Trend of Motor Development

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 11 (Supplement)

Trend of Motor Development

JpOLLOWING the exhibition of various types of ultra-modern cars at recent motor shows overseas, prospects of radical departures from present standards of automotive design and construction are being discussed freely in the motor industry.

The development of the Diesel engine and its substitution for the petrol engine, the front-wheel drive, the rear engine position, and indepewient springing are tho main subjects of investigation and speculation. _ Independent springing is already fairly widely adopted, and is to be found on many cars on the local market. Heayy_ oil engines are in use here to a limited extent, mainly in commercial vehicles, but cars with rear engines or frontwheel drive are practically unknown in the Dominion. According to recent reports European manufacturers, particularly in Germany, are making determined efforts to popularise both these types of car. Tho rear-engine position and the front-wheel drive, though at first sight diametrically opposed, have much in common, as the aim in both cases is to produce a compact motive unit instead of distributing the engine and transmission units over the whole car. Theoretically, the idea is decidedly attractive, and appeals to the mechanical sense, as it lends itself to the rigid and accurate alignment of tho mechanical components, and enables them to be more readily protected, results in compactness in design, and,

finally, enables the remainder of the car to be regarded as a passengercarrying trailer, in which solo consideration can be given to comfortable riding and the most convenient stowage of luggage. Of the two, the arrangement in which all the components are located at the back of the car appears the more attractive proposition on general grounds, as, according to a British automotive authority, it offers the possibility of an excellent driving position, locates all the noiso and fumeproducing elements behind, instead of in front of the passengers, and eliminates the steering difficulties generally associated with front wheel drive. But until the present, as indicated by actual production, the protagonists of the two systems appear to be fairly-evenly balanced. [ The opinion may be hazarded that had either arrangement been normal practice in the early days of the industry, the custom of placing the engine in the front, the gearbox behind it, and the final transmission in the rear axle, would never have achieved popularity, but this arrangement is now so firmly established, and has been developed to such a degree of perfection, that it will undoubtedly bo exceedingly 'difficult to dethrone it. However, there is no justification for assuming that such dethronement is impossible, though it may bo doubted whether any of tho designs of either front or rear units at present on the market will achieve this distinction.