RADICAL CHANGE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2671, 17 September 1937, Page 6

RADICAL CHANGE

CONTROL BY ONE PEDAL

A SAFETY-FIRST ADVANTAGE.

A “ONE-PEDAL” car, controlled by

push buttons, is a startling 1938 model that is being built by one of the biggest manufacturers in Coventry.

So important is this car that in the view of the sales and design staff it should not be shown at the motor exhibition in October.

“This is, we think, the simple, foolproof car that the mechanicallyminded motoring public has been waiting* for,” says the company’s chief engineer. “We regard it as worthy of its own motor show and present plans are to announce it to the public next spring.”

The car, a 12 h.p. model of orthodox shape and design, has only one pedal instead of the usual three. The brake and accelerator controls are combined in one pedal. This feature has the great safetyfirst advantage of cutting out the time-lag due to the driver moving his foot from accelerator to brake pedal when stopping suddenly. With this car, even at a full speed, downward movement of the foot applies the brakes instantly. The most advanced feature of this unusual car is the automatic electrically operated geai’box. There is no gear lever and no clutch pedal—merely five push buttons mounted on the top of the steering column.

Press Button 1 and the accelerator and the car moves off in first gear; press Button 2 and second gear smoothly and silently engages automatically. Buttons 3 and 4 are third and top gears, the change being just as simple. The fifth button is marked “N” for obtaining the neutral position and there is also, of course, a reverse gear. The car will be produced at less than £4OO.