Weak Points in Design

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22468, 11 July 1936, Page 14 (Supplement)

Weak Points in Design

any experienced motorist to tell you the points ho does not like about his own car, and he will reel off a little list of " unconsidered trifles," unconsidered, that is to say, by those who built the body, 6ays H. F. Symons, in the Sunday Times, I>ondon. They are nearly all little things, but irritating none the less. They make one think that the designer of the body, and perhaps the chassis as well, does not often drive in one of his products. The sort of thing 1 have in mind is the lack of a proper resting-place for the left foot, Symonds writes. On many cars the only position is the clutch pedal, and even if the clutch is normally fitted with a strong spring, it cannot be very cood practice to re&t the foot consistently on the pedal, perhaps causing undue wear to occur in the clutch thrust-race. Sometimas there is room to put the left foot under the pedal, but this means that in an emergency valuable fractions of seconds will be lost moving the foot. The only alternative may be to twist the foot to an uncomfortable angle, resulting ultimately in cramp. Then there is the case of the car on which the pedals are too close together, so that the driver with a broad shoe may apply the brake and accelerator pedals simultaneously. There is also the risk that the welt of one shoe may get under one of the pedals. In addition, there are scuttle ventilators which cut the leather of the shoes, pedals which women drivers cannot reach and lloor-boards or foot-wells which ruin the heels.

There are handbrake levers socloso to the side of the body that the knuckles are grazed whenever the brake is applied, and there are gear-levers which strike the facia board and bruise the knuckles when changing speed. So much for the controls. Not a few cars have the door-handles or windowraisers so placed that they catch the kneecap or hook up the driver's sleeve when he is making a quick turn on the steering wheel to correct a skid or avoid a dog running across the road. There are doors which a child, or an adult for that matter, can open accidentally, with considerable risk of falling out of the car. Add to this list of snags interior driving mirrors which cut the forehead when getting in or out, windscreens that do not open for fog-driving. and seats with backs sloping so much that the driver gets a stiff neck looking where he is going, and you have a fairly comprehensive collection of quite inexcusable faults in motor-car design Those who plan the chassis are also I sometimes to blame, though it must be I said that more common sense in this direction has been shown in the last five years than in the preceding thirty ft is now comparatively rare, for instance, to find the oil-level dipstick on one side of the engine and the oil filler on the other, though that was a common fault onlv a little while ago in English cars. Ear too many cars, however. still have ridiculously short dipstocks. not infrequently cnnninglv placed so that they cannot be extracted without burning the hand on the exhaust manifold. Engine designers sometimes proudly place oil fillers on the very top of the engine, thjnking that they are thus in the most accessible position. Thev forget, however, that when the bonnet is in place it will be impossible to tip up the oil-can and replenish tho budplv without using a funnel. Will the Minister of Transport's intensive efforts to promote road safetv result in a change in the outline of I British cars? tho samo writer asks in ! another issue. This question passed through mv mind a couple of days ago when I found myself driving a largo, popular and inexjxmsivp car during the evening rush hour Although I have driven hundreds of different makes and sizes and shapes of cars during the last 20 years. I felt thoroughly ill at ease From the driving seat 1 could see nothing but !fft of bulging bonnet; even the outline of '•lie radiator cowl was indistinct, and I could not see even tho lamp mounted on the front wing of mv own side of the car. Tho result was that I could only guess at the width of the car, and passing throng! congested streets was a nerveracking business. It was not until f had driven the car for two or three hours on country roads that I was able to estimate its width, and even after a couple of hundred miles of town and country driving I was still unable to park the ear less than 12 or 14 inches from the kerb As a matter of interest. I measured the length of the "blind area" in front of two cars, a well-known English model and an inexpensive car of American design. From the driving seat of the English car it was possible to see a spot on the road ahead 21ft away, measured directly over the highest part of the radiator. On the second car. measured in the same manner T discovered that the length of road hidden from the driver was no less thnn 48ft Tn addition, from the driving seat on the first rnr. it. was possible to see not orilv the two side-lamps but the whole width of both front wines as well as a rood deal of the road iinmediatelv in front of the car through a gap between the wings and the radiator: on th<> second car it was not possible to see cither win r or side Inmn: nothing, in fact, was risible but the top of the bonnet and the road a long way ahead.

FAULTS OF THE NEW CARS

Many causes contribute towards the bad visibility which is, alas, a feature of so many modern cars. The artist who designs a vehicle as a whole may not be a practical motorist. He evolves a high, imposing radiator cowl, which may be many inches in front of the real radiator and some inches higher. A long and high bonnet is thus obtained, although there is no justification for it, for the engine is often quite a short, low unit, and there is room to carry a suitcase or two above it under tlie bonnet. A high bonnet means, generally, a high waistline, and this results in th« sills of the windows being at shoulderheight instead of elbow-level. Consequently, it is a human impossibility to give the correct signals. Half the confusing and ineffective hand signals which one sees are the result of the driver being unable to cet his or her arm out of the window.