MOTOR NOTES THE WAR'S PART

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 285, 2 December 1941, Page 10

MOTOR NOTES THE WAR'S PART

EFFECT ON INDUSTRY

BETTER CARS EXPECTED

In line with the idea previously suggested that the attempts of the automobile industry to achieve short cuts with a view to conserving vital materials will only mean better cars in the long run is the illustration of the wider—but not greatly wider— use of plastics in new models. It has been estimated that the composite 1941 automobile contained 110 plastic parts out of a total of more than 225 possible applications. The composite car of 1942 is said to contain 120 plastic parts—an increase much smaller than had been anticipated. Apparently engineers are adapting plastics only to automotive uses to which they can be adapted without impairment of value. Even in the decorative field they have avoided the use of anything which might be termed "ersatz." According to one expert there is virtually no alloy steel part in the automobile for which engineers cannot substitute one or more equally efficient alternate alloys. In every research laboratory in the industry there has been for years continuous experiment in the shuffling of molecular building blocks in steels and all other metals. Many combinations have been developed, tested —and tested again. Sometimes the optional materials developed have been adopted; sometimes their adoption had to be deferred because the cost of commercial production was prohibitive in normal times. Often a choice among a number of optional steels, all equal in performance, hinged upon relative ease of machinery, availability of a component metal, or some other factor which, forcing a decision in peacetime, becomes relatively unimportant in time of national emergency. Thus, the eventual effect of this emergency will be, in all probability, the further improvement of the motor car. The re-examination of habits now going on in the industry will force upon the automobile many technological changes which, under normal conditions of peacetime economy, may have had to wait for years for a chance to play their part in automotive evolution.