Traffic Needs; Gars of Today

Northern Advocate, 25 January 1939, Page 4

Traffic Needs; Gars of Today

Many of the most significant changes in the design of motor-cars may be traced ,to traffic requirements; engineers are constantly studying the problem of increased flexibility and lower operating costs. By far the greater number of driving miles covered by motor vehicles are through the traffic-burdened streets and highways in and about great population centres, and the average rate of speed at which the vehicles are driven has been constantly upward, with the number of vehicle's themselves steadily mounting also. The redesigning of streets to meet the position has proved impracticable, and so in the main the motor industry has had to meet the situation iself and provide vehicles suitable to it. So far as cars are concerned the need is for something easy to park, flexible to handle and equipped with devices necessary to safe driving. Wonderful flexibility has been achieved in the engine, despite the trend away from larger units expensive to operate. The power unit now i§ compact; requiting nothing like the space once necessary in front tb- accommodate it, besides which is the fact that it is mounted well forward and that the driving compartment has been cleared as a mass of gear once necessary to operation of the controls. Most of these have found their way either to facia bo&rd or steering column, only the brakes and accelerator pedal remaining on the floor, out of the way of everybody’s feet, even the driver’s, except when he has them in use. Everybody’s Gain. The present-day engine is smooth in its operation, vibration to all intents and purposes being eliminated, with great beneficial effect from every point of view, including the fact that the nerve centres of the driver, no longer subject to the torture of some years ago, have acquired a quiescence that is no small factor in the safe handling of vehicles in traffic. It is everybody’s gain, including the man in the street.

With the reduction in size of engines came a reduction in chassis weight, with a redesigning of bodies that provides roomier seating and more luggage space than was obtained in the cumbersome structure of some years back. The lighter, more compact cars are easier to handle in traffic than their predecessor’s and easier to manoeuvre into a parking space. Cars that give fairly satisfactory mileage from fuel on the open road frequently offend in the matter of fuel consumption when operating in traffic, with the frequent stopping and starting demanded by controls and the varying slowing down and speeding up that are constantly necessitated by the conditions that prevail. This problem has been approached through improvements in carburetion, advances in high compression design, and other developments leading to comparative economy. Braking, too, has undergone immense improvement from the traffic-driving standpoint, better vision is aimed at and achieved, and gear changing has been greatly simplified. In these respects progress is still being made, and the past year has witnessed decided advancement in many models. All this means, safer, better, and more economic cars, all at the cost of the far less efficient machine of a few years ago.