Wow, I think this car marks the point when the “trunk” of a car ceased to be literally a trunk attached to the rear.

NEW TRUNK RACK FOR SEDAN

AMONG the models seen in the great automobile show at Olympia, England, was a Jowett fabric sedan. This car, as seen in the photo below, is completely covered with Jowett fabric.

Instead of equipping the car with a trunk rack and trunk, the luggage space was built within the body. The panel, in the back of the body, lifts out and upward on hinges. The opening thus exposed is large enough to hold a man and not unnecessarily crowd him.

The English motor car indicates the trend of European design.

Crossing The Atlantic in this overgrown barrel is the intention of Peter Olsen and Mark Charlton. Their $2,500 tub is 10 feet long; 6 feet, 9 inches high at the bilge; weighs more than two tons; and has a four-foot, 700-pound keel and a four-foot rudder. A 22-foot mast fits into the foremost hole of the barrel.

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NEW IMPORTS FOR ‘59
JAPAN is leading with a heavyweight in its first attempt to sell cars in the U. S. Now on sale in California and soon to be available throughout the country is the Toyopet, made by the Toyota Motor Co., Tokyo. Both four-door sedan and station wagon are offered with the boast: “Big car comfort with little car economy.” The Toyopet has a four-cylinder, OHV engine with 88.66 cu. in. displacement. Maximum hp is 60 at 4,-400 rpm. Delivered with heater, white walls, dual sun visors, set of tools, etc., the price in L.A. is $2,222, plus tax. •

There’s Still Room For The Fireman
WARTIME scarcity of gasoline, or “petrol” if you’re English, has caused Britain’s inventors to work overtime perfecting cars which will run on other substances. This car, seen in Worcester has been adopted to run on anthracite. The car is first started with petrol, and after about two minutes running is switched over to the anthracite. Consumption, it is claimed, is about 120 miles to a bag of anthracite.

NEW on the ROAD

Cycle Rickshaw is a novelty motorcycle cab which is becoming popular in Germany. Its main virtue is economy—it can make 60 miles on one gallon of gas. Top speed is 31 mph. It was recently exhibited at the Hanover (Germany) Trade Fair and will probably cost $700 when it hits the American markets.
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Cars That Fly

YOUR car of the future may have no wheels. It may not even touch the road as it races along the turnpike at speeds well above 100 mph while you and your family sit back and enjoy the ride—without fear of accident or injury.

This revolutionary new mode of travel was recently unveiled by the Ford Motor Company in the form of the Glideair—a wheel-less vehicle that rides on a thin film of air a fraction of an inch above the road. Read the rest of this entry »

Bottoms Up!
IT LOOKS like an aviator’s nightmare of a mass crack-up, but it’s just the way one airport solves a “parking” problem. Due to lack of space, these light planes are set up on their noses in a hangar at Boston Municipal Airport, their propellers protected from injury by wooden blocks. By using this unique, if unorthodox method, 15 ships can be stored in the same space that five would ordinarily use.

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Mechanical Flying Goose Decorates Radiator Cap

For novelty in radiator ornaments, you’ll have to go a long way to beat this mechanical flying goose. As you speed along in your car, an ingenious arrangement of mechanism in the bird causes it to straighten out and flap its wings to simulate a real live goose in flight.

WHILE your car is standing still this wild goose isn’t so wild. He perches sedately upon the radiator cap surveying the world with a glassy eye. But as soon as you start up and shift into high he flattens out his tail, stretches his neck forward and begins to flap his wings as if he were going somewhere, and going there in a hurry. Read the rest of this entry »

Jivin’ Up THE JEEP

THE front seats of the jeep are tolerably comfortable, but the shallow, flat rear seat is a notorious back-breaker. It can be improved considerably by installing two pieces of1/2in. plywood, (photo 1, above right), hinged to the bottom of the seat frame. Position the back board to about the angle shown. To the front of the bottom board, attach short wooden feet (photo 2, right) about 10 inches long. The back board can be pushed forward, (photo 3, below) to give access to the hand crank mounted against the rear wall of the jeep. Read the rest of this entry »

Car Owner’s Name on Foot Plate

WITH so many cars on the street just like the one you drive, it is convenient to have some little individuality on yours to make it easily identified from the rest. One way to do this without altering or detracting from the car’s beauty is to use a little foot plate with your name on it. The plate is made of white rubber and is easily installed on the running board, as shown in the photo. This forms an attractive, inexpensive accessory that makes identification simple.

Floating Fuel Station for SEAPLANES

IN THE future, when airplane travel comes to be as commonplace as automobile travel, we may expect to see floating filling stations, such as shown in the drawing above, dotting the airplane travel lanes of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This is by no means a fantastic project of dreamers, for already just such floating service stations are to be seen scattered along the Pacific coast; and a west coast oil company, looking to the future, has announced its intentions of establishing a chain of 99 such stations for the accommodation of planes journeying up and down the seaboard. Read the rest of this entry »

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MI Tests the 1950 Studebaker

“One of the best dollar values today,” says Tom McCahill. They’re not the fastest cars on the road but they’re tops in comfort and quality.

THE new, needle-nose Studebaker gives the boys of the Big Three something to shoot at. Back in ‘46, with the introduction of the 1947 Studebaker designed by Raymond Loewy, this first real post-war auto stirred up the populace. And now, once again, Loewy has set the pace with the 1950 Studebaker. Read the rest of this entry »