a portable typewriter case but all of us, except Dr. Kamm, had believed that a flat rear section would create an extreme high pressure area at speeds. This is where Dr. Kamm lost us, in his graphs. According to him the rear design of the fenders, and the general body contour from the windshield on back, will eliminate any retarding high pressure area at the stern. He showed us graph after graph bearing this out but, as I have already mentioned, they were too deep for any of us to follow more than vaguely so he had the ball all the way.

But here’s what impressed us about the Doctor’s mathematics. Unsheathing one of his graphs, he studied the frontal area and general shape of the new roadsters and predicted that with 300 horsepower (which the Cunninghams were then topping on the dynamometer) the roadster should have a top speed of just about 170 mph. This was so close to accurate that when he told us how fast the coupe would go we could hardly argue. Dr. Kamm stated that the coupe, with 300 horsepower, should be able to reach 220 miles an hour, or 50 miles an hour more than the roadster. If the chief engineer of any American company made such a statement, I would have said, “Herman, you’ve got a big hole in your head.” But when the famous Kamm said it, all I could answer was, “Gee whiz.” It was hard to believe that there could be 50 miles an hour difference between the roadster, with its high pressure cockpit area and the super-streamlined coupe, but there it was right on the Doctor’s graph. If he is right, and I sure hope he is, the new Cunningham hardtop should be the biggest sensation in France since the invention of post cards.

It has been apparent for some time that it is just a question of a few years before all race cars, even at Indianapolis, will be closed hard-tops. I believe that by 1957 half the cars at Indianapolis, if not all, will be closed jobs and so will all Grand Prix entries. The open cockpit makes less and less sense, as speeds are increased. Johnny Fitch, who (teamed with Phil Walters) drove the only Cunningham that finished at Le Mans last year, told me he and Phil took an unmerciful beating from the wind which almost ripped the shirts off their backs. Comfort in a long race is of major importance and in an open car at speeds of 150 or more, comfort is just a word in the dictionary. Furthermore, a hardtop with a built-in roll bar is twice as safe as an open car.

The 24-hour race at Le Mans will be over by the time most of you read this and I haven’t got enough rocks in my head to predict what the Cunninghams will (or did) do over there But regardless of how they make out, their builder, Briggs Cunningham, is our only hope of getting the United States back into the international picture with cars of real importance. Ten years ago there weren’t a hundred sports cars on the roads in this country. Today there are thousands. There are many reasons for this great upsurge of interest in sports cars but Cunningham’s superb efforts to create an American version capable of competing with the world’s best has certainly been a tremendous influence on the ever-growing popularity of sports cars in America.

As one result of his pioneering, practically every American manufacturer has been forced to give some thought to the rising popularity of competition cars. Frankly, I don’t believe they really want any part of them and I feel that they consider the sports car bug a first-rate bull in a china shop. The American automobile manufacturer has the greatest money-making formula in the world and he is not going to give it up without a fight. From a pure dollars and cents standpoint, the present state of affairs is ideal. The Detroit boys make an all-round utility chassis that looks just as unhappy with a standard four-door sedan body as it does when saddled up with a so-called “sports convertible” bucket. The winning formula is to make sedans, sedans and more sedans, and make ‘em big and flashy.

Some manufacturers, like Nash, actually have gone into sports car • production in a small way. For this Nash deserves a pat on the back for actively getting on the sports car bandwagon and not bucking it. But cars such as GM’s Le Sabre and the Chrysler K310 seem designed only to make the public think the company is hep to sports car construction. Top Chrysler brass have told me they may very well build a limited number of their experimental cars for the prestige they would gain by doing so. I sat in on a conference with some of Packard’s V.I.P.’s when the subject of should we or should we not build a real sports car was booted around. No decision was reached in my presence although I sure got in my seven cents’ worth as to why they should.

But getting back to the immediate subject of this essay, Briggs Cunningham is building, here in America, the first really fine road car in a generation. True, it’s a competition car now but before the year is out at least a dozen hardtop coupes will be in the hands of the lucky buyers. I, for one, will stick my big bare head out to hear and claim that the new 1952 Cunninghams are perhaps the best sports cars in the world today and the fastest. •

Basic transportation for the man who hates gingerbread.

Millions of Americans are sick of gingerbread.

Of paying hundreds of dollars for chrome that’s out of date before it’s paid for.

These people want basic transportation. And nothing more.

But they are very, very particular about how they define basic transportation.

So are we.

Basic transportation is a car that doesn’t look like a roller skate.

A car you don’t have to fold up into. Or out of.

A car with enough power to keep some fool from running up your tailpipe as you accelerate onto a turnpike.

A car that doesn’t gulp gas.

Or cost you a fortune in labor every time it gets dented.

(European labor is cheap in Europe. But it’s expensive in America. As many

a foreign car owner has discovered to his dismay.)

The Rambler is basic transportation. I With a 128-horsepower engine.

With seating for six, instead of four.

With gas mileage of about 20 miles per gallon.

With an engine in the front, and a trunk in the back, and room for four suitcases in the trunk.

The Rambler lists for only $199 more than even the basic Volkswagen.

And $285 less than any other 6 cylinder American car.

Yet it has most of the advantages of both.

It’s a solid value.

Like bread and butter.

American Motors Rambler $1998

Manufacturer’s suggested retail price for Rambler 2-door sedan, federal taxes included. State and local taxes, destination charges, if any, options excluded.

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MEET THE BESASIE X-2

ZERO to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds is fast enough to scorch the wrinkles on an asbestos-lined bald dome but that’s what the Besasie X-2 can do, claims its designer-builder, Raymond Besasie. The Milwaukee, Wis., inventor spent an estimated 5,200 hours and close to $20,000 building his dream car which features running lights on its sides. The center wheel-steered auto has no doors. You hop in and out via recessed step plates on either side of what would be doors on a conventional car. Power is provided by a Cadillac engine which, with a Besasie-made turbocharger, puts out over 400 hp. Two radiators in the rear-engined vehicle dispel heat with dual MEET THE fans that draw in air from scoops on each side of the body. The air is then expelled via a large grille at the rear of the car.

Besasie says, “I’m now getting from 20 to 22 mpg on high octane fuel while cruising at 62 mph.” Since the inventor expects even better gas mileage, this might very well be the “car of the future.”

NEW RENAULT FLORIDE

ONE of the stars of the recent Paris auto show was the Renault Floride, a new model from the makers of the famous Dauphine. With racy, Ghia-styled lines, the Floride will be available in convertible, hardtop and cabriolet with removable hardtop. The chassis is reported to be stock Dauphine. The Floride is expected to be on sale in the U. S. in June. The price will be $2,300.