view additional pages

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.

view additional pages

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

This car apparently met a sad end in 1970

view additional pages

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The only car that keeps your teeth white! (and yes I know that’s not how it’s spelled)

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.

It’s almost impossible not to read that headline wrong…

Butt-Snuffer

Bob GILL of Portland, Oregon, ran afoul of the law a few years ago. A cop picked him up for throwing a lighted cigarette butt out of his car window, a deed which is criminal in that forest-fire ridden state. “What do you usually do with your butts?” the cop asked. “Step on ‘em,” Gill replied. “Let’s see you step on that last one,” the cop retaliated.

This episode gave Gill an idea. Why not make an automatic butt-snuffing ashtray? He did and it has won Mi’s $50 gadget award. You’ll see it on the market soon, helping us to keep our forests green.

$17,500 Sports Car

Le GRAND SPORT (The Big Sport) is I the name for the lush, cream-blue-and-chrome sports car on Mi’s cover. Louis Ritter, New York furrier and hotelman, bought the 170-hp French Talbot chassis for $4500, paid $13,000 more to have the super-streamlined steel body built by hand in Paris by the celebrated designer Saoutchik. Luxuriously soft inner-spring upholstery, interlined convertible top, special push-button doors, leather-padded steering wheel and instrument panel, all helped up the car’s cost. But despite its high price and high-speed (115 mph) performance, the Talbot yields 18 miles per gallon under ordinary driving conditions. Comfortable, too, says MI Editor Bill Parker, above.

view additional pages

NEW for CHRISTMAS

FOR THE HOME

PLASTIC SHADES of Vinylite adhere directly to glass without adhesive, can be peeled oil easily. Transeal, North Ave., Plainfield, N. J.

REFRIGARRANGERS are light, durable easy-to-clean containers of Bakelite styrene for leftover foods. Valley Forge Creations. Malvern. Pa.

PANCAKE TURNER-GREASER carries a replaceable absorbent pad to grease the pan. Without pad, holes drain grease. Paul Laux. Shavertown. Pa.

STORM WINDOWS of plastic can be used on homes, farmbuildings. withstand all weather. Easy to install. Central States Bag Co., St. Louis, Mo. Read the rest of this entry »

“Comet” Plane Navigates Land and Sea But Balks at Air

IN a recent tryout of the novel type of plane shown at the left, which its inventors, Wendel Wobido and Stephen Nagel, of Berlin, call the “Comet” plane, and which was designed to navigate air, land and sea, navigated land and sea all right, but when it came to going up into the air the darned thing balked and refused to depart from safe old Terra Firma, or rather, in this case, since they tried to take off from the water, good old aqua firma. Read the rest of this entry »

TOWER OF REVOLVING FLOORS FOR PARKING AUTOMOBILES

As a solution to the automobile parking problem, an Ohio inventor offers a circular steel garage “tower,” consisting of a number of revolving stories arranged one above the other and each affording space for several cars, which are to be raised to position by an outside elevator. He estimates that a structure of this type with twenty floors, thirty-six feet in diameter, would hold two hundred automobiles and might provide additional facilities for radio stations, an observation or amusement center, or possibly a landing place for aircraft or an anchor post for dirigibles.

view additional pages

New Auto Developments

Top-Drive Wheels
A NEW type of drive for vehicles is announced by a western company, which obtains a lower suspension for the body (12″ above ground) by applying the electric motor’s pinion to the top of the wheel, inside the rim. Each wheel is sprung and geared independently; but the electric system equalizes their motion, without using the brakes, while on a descent. An eight-wheel design is planned for maximum safety.
Read the rest of this entry »