MODERN MOTOR IMPROVEMENTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 72, 8 March 1930, Page 13

MODERN MOTOR IMPROVEMENTS

INFLUENCES AT WORK

No mechanism is so consistently being improved as the automobile, it is not simply because there arc fashions in gears and pistons as there are in dress, but because the cucuin stances change m which an automobile is driven and because there is deman for greater speed, safety, ease of operation and comfort. Moro than any other invention, the automobile reflects the state of mechancal engineering and its relation to society. First we see the influence of good roads. Once they are built, the desire foi speed becomes insatiable. Even the least expensive ot the new cars can touch close on 60 miles an hour. To attain speed the automobile maker has borrowed freely from the aeroplane— swiftest of all vehicles —and the influence of aviation is seen in the efforts of body-builders to more and more streamline their productions. and* also in spark-plugs, shock absorbers, and the increasing use of aluminum to lighten the mass of moving engine parts. But to racing we owe most of the present day improvements in cars which have added so greatly to speed, safety and comfort. The automobile being a vehicle that is driven by millions of men and women who are no respecters of machinery. the engineer has found it necessary to devise cars that will all but take care of themselves. So we find in the modern car of to-day thermostatically controlled radiator shutters, more ways to lubricate twenty to forty chassis points at once by the turn of a handle or the pressing of a pedal, and more automatic means to lubricate pistons than by splashing of oil in a crankcase. In mechanism the automobile owmer .is willing to leave all to the engineer, hut not so in the body design and colour. Tn these respects mass production has not. yet throttled self-expression, and never before has such a variety of beautiful bodies

and colour schemes been offered When naint was flushed on with a hose (the brush was too slow), there was no room for rainbow hues, but

with a modern quick-drying nitrocellulose lacquers, sprayed on by air pressure, even the maker of a million cars a year cell afford to consider individual tastes. Artists are now engaged in several plants to harmonise colour and body design. Perhaps this consideration for the individual —the entry of artists into the automobile plant—is of even more significance than the purely mechanical advances; .for it shows that science can aid the manufacturer to satisfy th© individual motorist.