Streamlined Car Has Cruiser Cabin (Jan, 1936)
Science and Mechanics from the 1930′s are such a pain to deal with that I’ve almost given up on them. This is one of the less obnoxious examples but still, you have to go to another page for 2 sentences.
Streamlined Car Has Cruiser Cabin
IN the June issue of last year, we presented a description of a car streamlined sideways, in recognition of the fact that a car, unlike aircraft, encounters cross-currents of air. Its interior, also, abandoning all previous conventions, was like that of a plane or yacht. There is no chassis; the body is its own frame. Oil shock absorbers are used as in airplane landing gear.
WHILE affording very much more room than an ordinary car, it has not the freak appearance of the “raindrop” bodies; it weighs less than 2,000 pounds. The commercial model, now on the market in a limited edition, presents advantages over the preliminary design. One of the refinements is electrical door opening by push buttons.
I would love to see interior crash test footage from this car.
Crash test? What’s a crash test?
The first auto to even offer seat belts as an option was the Tucker, in 1948.
BTW, this car was designed by William B. Stout, the same guy who designed the Ford Trimotor airplane.
IIRC the seat just behind the driver’s isn’t bolted down or anything, just placed, loose, into the car so it can be turned to face the card table!
It is beautiful though. I saw one at the Phoenix Art Museum exhibition “Curves of Steel”, and it’s the epitome of deco.
http://www.phxart.org/e…
One of these is on public display at the Gilmore Museum outside Battle Creek, Michigan