GOOFY CAR has cut-down Chevy hood. Ford Anglia chassis, T-33 jet trainer wing tanks.
Gas-Station Attendants Wear Roller Skates
Attendants wearing roller skates make quick work of filling a motorist’s needs, at an Oklahoma service station. Practiced in performing all their duties on wheels, they fill a customer’s gas tank, check his water and oil, clean his windshield and windows, and send him on his way with a minimum of delay. According to the proprietor who put the idea into use, patrons have expressed their hearty approval of the innovation —after getting over their astonishment on seeing the attendants approach their cars in this unusual fashion.
DRIVE-IN PHONE at car-window level is one of three experimental dialers in Chicago. Weatherproof and lighted at night, phones are boon to motorists in sloppy weather.
This method is also very effective for finding gasoline leaks. When you you notice the jet of flames, you’ve found your leak.
Cigarette Smoke Finds Leak in Inner Tube
A burning cigarette can guide you in locating a leak in an inner tube, in case it is not convenient to dip the tube into a tub of water. The cigarette is moved around the surface of the inflated tube, until the air jet from the leak deflects the rising smoke. Make sure, before using this method, that there are no strong air currents in the room where it is being done.—R. B.
The Backyard PLAYBOY MOTOR SCOOTER
The newest fun for Junior. His own personal motor vehicle. Safe, quiet. Simple as a sidewalk bike. A 7-year-old can learn in minutes. The ideal birthday gift.
FOR ADULTS. TOO!Stows easily in plane or boat. Only 42 pounds. Ride it on the patio. A barrel of fun for your guests. The girls will simply love it.
A New Switch for Electrics
A NEW day is dawning for the electric vehicle, now that its proponents are thinking about goals other than taking over what Fords and Chevies and Plymouths have been doing.
The electric will succeed only where it can do its own thing, where it can perform better than gas-guzzlers. Hauling a family from here to Chicago or Los Angeles is not what it does best.
Double Bullet on Wheels
By Michael SternMi’s European Correspondent
AN amazing contraption, I thought, as the odd-looking car was unloaded from a truck onto the Appian Way, just south of Rome. The kind of vehicle that springs full-grown out of fantastic comic books. But, it was an automobile, all right—a pair of sleek silver-and-blue torpedoes, shaped very much like the deadly fish launched by submarines, connected by two thin strips of beveled aluminum.
This looks like it should be in a Dr. Seuss book.
Intricate “What-Is-It” Gathers Cushion Data
NO, it’s not a car of the future; nor the past either. The strange-looking contraption in which the young woman seems to be going for a drive is designed to gather information for engineers. Installed at the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where thousands of persons have sat in it, the apparatus was built for a cushion manufacturer who hopes from countless measurements made on it to obtain an average-size automobile-seat cushion that will be comfortable for the majority of motorists.
Some of these look surprisingly modern. Particularly, the front end of the Corvette Nomad looks a lot like a current Thunderbird.
Detroit’s Latest Plastic Fantasies
Built to be seen but not sold, they are the banners in front of this year’s automotive circuses.
BONNEVILLE SPECIAL
Built for speed, this Pontine racer has knock-off hub caps and safety belt for driver. It is one of 11 rein forced-plastic cars pictured on this and the two following pages. Stylists’ pipe dreams, they were socked into form largely for exhibition at auto shows. You couldn’t buy one for a million dollars. They are not for sale.
Who needs seat belts when we could just stick rubber balls on every protrusion in the car? Everyone knows, you can’t get hurt by slamming into something flat.
Ball Protects Children
Knobs or handles on the dash can give youngsters a bad bump on sudden stops. Sponge-rubber balls fitted over the protruding parts reduce this hazard. A dab of gasket shellac in the, hole will attach the ball securely.
Skeleton From Auto Parts
UTILIZING odd parts of old autos, a Tampa, Fla., firm dealing in used auto parts constructed a skeleton from a headlight, spring leaves, connecting rods, ring gears, pinions and starting gears. The unique “ghost” of many a long departed car, instead of scaring people away, attracted them, and many who came to laugh stayed to buy.
William B. Stout and his Wonderful “SKYCAR”
by J. A. Greenberg
BILL STOUT, the genius of Dearborn, Michigan, has been responsible for more revolutionary innovations in the design and construction of automobiles and airplanes than has any other man, living or dead. Yet he has found time to create such minor novelties as the first gasoline-driven railroad car, the first Diesel-electric streamlined train, a streamlined motorbus lighter and faster than any then manufactured, a brick conveyor which saved thousands of dollars in building construction, an improved theater seat, an air-conditioned bed, and, among other things, a staggering number of mechanical toys. He has been credited with more technical inventions than any man since Edison.
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