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MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED PIN-UP CAR
1913 IMP CYCLECAR
Owner: R. F. Clouse, Auburn, Ind. Engine: two-cylinder, air-cooled, 12 horsepower. Friction drive, four speeds forward. Sheet metal body over wood frame. Independent wheel suspension, no axles. Wheelbase 100 inches. Weight 600 pounds. Original price $375. Designed by William B. Stout.

LIGHT BEAMS Steer SUPER RACING CARS
Speeds never before attained on land may become a reality if experiments with light beam, driverless cars are successful. Here are the mechanical features that will be involved.

WITH speeds, such as recently attained by the famous Sir Malcom Campbell, already approaching the point where human reflexes are too slow to insure safe control of the car, science has turned to the photo electric cell for a possible solution. A proposed driverless car involves the use of multiple electric eyes as the heart of its steering mechanism. A powerful beam of light directed at a large lens on the front of the car is concentrated on steel mirrors set at an angle in the trackbed. The reflections are “caught” by the electric eyes which convey the electrical impulses to a mechanical-electrical brain which keeps the speeding car on its course.

The use of the electric eye for this purpose is not surprising as German railway engineers have been operating trains on the Reichsbahnzentralamt of Munich in this manner for several years-Here a spotlight is mounted on the locomotive so that it throws a beam upward to a mirror on the block signal. When the signal is red the mirror reflects the beam to photo electric cells on the locomotive which automatically set the brakes. This method was described in the Modern Mechanix for November, 1934.

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ARE YOU FIT to DRIVE an Automobile?

Modern cars have become engines of destruction in hands of unsafe drivers. Here is the story of what science is doing to rate drivers’ abilities and make streets and highways safe.

by JOHN C. HARPER

THIRTY thousand people—one every fifteen minutes—were killed by automobiles in the United States last year.

During the same period 850,000 others were injured—an amazing average of one casualty every thirty seconds of the entire year.

In the hands of the unsafe driver, the modern automobile has become a terrible engine of potential destruction. Speeds of 80 and 90 miles an hour are virtually standard in all present cars; yet a speed only slightly higher—100 miles an hour—was condemned last year by the rules committee of the Indianapolis Speedway as having “gone beyond the physical limitations of the track for safe driving.”

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HILL HOPPING A WORM DRIVE SLED

FROM California comes a radical innovation in motor driven vehicles, a worm drive ski-sled. Powered by a 35 horsepower engine, it negotiates the steepest, roughest inclines with ease, and on level snowfields has attained speeds of twenty and more miles per hour.
With a more powerful motor, considerably higher speeds are expected, and the initial success of the experimental model may lead
to an entirely new sport in the form of motor ski racing and jumping. In order to achieve the latter sport, it will be necessary to mount the runners on shock struts, both to protect the worm-drive blades and the rider. This would be a simple matter.
More practical vistas opened by this novel sled lie in its adaption to the needs of Arctic exploration parties in their long treks over snowbound wastes.

Nickel Meter Stops Overparking
OKLAHOMA CITY is cashing in on its car- parking problem by charging all motorists a nickel to park for from 15 minutes up to an hour, depending on location. At each parking space on the curb is a nickel meter. When a nickel is inserted, a clock mechanism raises a red indicator for the allotted time. The traffic policeman, on making the rounds, passes out tickets where no indicator is showing.

God, are we really this lazy?
Oh wait, yes we are.

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For Shopping, Golf-And Fun!

OF COURSE the lady seen above will have to add a windshield, light, horn and a license plate or two if she wants to take her Ramble-Seat on the road. But around the marina, plant, resort or golf course, it’s ready for use as is. This nifty electric is sold by Ramble-Seat, Box 74786, Los Angeles 4. Calif. It comes in a variety of models, some rugged, some for use as powered wheel chairs. Optionals are available to meet state vehicle codes. For maneuverability and versatility it’s hard to beat.—John and Irene Lenk

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Aero-Drive Desert BUS Replaces Camels
PROTECTED from tropical sand storms, desert travelers of the future may be able to whiz across the Sahara in monster 100-passenger aero-drive buses following radio beam highways. Camel caravans
would be out-moded bythe standard of comfort possible in the proposed buses.
Preliminary details of this whirring, bouncing giant of the sands call for propulsion entirely by air, with a 2500 h.p. aviation engine and pusher propeller mounted atop the roof. Most unusual feature of the desert bus is a series of spherical tires on each side which would provide good traction over the shifting sands. Directly back of the propeller is a steering fin which controls the direction of the ship.

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Power It with a PULSE JET

THIS model plane project uses what may be the smallest successful pulse-jet engine ever built. It was developed after scores of experiments and the building of a dozen test models by Hiram Sibley, Jr., a California guided-missile engineer.

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Cycle Engine Gives 50 m.p.h. Speed to Wheel Chair
A THREE-WHEELED chair built around a motorcycle engine brought Norman Tapper, 23-year-old Californian whose legs have been paralyzed since childhood, to Indianapolis almost a month before the start of the 500-mile auto race. The motorized chair was parked at the gate of the Speedway, to make certain of a good position on the day of the race.
Tapper asserted that this novel wheel chair, which he built himself from motorcycle and automobile parts, reached 50 miles an hour on the long drive from California to Indianapolis.

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A PORTFOLIO OF Cars you’d like to own

HERE’S A CAR THAT CLIMBS WALL

SOMETHING special for the off-the-road motorist: the Hickey Trail Blazer, built by Trail Blazer, 9424 Gallatin Road, Downey, Calif. Designers Victor Hickey, Sam Weaver and Jack Henry meant it for climbing mountains and slogging through sand but it can do its share of roadwork and takes stop-and-go traffic good-naturedly.

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Exhaust Flame-Thrower is a new gadget for hot-rodders. Spark plugs set in the exhaust pipes ignite unburned gas in the vents which shoot out flames to a distance of 20 ft. on fast starts. It’s noiseless and police want an excuse to prohibit it.

“Fill’er Up with Cold Air!”
Texas gas stations are delighting motorists with a new kind of free air. When a car stops for gas, a nozzle fixed to an air conditioner is poked in the window. Station attendants say temperature inside the car drops as much as 20 degrees in two minutes.