WONDER CAR

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6808, 11 January 1929, Page 5

WONDER CAR

TEN YEARS BEFORE ITS TIME

The sensation of the Motor Salon which opened in the Grand Palais, Paris, some weeks ago was a car said to be years ahead of its time (says the motoring correspondent of the "Daily News"). This car is cooled by steam, has rubber buffer suspension in place of the usual steel leaf springing, a free-w'heel differential, aluminium chassis, and a gear system which is infinitely variable, giving speed ratios ■as low as 1000 to 1 and as high as *-'i to 1. It will climb the worst alpine passes with a full load at three miles an hour, and yet, on the straight level Route Nationalc, give a speed or eighty miles an hour. Its engine is but 20 h.p. and its chassis just over a toil—about half the weight of the usual car of its size. The f hcrnio-syphon system of steam cooling is clever, much like that of any other car externally. The bottom third of the radiator has a cold-water tank. When the engine is started the water in the cylinder rises to just above boiling point. Steam passes from the cylinder to the condenser (occupying two-thirds of the radiator space), turns into water and drops back into the water tank, which then feeds the cylinders with lulce-warm water. Actually the cylinder water jacket acts as a kettle. By this system the engine is workifln at a uniform heat —the most efficient method for perfect carburation and lubrication. Less w r ater is used than by the' average car. The car has front wheel drive, ana the front suspension is composed of two sets of rubber discs —the bottom discs acting as compression and the upper discs as rebound dampers all fitted in a neat cylinder. The rear suspension is similar, out with two cy iindcis of rubber discs for each wheel.