BIG POWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 12, 5 April 1927, Page 11

BIG POWER

IN SMALL ENGINES At the present time manufacturers are finding two important spheres of usefulness for the “small four” engine. In the first place, such a unit is ideal for a very light sports car —there are innumerable examples, many of French origin—and, in the second place, there is the tendency to save weight and initial costs by installing the “small four” instead of the larger -litre engine in moderately large light- cars. Naturally, as a sports car, the tout ensemble is in every way satisfactory, the power-weight ratio being such that a surprisingly good road performance is possible. When such engines have to propel loads of anything up to a ton, however, they require to be driven with a greater degree of skill and more frequent' use of the gear lever; high revs, are their saving grace. A saloon weighing over a ton, and having an engine of less than 1,100 c.c., can be driven over 50 m.p.h. in top, and 45 m.p.h. on the third of its four gears, providing one changes down instantly when a lower gear obviously is required. Just how long such an engine can stand up to the caning it is bound to receive at the hands of an owner who expects a lot, depends largely on the material used in the construction of the engine. Thanks to the strides which metallurgy has made during the past few years, much harder-wearing metals are available, while increased lightness, with- added strength, has also been attained. It might be said that the “small four” owes its very existence to the advances which have been made in the laboratory of the metallurgist.