VISION OF THE FUTURE

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1926, Page 7

VISION OF THE FUTURE

THE ; “HYDROFLYMOBILE” i•I < t . in interesting possibilities. RADICAL CHANGES IMMINENT. Some of the possibilities for the ultimate automobile are indicated by reports which are far more important than ordinary rumours, for the automotive industry has a delightful faculty of turning possibilities into probabilities and probabilities into lighter, better and cheaper automobiles. For ten years, says an American paper, most of tiie improvements have been refinements, but in the meantime extensive laboratory and research experiments have been under way, and it is reported that some radical changes are imminent, an outstanding one of which seems to be the realisation of a decidedly lighter car and all that such a departure implies or makes possible. Whether the ultimate ear will be a simplified and a composite adaptation of an air-cooled, spiral sleeve valve, gearless machine, or an adaptation of the turbine idea to internal combustion engine remains to be seen, but concededly it will be lighter because of public demand. This is made increasingly possible by the extension of better roads. Some of the possibilities that cannot be dismissed, to-day as lightly as were similar “impossibilities” when the automobile was first talked of because the “impossible” has been done, are these:— 450 miles to the gallon of gasoline. 10,000 miles to quart of oil. 100,000 miles to a set of tyres. Lighter cars. More mechanical simplification. Fewer parts. Papier mache bodies. Less speed, perhaps governed to fifty miles 'an hour. More refined fittings and comforts. Lower prices. Painting in a few days instead of 36 (already accomplished). Reduction of gears. Turn in shorter space. Different spring arrangement, FIGURES NOT IMPOSSIBLE. Drivers who get ten miles to the gallon on “gas” may look aghast at 450 miles to the gallon, but no less an authority than Charles Kettering points out thaf at present the average engine gets but 3 per eent. of the energy of the fuel and it is easy to figure what 100 per cent, would be. While the ultimate possibility of 450 miles even for a light ear may be some distance .away, the driver to-day would forget that in his appreciation for a couple of hundred miles to the gallon In France to-day some of the lighter cars get from 50 to 100 miles to the gallon. The same engineer called the paint manufacturers together and asked them to produce a quicker drying paint, and after some deliberation it was agreed that perhaps the thirty-six days required to paint a car could be reduced to thirtyfour. Mr. Kettering is quoted as saying that a paint that would dry in an hour was wanted. The result has been achieved in the new pyroxline lacquer, or quick drying finish. Less Than'2s .years ago, in a I-00-mile road race in Westchester County, New York, a European car, the Benz, was the only one to finish. This race in itself is not important, but that this Benz car employed a twostroke engine means a great deal to the automobile engineer’ to-day, who is looking into the future. It means that' over a span of more than twenty years, while we have developed niceties in engine construction, the basic idea of the twostroke engine is expected to prove to be the most practical from every standpoint of performance. ' IMPORTANCE OF TORQUE. Sir William Letts, president of the Society, of Motojr Manufacturers and Traders. Ltd.', of Great Britain, defines torque as follows: “Torque is pulling power at the wheels at low speed, with’ minimum fuel expenditure.” This definition is very important and should be known intimately .by every single American motorist, because the American automobile designer, it is believed, will have to forget his high horse-power ratings and give his full attention to “pulling power at the wheels at low speed with minimum fuel expenditure” if he ; s going to hold .his place in the automobile world. England taxes her automotive vehicles on their horse-power, and it is good economy over there to build small, light cars with 4 to 10 horse-power engines. Some of their ears could almost be parked in the front parlour, they are so small. But they perform just as efficiently as large ears elsewhere with engines powerful enough to pull a train of cars, let alone one or two passengers. There is absolutely no reason, say modern designers, why any automobile built to carry from two to seven passengers should have from 40 to 90 horse-power engines. NO GEARS, NO CLUTCH. Two years and a half ago George Constantinesco introduced an invention which he claimed would entirely replace the ordinary clutch and gear-box. He called it a torque convertor. Automatic in action, it - provided an infinite range of speed ratios. It was controlled entirely by the throttle, no clutch pedal or gear levels being fitted. The controls consist of an accelerator, a break and a lever with three possible positions, forward, neutral and reverse. While the engine is running light no power is transmitted. The most curious feature about the convertor, from the driver's point of view, is that as the car's speed increases the engine speed gets less and less. This is because the gear ratio gets higher and higher as the car speed increases, finally reaching a limit when speed capability of the vehicle is attained. In the 500 c.c. car with two passengers this is about 3S miles an hour. 100,000 MILES ON SET OF TYRES. With lighter vehicles and better roads, it is a natural consequence that tyre life will increase accordingly. Without taking into account material improvements, it stands' tor reason that if tyres properlyaligned will go for over 30,000 miles under 'present conditions, 100,000 miles is an almost certain possibility on the light, easyWuiuiing vehicle of the future. Smaller engines, smoother in action, mean less vibration. Take this into consideisation- with- a minimum of parts and it is a foregone conclusion that oil will last for a long period. By a system of constant cleansing an intensive lubrication. waste will be entirely- eliminated. To-day we are told to change our oil

every 500 miles. With ear of ten years hence being operated to the limit of efficiency, a quart of oil will last over 10,000 miles. A few years ago the Sunbeam Company, of England, designed a 12-cylinder or twin-six engine, which was bo light and small it could be carried under one arm without undue lift. It functioned almost perfectly and was built like an oversize Swiss watch, each part, being ’synchronised to a complete whole. It was a powerful piece of mechanism, being capable of developing a very high, rate of speed. For ordinary use there were too many parts to get out of order, but it was a forerunner of what we may expect on American cars very shortly. The day is not far away when we will adopt the European idea of a small bore, a long stroke and a consequent high speed when desired. FRONT WHEEL DRIVE. The drive will be off the front wheels, it is believed, as recent races are said to have proved that air automobile with a pull of this kind has not only less road sway but also takes most of the strain off the engine. There is no reason in the world, it is said, why we should drive off the rear wheels, except that custom has so indicated, and engineers are fast realising this. Bodies on the car built along the most approved lines will be slung in a cradle, in much the same fashion as a hammock. The wheels will set slightly out on each side, with inside Springing set so as to absorb the slightest road shock. The framework of the chassis will be the lightest metal obtainable. It is not safe to say that it will be either aluminium or steel because the chances are believed to be about 100 to 1 that in a very short space of time an alloy will be discovered which will combine just the right, amount of strength and lightness. Chemists, physicists and metallurgists are working on this problem night and day. The framework of the bodies may be paper, glass and metal. With the possibilities from the use of fused quartz in its many phases and its melting into glass, which is practically unbreakable and opaque, it would not be surprising to see glass bodies on the road before many months. It is believed that papiermache bodies will be used to overcome weight problems. To be sure, steel bodies have the value of strength and permanency, but a possible advantage of a papier-mache body is that one might be replaced at a 5 and 10-cent store —that is, if the doors were purchased separately. The eventual vehicle will set closer to the ground and will clear off the front wheels in a vei'y small space, and by using the outrigged wheels, turning in - traffic will be very much simplified as the arc described will be equal to the shortest possible swing. Since fact and fancy have carried possibilities to this point, it may be well, to remember that the ultimate may not be simply an automobile, but a “hydroflymobile,” doing all that the names implies.

Following the record output of May last, Canada's production of automobiles dropped slightly to 21,751 in June. This output included 6610 open and 11,175 closed cars. In the U.S.A, the June .production was 383,575, of which 339,542 were passenger cars, and 44,033 commercial vehicles, as compared with a total of 420.978 in Mav, and 388.(119 in June, 1925.

The latest statistical information from America is that cars outnumber telephones by one and a half millions.