Indholdsfortegnelse for September 1951 i MotorTrend

WHEN WALT WORON, MOTOR TREND’S Editor, returned from his annual pilgrimage to Detroit and points east, he had driven the Nash-Healey and suggested that we obtain the car for a Sports Trial. None being available on the west coast, I flew to Chicago to meet Bill Haworth, Director of Public Relations for Nash Motors. We drove to Kenosha, the Nash home plant, and out to the proving ground under threatening skies that finally broke open with the usual Wisconsin unpredictability. There went our Sports Trial The usual comprehensive tests of acceleration, braking, and top speed could have been performed under existing conditions but I felt that it would not produce a true picture. It’s pretty hard to bang a sports car around on wet pavement and come up with any…

LIKE EARLY jazz, the American Under-slung car was low down. Standing squat on its frame, slung low under the axles, its manufacturers, the American Motor Car Company of Indianapolis, Indiana boasted that “At every speed, it is the safest car in America.” “Even at 80 you can’t turn ’em over,” the early owners exulted. “They hug the road like a ’coon skin coat.” The car shown in these pictures is a 1913, four passenger sports touring model with four speeds forward and a right hand drive. Engine is a six cylinder T-head. The shift lever is located inside the car while the brake lever is just outside the right door The car sold for $4,250 at the factory. All models were made with a full floating rear end, sliding gear…

FOLLOWING AN informal one-day Rally won by Pete and Mrs. Crocker (XK 120), the New England Region of the SCCA staged a dilly of a hillclimb, Sunday, June 24, in Darling State Forest Park near Lyndonville, Vermont. For those enthusiasts who like their hairpins plentiful and their grades clifflike, Burke Mountain is the dream spot. Starting at the Forest Park Gate, the 1.75-mile climb has five hairpins and five sharp curves on gradients between 12 and 26 per cent, in a beautiful setting of birch, maple and wildflowers. Paved with asphalt all the way up, and therefore kind to tires, the road begins at 1900 ft. and the summit is reached at 3267 ft.—a rise of over 1350 ft. in less than two miles. Seen from the start, Burke Mountain…

Letters published in this department are the opinions of the writers and are not to be construed as those of the editors. Address correspondence to: Reader Reflections, MOTOR TREND, 1015 South la Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles 35, California FIRE AND SPEED Gentlemen: …Since I am a safety engineer with an ardent interest in all types of automobiles, I am prompted to ask why racing cars are not provided with a COs fire extinguisher system much the same as in aircraft. To my way of thinking, the presence of extra “hot” fuels coupled with the inherent hazards of racing add up to a necessity for this type of equipment. The only drawbacks that I can see would be extra weight and expense, but if military aircraft can use this system, where…

AUTOMOTIVE STYLING has just xV about reached the limits of development in its present channels. That is the current consensus held by leading Detroit stylists, many of whom claim that you may expect entirely new concepts of car design by i960. If you could look behind the padlocked doors of automotive styling departments, you would blink your eyes in amazement and disbelief. On every side are drawing tables covered with sketches and finished designs of future products as seen through the eyes of the individual stylist. In another room you would find scale models, small versions of the vehicle you may someday own. In still another section, you would see breathtaking full-size mock-ups of projected designs that would leave you spinning, wondering if you would drive it or fly it!…

A GREAT DAY for the 20,000 sports car fans forming a human picket fence around the picturesque four-mile road circuit at Bridgehampton, Long Island was June ninth, the events being sponsored by the local Lions Club. The fans had their quota of thrills (there was one flip, a hectic skid and several spin-outs); saw the course record shattered by England’s Tommy Cole and witnessed America’s fastest sports cars handled with polished skill by outstanding drivers of the SCCA. MG Car Club and Motor Sports Club who jointly organized the races. T. L. H. Cole, handling a green J2 Allard powered o(for the first time) by a Chrysler V-8 engine, easily won the 100-Mile Bridgehampton Cup at an average of 86.9 mph, beating his own 1950 record by seven mph. Starting…

THE 1951 running of Les 24 Heures du Mans gives us, as always, results which constitute a Who’s Who of Automotive Performance. This classic test for sports and production cars, this continuous 24 hours of flat-out operation, tells the world better than any other sporting or commercial competition precisely where most cars stand, both in terms of speed and of reliability. Driving skill is a fairly important factor, to be sure. But the really vital element is a car’s ability to scream on all day and all night at or close to peak stress … and to keep going. Hence the very accurate naming of the event: the Le Mans Grand Prix of Endurance. Jaguar—the most forward-looking manufacturer in England—did a remarkable thing. They selected this most grueling of tests…

IF YOU favor pavement power slides on crowded highways, any one of the 49 vehicle codes in effect in the United States classifies you as a reckless driver. It is a rating you richly deserve, and if you live long enough you will meet a judge who will make clear to you the fact that reckless driving is one of the cardinal sins of the road, along with drunken driving. It is easy to convince the law-makers of the 48 states and the District of Columbia that flagrant disregard of the right of your fellow-driver to keep breathing is a major offense. And so uniformity has been forced on this important matter. But all fatal accidents are not caused by reckless or drunk drivers. Most of them are the result…

AFTER USING and testing different types and makes of vacuum gauges the Stewart-Warner Motor Minder stands out as a superior instrument. The design of its dial harmonizes with the styling of modern cars’ instrument panels. It fits in place of ’49-’51 Olds clocks and can be mounted on the steering column or dash equally well. It also will replace ’49-’5i Ford or Mercury clocks. The connection to the intake manifold is very simple and can be made in a few minutes by anyone. The dial of the Motor Minder is divided into five differently-colored segments, each showing a distinct operating range, easily read by a glance at the steady needle. The steadiness of the needle is due to the rugged construction of the instrument. A phosphor bronze Bourdon tube with…

THE MOTOR YEAR BOOK 1951 compiled by Laurence Pomeroy and Rodney Walkerley of “THE MOTOR” lives up to the tradition of excellence established by the first two editions. The cover blurb states with characteristic English moderation: “The bookshelf of the enthusiastic motorist would be incomplete without it.” With that we heartily concur. With a Golden Year of British and continental automotive production to record, the compilers have done the job well. Technical developments in the industry, description and evaluation of British cars of 1950, racing cars of the year, world specification tables, reviews of the great races of 1950 and statistical results of principal international races—they’re all here, bolstered by photographs, cutaways and sketches. It’s a fascinating chronicle—and a solid, valuable reference text for the motor sportsman. It can be…

DETROIT, MICHIGAN—At last, a major American automotive manufacturer is working seriously with a gas turbine engine for motor vehicles! … Despite considerable reservations about its ultimate successful application in passenger cars, General Motors Research Division is designing and experimenting with a GT power unit for possible highway use…. According to C. L. McCuen, vice president and general manager of the GM Research Laboratory, the engine should be ready within two years. It probably will be installed first in a GMC bus, like the type used by Greyhound, for exhaustive operating trials. After that, trucks and even passenger cars could be equipped with it for test purposes, McCuen indicates…. Although still mostly on paper, the theoretical GM gas turbine design calls for an engine developing the equivalent of 300 bhp and…

TEXACO is planning to give you 35 miles per gallon on fuel oil and kerosene! They’re trying to do it with 12 to i compression ratios, a “swirl”-type combustion chamber, direct fuel injection, and fantastically lean fuel mixtures—to give consumption rates that wouldn’t ever be possible with present cylinder types. Don’t laugh. The petroleum industry knows only too well that America’s crude oil reserves aren’t going to last forever the way we’re burning them up, and they’d like nothing better than to see us double our tank mileage. But at the same time, they’re not at all anxious to lose another 15 per cent of that precious crude barrel in refining up 100-0ctane gas to help us do it. And the estimated cost of $2 billion to convert to super-octane…

SPECTACULAR,. SCARCE, strictly stock, virginal describe this magnificent red-and-black 1927 Stutz owned by Elliott Wiener of Pacific Palisades, California. Seventeen of these fantastic bodies were supplied by the factory and it is doubtful that any other specimens survive anywhere today. This racy machine was the sole transportation—oddly enough—of a college professor. He drove it from home to school daily, with top and side curtains always up. When he retired, he turned the car over to a museum which, having little room for such gems, eventually put the Stutz up for sale and Mr. Wiener entered the scene with a gleam in his eye. The AA-Series engine is a 16-valve straight eight which uses a single, chain-driven, overhead camshaft. Displacement of 287 cu. ins. derives from a 3 3/16 x 4½…

STUDEBAKER TEST drivers took the day off on Saturday, June 23, as members of four midwestern regions of the SCCA had another taste of highspeed motoring on the high banks of the three-mile Studebaker test track not far outside South Bend, Indiana. More than a thousand enthusiasts were on hand for the second invitational meet staged by the Chicago Region of the SCCA in hearty cooperation with the Studebaker Corporation. The Chicago lads were responsible for the scheduling of events. These consisted of qualifying trials followed by two heats of 15 miles each for cars of under 1500 cc, a skillful driving test for the more conservative clan and the windup, the “South Bend Handicap,” open to all qualifiers over 1500 cc and to the fastest half of the below-1500…

SEXIEST CAR in the world, in the eyes of most classic fans, is the titanic Duesenberg J. Probably the classic example of this adoration occurred in Los Angeles when eager fans spied a gently decomposing convertible coupe in a storage lot. The only clue to the owner’s identity was furnished by the license plates which were three years old. While most of the impatient would-be buyers deluged Sacramento with letters of inquiry, one enterprising fellow wandered door-to-door in the area, pestering householders and businessmen with his persistent inquiry, “Who owns the big white convertible?” Like in the Horatio Alger stories, legwork paid off. The Duese was traced to a retired, elderly citizen and a footsore but hopeful collector withdrew $200 from his bank to help him through the initial interview.…