Archive
Automotive
Jap Cars Shown (Very Early Toyotas) (Jan, 1948)

Wow, this is just the beginning of Toyota’s reemergence after WWII. According to the blurb they only made about 2700 cars a year. Currently they are the second largest car company in the world and produce close to ten million cars a year. That car is actually kinda snazzy, it reminds me of a mashup of a BMW (the grille) and Beetle (the body).

Jap Cars Shown
These first products of Japan’s postwar Automobile industry, recently displayed in Tokyo, don’t mean that Nippon’s citizens will abandon their walking habits. The entire output of the Toyota Motor Co., at Nagoya, is only some 30 cars and 200 trucks a month. These will be sold to hospitals, to government agencies, and to business firms. The passenger car, seating four, has a 27-hp., four-cylinder engine, a speed of 54 m.p.h., and will average 40 miles to the gallon. The one-half-ton trucks have the same power plant, but a different gear ratio and will do about 30 miles on a gallon. The cars will sell for 250,000 yen ($5,000), and the trucks for the equivalent of $3,200.

.
Junior at the Wheel (Jan, 1948)

Junior at the Wheel
Many a parent has wished for something to keep Junior occupied during long drives. With this toy steering wheel, daddy can concentrate on the road ahead while young “hopeful makes believe he too is driving. Made of hard rubber, the mock wheel is attached to the dashboard by a suction cup. It even has a horn that works.

.
Compressed AIR MOTOR Runs Car (Jan, 1932)

Compressed AIR MOTOR Runs Car

EITHER the era of “free air” is about to come to an end, or the cost of motoring is about to be reduced to practically nothing. In an amazing demonstration conducted recently in Los Angeles a standard automobile chassis, powered with a newly-developed compressed air motor, whizzed around the city streets at not one cent of cost to the driver for fuel.

The engine, which is the result of six years of research by Roy J. Meyers, resembles in general appearance a radial airplane motor. It is mounted in an upright position in the same space occupied by a gasoline motor in standard cars.

.
Monoxide Thumbs a Ride (Mar, 1947)

Monoxide Thumbs a Ride

Drowsy while driving? Make sure carbon monoxide isn’t poisoning you at the wheel. A checkup may save a life.

CARBON monoxide is a hitchhiker. We all know that this odorless gas, generated by an automobile at the rate of about a cubic foot a minute, will quickly turn a closed garage into a death chamber, but we are apt to overlook the fact that it rides along each time we drive out on the highway. Its handiwork shows up in traffic accident news more frequently than most persons “realize. The police* reports may say that the driver “apparently fell asleep,” or perhaps a big question mark appears in the space where the cause of the accident should be recorded, since no one remains alive to tell about it.

.
The AUTOMOBILE of the Future (Oct, 1933)

The AUTOMOBILE of the Future

Bill Stout, Detroit inventive pioneer who built the first cantilever wing plane, the first tri-motor, and who has worked for Henry Ford in an advisory capacity, here tells what the car of tomorrow will be like.

by WM. B. STOUT As told to Paul Weber

WHAT do I think about the automobile of the future?

Well, it will be about one-third the weight of the present car and will, of course, be streamlined. The new cars will all weigh less than 2,000 lbs. and will probably have motors of around 100 horsepower. They will be light weight cars, because the lighter the car the easier it rides.

This may sound like heresy in view of the popular supposition that heavier cars ride more easily. But my statement is true. The reason is not that the car is heavier, but that in heavy cars of today the distribution of sprung and unsprung weight accidentally happens to be better. With the new engineering which has been gaining vogue, with streamlining, and with the efforts of such engineers as Starling Burgess and Buckminster Fuller of Dymaxion fame among others, we will provide proper ratios between sprung and unsprung weight in all cars, and then the lighter cars will ride easier.

.
Outboard Motor Car Does 40 Miles an Hour (Jan, 1932)

Outboard Motor Car Does 40 Miles an Hour

by DICK COLE

A junked outboard motor makes an excellent power plant for a cycle car when converted as described here by Mr. Cole. The little car will develop speeds up to 40 miles an hour, and has power to burn.

TO BE the possessor of a self-propelled vehicle is the ambition of every normal boy. Every father has heard the plea of his son when out in the country in the family car: “Gee, Dad! Lem’me drive, will you? Please! I know how! Honest I do! Lem’me show you. Please, Dad, come on!”

My boy had just reached that stage— only more so. He begged me to build him some kind of vehicle that would “run by itself.” Since I like to putter around and make things—particularly something different from the other fellow—I gave ear to his pleadings, and began to think the matter over.

.
Steam-driven Wheels for Cars (Dec, 1932)

Steam-driven Wheels for Cars
AN AUTOMOBILE carrying motors in its wheels is being perfected in a Chicago laboratory. Each wheel contains a six-cylinder engine fed with steam through the hub, and mounted eccentrically to the wheel proper. The piston rods of the steam wheel descend one after another propelling the car ever forward. An automobile so equipped, inventors claim, could travel at a speed of 100 miles an hour and cover 2,000 miles without refueling. This would be a great advantage, especially to high-speed cross-country busses which waste time filling gas tanks en route.

.
Quickly Installed Air Cooler for Warm-Weather Driving (Nov, 1940)

Quickly Installed Air Cooler for Warm-Weather Driving
Installed or removed in a few minutes, the new-air cooler shown above fits any make of car. Filtering and purifying the air besides lowering its temperature by evaporating a supply of water, the device operates automatically while the car is in motion. A pair of enterprising operators discovered a way to make a tidy summer profit with a supply of the conditioners. One rented them to west-bound tourists at the Needles, Calif., gate of the Mohave Desert, while his partner collected and re-rented them to east-bound motorists at San Bernardino.

.
President Gets New Convertible (Sep, 1950)

President Gets New Convertible

THE man in the White House took delivery the other day of a specially built seven-passenger Lincoln convertible with disappearing steps on which Secret Service men ride like footmen. Last of 10 cars built for Mr. Truman, his family, and distinguished visitors, it has a 145-inch wheel-base compared with 125 on the Lincoln Cosmopolitan. It has an over-all length of 20 feet compared with the standard 18-1/2.

.
Latest in Travel—Two-Wheeled Cart With Auto Tires (Oct, 1932)

Latest in Travel—Two-Wheeled Cart With Auto Tires
MARTIN SOADACK, combination farmer and general handyman of Baldwins-ville, New York, likes comfort when he rides, and the rocky and rutty road between his home and town had none of these conveniences to offer.

But was Mr. Soadack downhearted? He was not. A little mechanical ingenuity was brought into action and now Mr. Soadack suffers from the “jounces” no more. What conquered the situation is shown in the accompanying photo. When Mr. Soadack had decided that he had been bumped about for the last time, he descended upon a junkyard and there procured two old auto wheels. Next he procured a two-wheeled cart, and then assembled his acquisitions.

Now Mr. Soadack rides to town in comfort and is said to give his friends the laugh when he passes them on the road.

.