LOOKING AHEAD.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 19391, 17 August 1928, Page 4

LOOKING AHEAD.

WHAT OF 1938? TWO CLASSES OF. CARS. (By PKOFESSOII' A. M. LOW, in "The Light Oar and Cyelecar." Professor Low is world-known as one of the most able of "scientists whose investigations are concerned principally with motor-car development.)

I suppose the outstanding fact of science to-day is that new knowledge has taught the world that definitions are almost impossible. For many years it has been common to trace the curve of progress by n examination of the tendencies of the' past, a method which provided science with such information as the liquefaction temperature of hydrogen long before the means existed to secure this effect. A similar method should not be considered, out of place in connexion with automobile engineering, for I suggest that the public. are no longer ignorant of matters technical and that their wishes must be expressed in terms of metals, at a definite price. For approximately 30 years the motor-car has been steadily improving [in several directions. As the direct ' result of such development we can now. travel in gradually increasing '.comfort."at a speed which would have appeared phenomenal a few years ago. It cannot be" suggested that up to the present—apart from the sphere of the light car—there has been ah equal demand for economy, but the growing demand for cheap fuel, synthetic rubber, and lightness of material will bring this factor to the fore. Let us ialso remember that main roads with a perfect, surfa.ce, flood lit by night, must be provided for an age in which every man, woman, and child will pos■sess.a car to overcome their physical distaste for labour, and then proceed to examine the probable mark of these tendencies upon the future.

Fatal Speed! Bpeed will be all-important. Eighty yeare ago it was predicted that 60 m.p.h. would prove fatal to tbe heart, and it is lesß than a century since tbe suggestion of high fences to prevent railways striking terror into the hearts of those who work in the fields was seriously made to a Parliamentary Committee. The same conditions apply to-day. Our modern speeds are not high, relatively, to those attained in the past. Drivers will be dissatisfied with an average of 40 nup.h. and will -.regard "80" as a reasonable cruising speed upon roads legalised for the purpose. There will certainly be no childish regulations, made to be broken by everyone in : - full knowledge of their "crime." It will be essential for the car of the future to be under perfect control, and I doubt if we shall be content to use even an infinitely variable gear which at the cost of smoothness and silence permits a small engine to work at its highest efficiency for long periods. Bather is it probable that the inherent unsuitability of the internal-combustion engine for purposes of traction will be tackled at the root of the problem, and that by an' increase in the number of cylinders, or even by the beginning of the petrol-steam-turbine area, the working efficiency of the hot fluid may be so altered that an engine itself will become truly flexible. Drivers who to-day insist upon a capacity of three litres and more, with a light chassis to give the liveliness so essential to Buccess, will dislike the cost of fuel, oil, and construction. They are beginning to realise that in order to enable the internal-combustion engine to work in comfort it is often necessary to carry an engine' far larger than is wanted for most duties, and to feed it with petrol in "lumps" so that the disadvantages of high compression and pinking may be avoided. The demand for control, comfort, and the sense of mastery which has 1 to servo-operated front-wheel brakes, and which may yet provide us with servo steering and automatic gearchanging, will call for an engine with a volnmetric efficiency and a thermal output which can be maintained over a vrey much wider range of speeds than is, under present conditions, possible.

The Supercharger. To-day the supercharger is regarded A3 an asest to racing, but it should be pointed. out that at high speeds the use of forced induction avoids the need for high-lift valves, special steels, and freak camshafts with their resultant noise. Still more important is the acceleration which it provides on top gear at low crankshaft r.p.m., and it is reasonable to suppose that from this benefit will spring a new class of light car with multi-cylinder

engines, a capacity of probably 700 c.c. or less, but with a top-gear performance of 10-80 m.p.h. and a petrol cr - option of 40 m.p.g. over the roughest country. The commercial possibilities of such an engine will lead to better springing, and I shall be surprised if a duplex method is not evolved whereby both high-speed and low-speed shock can be avoided. Far too many cars to-day are comfortable over pot-holes only at 40 m.p.h., at the expense of all suspension benefits on ordinary roads at 20 m.p.h. The demand for luxury will certainly produce the one-piece closed body, and to cope with the cost of erection in large'quantities it will be surprising if front-wheel drive and unit construction do not materially assist in providing a car which can be built comparatively carelessly, leaving the final power outfit and front axle to be attached by a few bolts. The utility of front-wheel drive has yet to be established for ordinary touring purposes, but it seems probable that in 10 years' time the detailed repair of the main parts of motor-cars will be a thing of the past. By that time we shall have service stations which can drop a new engine into place with little more labour than at present attaches to the changing of a magneto. Many of the troubles suffered by the uninitiated would vanish by such methods. The public resent the, need of maintenance, decarbonising, engine washing, and accumulator inspection. The crowded nature of such roads as are not specifically set aside for long distances will demand a responsiveness which is hardly attainable by the present engine and gearbox alone. The true meaning of effortless travel towards which we are progressing is experienced -in 1928 only by the contrast provided by climbing a long hill on low gear and coasting down the other-side in neutral with the engine ;at rest.

This aspect of cheap luxury motoring in streamline, closed bodies on de-tachable-unit ohassis does not stand alone with regard to progress over so short a time as ten years. It is relatively costly to build light cars with a large-car performance, and I ;believe that fuel investigation and new imethods of carburation with "aboveatmosphere" induction will help to popularise the larger type of car represented at_ present by the American factory. -? Looking still farther ahead, I believe that in 1958 we shall find ourselves provided with cars of two classes. There will be the microscopically engined, supercharged, six or eightcylinder, streamline runabout, and the 20 h.p. luxury vehicle replete with wireless, writing table, and every convenience for the man who has found that a country 400 miles long, with perfect roads, offers insufficient scope to the driver who has a gait of 80 m.p.h. well within the possibilities of one finger, and who will therefore seek fresh fields and pastures new—abroad.

Metallurgical research has as yet had insufficient time to give us aluminium compounds with the strength of steel, or reinforced compressed fabric with the lightness of flexible aluminium. The communal motorist of the future will have adequate opportunity for indulging in witticisms at the expense of the motorists of 1928. Of that prophecy at least we can be painfully certain!