Back Seat of Car Makes a Comfortable Bed
SEDANS of two popular makes are now offered with back seats which can be converted into comfortable beds more than six feet long and over four feet wide. Cushions have been so designed that they can be moved forward and laid flat like Pullman sleeping-car seats to form a foundation for bedding. The foot of the improvised bed extends into the rear luggage compartment, baggage being transferred to the front seat for the night.
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Where exactly would you drive this?
Unique Bus of Future to Duplicate Speed of Railroads
RECENT developments in everything that moves has caused many flights of imagination. Thus the fancy conjures up a bus to keep pace with other transportation. The bus between New York and San Francisco will be equipped with airplanes for trips not on the regular schedule. For diversion, billiard rooms, swimming pool, dancing floor and a bridle path would be available. The pilot would be “enthroned” over his engines, with the radio above. Space for autos would be afforded by the deck.
German Cars Streamlined from Stem to Stern
Germany’s Cars for 1935 Are Ultra-Streamlined; This Bullet-Shaped Creation Is a Mercedes Roadster Exhibited at the International Auto Show in Berlin
Here Is a Well-Streamlined Bus for Cross-County Operation, a Product of the Opel Works; Note How the Flowing Lines Have Been Carried to the Fins at the Rear and over the Rear Wheels
This Movie Theater on Wheels Is Housed in a T
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AT LAST — a Convertible AUTO-PLANE
by THEODORE A. HODGDON
A STARTLING new vehicle which may be used in the air as a fast, sturdy airplane, and on the ground as a speedy, comfortable two-passenger coupe car, will shortly be available to aviation enthusiasts. The craft is really a streamlined mid-wing monoplane of 30-foot wing span, propelled by a 125-horsepower air cooled motor of regulation aircraft type. For ground use the ship may be quickly converted into a streamline car, simply by removing the wings and the rear end of the fuselage, leaving the closed cabin body resting on its three wheels, ready to drive through the streets. This transformation occupies about 20 minutes, by means of quickly detachable joints.
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MY TEN YEARS OF CAR-TESTING
Here are the fabulous hits and the colossal flops of Uncle Tom’s first decade as America’s “Mr. Car Test.”
By Tom McCahill
LAST MONTH we completed ten years of car-testing. More than 250 tests ago, in the February 1946 issue, Mechanix Illustrated published the first automobile test articles ever seen in America. Selling this series was tougher than trying to juggle pyramids as no other publication had ever had the guts to write both the good and the bad about Detroit. Since we started this controversial hassel, imitators have risen up like, mosquitoes in a tropical swamp and more guys have stolen our car-testing idea than you could find in all the Federal pens.
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Farm Tractor and Power Plant Assembled from Old Auto Parts
This combination tractor and belt power plant was made from a Ford engine with frame and front wheels, a 1925 Chevrolet gear shift, an International Model-S truck rear end, and two binder wheels. The frame was shortened 18 in. by sawing each side in two 23 in. from the rear end and lapping and drilling for two 1/2-in’. bolts. The rear end was set on two 2 by 5 in. steel posts with U-bolts around frame and axles.
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100,000 See Soap Box Derby
President M. J. Coyle presents the Soap Box Derby Trophy to Herbert Muench while the American runner up, Harold Hansen, and the International runner-up, Norman Neumann, of South Africa, look on.
Mrs. Herbert E. Muench happily embraces her son, Herbert, winner of the 1936 Soap Box Derby. Representing a St. Louis newspaper, young Muench set a pace of 39 miles per hour over a 1,100 foot course. His time was 28.2 seconds for the run, just two seconds faster than the runner-up, Harold Hansen, of White Plains, New York. The Derby was sponsored by the Chevrolet Motor Co. and 116 newspapers.
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