CARS IN 1937

Southland Times, Issue 22921, 20 June 1936, Page 19

CARS IN 1937

NO RADICAL CHANGES SEVERE TESTS BEING CARRIED OUT Although radical changes in the design of motor-car chasses seem to be inevitable, the world’s leading experts do not anticipate any vital alterations before 1938. No startling innovations are expected for next year, designers preferring to keep to a programme of refinement and improvement rather than adopt one of considerable change, (comments “Focus’ in the New Zealand Herald). Extensive research work and severe

tests are being carried on in the industry overseas, and the general adoption of the rear-engined car, the frontwheel drive, or the Diesel engine is a possibility of the future, but there is no indication yet of a widespread swing-over.

The Diesel engine is becoming increasingly popular for the purposes of heavy road transport, but as yet it has not made much headway as a power unit for passenger cars. Neither has the front wheel drive car advanced much in favour with large-volume factories. There is a distinct trend, however, toward locating the engine in the rear, but its general adoption seems to be rather remote.

Andre Dubonnet, the French engineer, whose system of independent frontwheel suspension is now being widely used, recently evolved a rear-engined car which gave some particularly good speed and fuel economy performances on the Montlhery track in Paris. He subsequently took the car to England for inspection by experts, and is now in America submitting the machine to demonstrations in Detroit, the hub of the American motor industry.

Externally, the car is a radical departure from accepted lines and it has been described as an aeroplane fuselage with four wheels almost entirely enclosed. The machine is equipped with a V-8 Ford engine, this powerunit apparently being selected on account of its compactness and to obtain comparative figures with a popular standard production job The entire power-plant is in the rear of the chassis, consisting of backbone with four arms to carry the suspension. The four wheels are independently sprung by the Dubonnet system of enclosed coil springs and radius arms. Engine cooling is by means of louvres on each side of the body, just behind the main doors of the car. Tire front wheels of the machine are ingeniously treated, being enclosed in the body. Their mudguards form a combination of the body, pivoting with the wheels, but do not rise and fall with them. The internal height inside the streamlined body is 51 inches. The main seat, which is ahead of the back axle, seats three people. At present, the most interesting thing about this rear-engined car is the performance it put up on the Montlhery track when pitted against a standard production model equipped with a similar power unit. Divo, one of the crack racing drivers of France, was at the wheel of die conventional car. Because of its lessened head resistance, the Dubonnet outfit was able to handle a gear ratio of 2.9 to 1. The two cars were practically identical in weight. For one lap of the track (Ij miles) the Dubonnet showed a speed of 108.3 m.p.h., as against 79.53 by the normal car, in spite of the fact that in a bench test the engine in the standard production car peaked at 80 h.p., whereas the engine in the Dubonnet gave a maximum of only 72 h.p. The fuel economy test for one hour at a regular speed of 62 m.p.h. resulted in the Dubonnet consuming 2.36 gallons of petrol (approximately 24 m.p.g.) while the other car used 3.8 gallons. A second fuel economy test was made on the Montlhery road circuit at an average speed of 59.6 m.p.h. for a distance of 31 miles, the route embracing stiff gradients that call for gear changing. The Dubonnet used 2.45 gallons of petrol and the normal car 3.14 gallons. The tests with this rear-engined car are typical of the research work that is going on overseas with the object of proving the virtues of various new developments. ■