.Flivver With a Kick
STUDENTS at the University of Houston recently converted a sedate Ford into a bucking bronco! Under the direction of W. C. Rowlette of the automotive shop, they built Leapin’ Lena for the school’s annual Frontier Fiesta show.A ’39 Ford which hadn’t been doing anyone much good was stripped of its old frame. The correct mechanical touches gave it
the lope and bounce of a real Western horse and a saddle was added. Then, the mechanized bronco was ready for the show.
.Automobile With Aerial Cable Tracks Is Latest in Ferries
ALL records for novelty in the field of ferry boating have been smashed by a couple of Virginia youths. What they did to achieve this distinction was to stretch a couple of strong steel cables across a creek to form a pair of aerial tracks an which an automobile actually crosses back and forth. The tires have been removed, however, and the rims especially revamped to fit the cableway. Just in case the car jumps the track, there is an overhead trolley ready to take the load, so that passengers on the unique ferry need have no fear of an unannounced ducking. No turntable is necessary at the terminus of the tracks, for the car just backs up on the return trip
.Tailor’s Leg Cut Off—He Builds Auto for One-legged Man
WHEN Joseph Freedman, 44-year-old Philadelphia tailor, lost a leg in an accident, one of the greatest hardships he experienced was being unable to drive a car. Then old “Mother Necessity” was brought on the job, with the result that Freedman designed and built an auto which is operated entirely by hand, save for one pedal. The car, seen at the left, is powered by a 2-cycle motorbike engine and goes anywhere on its two motorcycle and two airplane wheels.
.UPHOLSTER YOUR DASHBOARD
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If my dad had really loved me, he would have built me one of these.
.Boy Won’t Need Dad’s Car Now!
Thirteen-year-old Jimmy Richardson of Tucson, Ariz., is the envy of all his friends with a midget auto built by his father. What’s more, he rides all week on 56 cents worth of gas — the cost for one tankful. The car is made of 20-gauge steel trimmed in stainless steel for a snappy appearance. It stands 2-1/2 feet high, is five feet long and has a ground clearance of only five inches. Built on a frame of bed rail with knee action in front and regular coil springs in the rear, the entire machine weighs about 300 pounds.
Well, not really, but it certainly looks like one.
.Twists Test Bodies
This Ford is leaping into the air on one of its 200 trips around the “body-twist” course at the Dearborn test track. Here
body and frame are subjected to extreme torsion stresses—first in one direction, then the other—as indicated by the whipping aerial. The test is one of a series that experimental Ftfrds must undergo.
.Car Pulls Up Its Wheels To Become a Boat
RETRACTING its wheels as an airplane does, a proposed amphibian automobile transforms itself into a rakish water craft. The picture above shows a model of the machine which Paul Pankotan, its inventor, plans to build at Miami, Fla. On land, it uses the power of its drive wheels; afloat, that of a propeller at the stern. The body, has the sleek, graceful lines of a motor cruiser.
.Auxiliary Accelerator
LEFT FOOT PEDAL
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Now they have Segways.
.Postman Goes Around on Motor Scooter
Motorized scooters for footsore mailmen are proposed by Henry R. Smith, letter carrier, of Columbia, S. C, who has constructed one of his own. The driver stands at the rear and steers with one hand, operating a combined clutch and brake control with the other. A gasoline motor drives the four-wheeled vehicle at four to twelve miles an hour. In tests, the scooter cut as much as two hours from the time required to cover an eight-mile route. Smith’s machine cost him $150 to build, but he estimates that mass production would cut the cost away down.
.From DRAWING BOARD to PROVING GROUND
WHEN a “flock of geese” turned out to be a fleet of airplanes, an idea was born in the mind of an engineer. And that idea led to the development of an entirely new design for automobiles.
Ever alert for ideas that may result in a more efficient motor, a better brake or a safer steering system, the engineer usually is the first to catch a vision of what is to come. Then, from its conception in the engineer’s brain, every new car and every part in it traces a trail of trial and error over the drafting board, through wind tunnel and precision tests, to the proving ground and Anally into actual production.
