FRONT WHEEL SPRINGING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 80, 16 March 1934, Page 12

FRONT WHEEL SPRINGING

INDEPENDENT ACTION. REVIVAL IN AMERICA. One of the most-discussed motoring innovations at the present moment is independent spring of the front wheels, or “knee action,’’ as it is called in America, Its development is being watched with the closest interest by the British motor-car industry. Independent springing is not by any means new. French makers tried it four years ago—and some of them have dropped it. British manufacturers also tried it —and some of them dropped it. But the majority of American manufacturers this year have come forward with “knee action,’’ and at the moment it is one of the biggest talking points in motoring circles in America. Henry Ford is an exception. But Ford has always been orthodox. Independent springing, without going too deeply into technicalities, has the advantage that each wheel takes its own individual shock without transmitting it to the chassis. It gives the wheel more or less an independent joint —hence the term “knee action.” If the wheels hits a, pot-hole it gets a nasty jar, but its individual spring takes the jar, and the passengers in the car know very little about it. Those firms in America who have adopted it state that, as regards suspension, the motor, car has advanced little beyond the cart stage. In some ways they are right. Apart from improved suspension there are other reasons why American manufacturers have adopted this device. The American engine is on the heavy side. By using independent springing it has enabled the designer to bring his engine right forward. By so doing he has increased body accommodation, and has been able to carry streamlining to an even more advanced stage than British manufacturers, who were the first to realise the advantage of wind-cheating bodies. And he has also paved the way for the rear-engined car. It is a mistake to imagine that American makers have adopted the idea of putting the engine in the tail of the car. Only one import ant firm—and that a manufacturer of high-priced vehicles—has adopted the rear-engine idea. But other manufao turers have seen the writing in the sky, and have so designed their vehicles that the change-over to the engine at the back can be carried out with the minimum of delay and cost. They anticipate that the vehicle with the engine at the back may be the car of the future. British manufacturers have not paid so . much attention to independent springing because the average British engine is lighter than the American unit. They have been able in some instances to push the engine right forward ■without altering the orthodox mode of suspension.