CAR OF TO-MORROW

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 81, 6 April 1943, Page 4

CAR OF TO-MORROW

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MANY NEW FEATURES REVIVAL WHEN PEACE COMES (0.C.) SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28. While Americans are doing their utmost to hurry the day of victory in the war they are not losing sight of post-war problems, and one of these is that concerning the quantity of the production of motor cars. Americans having wartime motoring blues have been urged to think of the car they may be driving in the post-war world-—an automobile that would go 50 miles on a gallon of gasoline and have such features as "bounceless" tyres, sliding doors and a heater that could be turned on by a clock. This is not the nightmare of a man who lost his gasoline rationing book and had his precious tyres stolen. It is a prophecy of the car of to-mor-row made by Mr. William B. Stout, of Dearborn, Michigan, one of America's foremost mechanical engineers, Avho has pioneered in many developments in the fields of automotive, aircraft and railway transportations. Mr. Stout, who built the first American commercial aeroplane, constructed the first internally braced cantilever aeroplane in America, started the first exclusive passenger airline in the country and helped design Henry Ford's first tri-motored transport plane, said that post-war automobile design would be influenced by present trends in aviation toward using every ounce, of weight and every cubic inch of space for some purpose. In an article he predicted that "the motor car will have a glorious revival when peace comes" if the engineer is left alone and the manufacturer is allowed to build his cars as he wishes, unhampered by legislation that might tax a car according to its design. Here is what he envisions: Cars will be cheaper to make and buy because of improved production methods and better engineering techniques, and will be wider and stubbier than they are now — perhaps fenderless — with enough room inside for passengers to take a nap on a couchlike back seat during a long drive. The wider bodies will come out to the edge of the running-board. Due to extensive use of plastic materials in panels and body details, the machines will have one-half the weight of present : day automobiles. Engines, instead of being of the liquid-cooled type, will be of the lighter, longer-lived aircooled type, like those in transport planes and bombers.

Because of their lighter weight engines will for the most part be located 'in the rear without affecting the balance of the car. Long hoods out front will disappear, and practically every bit of space lengthwise and crosswise will be usable. Due to progress made toward the production of tyres that will not bounce, light cars may be constructed that will not even require springs. Declaring that present wartime limitations on speed may well be carried over into the post-war world, Mr. Stout said that engines of lower horse-power would be sufficient— perhaps a maximum of 30 horsepower. This, he said, would mean more mileage on a gallon of gasoline at cruising speed.