Indholdsfortegnelse for July 1950 i MotorTrend

IN A RECENT letter, one of our readers asked the question, “What is your editorial policy? What does MOTOR TREND stand for?” We believe that this is a good question—although we thought that the answer was obvious. If the magazine doesn’t indicate to this one reader what our policy is, then maybe it needs to be clarified. MOTOR TREND has three basic objectives: that of bringing the news of the automotive world (both figurative and literal) to the motoring public; that of analyzing new cars; and that of helping the reader to make better use of his car. To be a reporter, we have to inform our readers of what is happening, where and why. The “what” and “where” are an objective reporting of the facts; the “why” is dictated…

THE 1950 Oldsmobile bears the distinction of being the first stock car tested by MOTOR TREND to exceed 90 mph. There is small wonder that the Oldsmobile 88 owner has a feeling of superiority and definite pride in ownership. It is a car of power—evident in its top speed, in its acceleration qualities, in the figures given by the chassis dynamometer, and in its power curves. The Oldsmobile 88 four-door sedan used for this trial was a demonstrator, with 2160 miles on the odometer, and a car that is in constant use by Muller Brothers of 6380 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, California. Properly tuned and with this amount of mileage on the engine, the car was in good condition for testing. Unfortunately, for the top speed runs, our test, strip…

ANYONE who has the least doubt about the rebirth of sports car racing in the U. S. would have been pretty well sold on this sport after watching the performance of close to 40 cars and drivers at Suffolk County Airport, Long Island, N. Y., on Sunday, May 7th. With no organized big-scale publicity to back it up, the program of races held at the big bomber airfield near Westhampton drew almost 25,000 spectators. It is certain that they will be back to watch the sleek European Alfas, Jaguar XK-120’s, the Ferrari, the LeMans Frazer-Nash, the Cadillac-powered Allard, the Cisitalias, the drove of small but gallant MG’s (both supercharged and unsupercharged) and all the other sports machines that contributed to the day’s fun. Following on the heels of established road…

PERHAPS the most misleading term in describing the Carrera Panamericana is “Road Race”; much more apt would be a title such as “Battle of the Giants,” for in actuality it was a test of car and driver endurance—a mad dash along a winding road that stretches from border to border and over open prairies, steep hills, and mountainous passses. The race was marked by wind, heat, rain, blowouts and brake failures that all added up to spectacular spins and forced retirements from the race. An indication of the course’s difficulty is that only 57 cars finished out of 126 starters. After 2178 miles of tortuous driving, Hershel McGriff (1950 Oldsmobile) arrived at an otherwise sleepy town on the Guatemalan border, El Ocotal, to find that he had completed the distance…

UNUSUAL as it may seem, one of the world’s largest collections of automobiles is not to be found in the museums of England, France or Italy. It is housed in an immaculate 20,000 sq. ft. building on a quiet street in a Chicago suburb—Evanston, Ill. D. Cameron Peck, its originator and owner, is a collector, a collector’s collector, whose versatility and all-around knowledge of American and foreign cars of all vintages is probably unparalleled anywhere in the world. A perfectionist as to details, he has spent 18 years combing the world for specimens that are most representative of automobile progress—individual coachwork or interesting, unorthodox solutions by inspired international engineers. Patiently refining his collection (between 1933-1950 he has owned over 400 cars) by acquiring vehicles of desirable background and condition, he…

OF COURSE there’s no question that there’s a future in this country for the light automobile—our automotive past is the answer. We’ve had scads of well-respected makes of such cars—Star, Durant, Whippet, Model T and Model A Fords, and Willys, to name a few. These cars gave dependable transportation, reasonable comfort, low-cost operation, and sold at a minimum price. They existed because of the economics of their time, because the seller’s market was unknown and the needs of each income group were carefully studied and filled. As late as ‘42 you could get a smart little Willys Ameri- car for $742, at the factory. With the war’s end, all manufacturers foresaw a short-lived seller’s market, and made preparation against the early date when our living standard would shrink and the…

AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS continue to be high in the public’s interest. The latest company to adapt it is Studebaker, who have named it, very simply, “Studebaker Automatic Drive.” Inner workings of this transmission consist basically of a single-stage, three-element torque converter made of stampings, two epicyclic gear sets, two oil pumps, one multiple-disc clutch, and a singleplate, oil-submerged clutch for direct drive. Transmission will be offered on Commodore models for present, on Champion’s soon. … It is definitely known now that Chrysler is tooling up for a fully-automatic transmission. … No word is available on details, except that it will be torque converter type. Unusual wrinkle in manufacture of Packard Ultramatic Drive is use of finely-ground walnut shells, used as “shot” to blast tiny metallic burrs off machined surfaces of castings.…

I REELED out of the library into the street, sheaves of reference-book requests (stamped by the librarian “NOT AVAILABLE”) clutched in my trembling hands. “Five-ball universal joints, four-ball universal joints, six-ball universal joints!” I muttered feverishly, wandering over to the gutter. A flash of sunlight caught my eye. I looked down the street, and there, parked against a fireplug, was—a Cord! One headlight was retracting and un-retracting, as if to attract my attention. “Ah, a Cord,” 1 said. “A 1937, unsupercharged Beverly sedan, in fair shape.” I kicked its right front tire affectionately. “Don’t do that!” said the Cord crossly. “You’ll make my universals leak.” “Well, whaddya know, a talking Cord!” I said “How come you can talk?” “I went to a drive-in theatre the other night. If a stupid…

MOST AUTOMOBILE owners interested in future trends have heard of Polaroid lights and pondered the possibility of adapting them to their own automobile. This, however, is not as simple as it sounds. Many problems confront the engineer attempting this modification. Extensive research has been carried out by the Polaroid Corporation and the General Electric Company at the General Motors Proving Grounds at Detroit. The objective point concerning these tests was to achieve a suitable answer to one important question above all else and that is: Will the application of a Polaroid lighting system solve the highway safety problems now attendant with headlight glare? In the past thirty years the highway lighting problem has been a most important one, and the necessity to improve road visibility for night driving has caused…

Three types of light cars are illustrated in these renderings by Colonel Alexis de Sakhnoffsky. The top car is a four-door sedan of short wheelbase, resembling in design characteristics the Austin, Jowett, and Standard. The center car is a sports model with soft top, showing the Italian influence in its long, low hood, uncovered rear wheel, thin window posts and fairly flat top. This type of light car, for economical reasons, would not be a true sports car. The third drawing shows a two-door sedan of the Kaiser-Nash type, being designed for esthetic, as well as practical, qualities. These cars need not necessarily be limited to the design or drafting board. If the steps taken by Nash and Kaiser are any indication, other manufacturers will probably be doing more than…

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: Letters From Our Readers, MOTOR TREND, 1015 So. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles 35, California. THE TUCKER, AGAIN Gentlemen: It would please me and numerous other MOTOR TREND fans, with whom I have discussed this matter, if you could write an article on the Fabulous (?) Tucker. I have talked to people who have ridden in them, and even timed them, and they claim Preston Tucker’s car was everything he claimed it to be, and then some. Some of these people lived near the Tucker factory. If MOTOR TREND could get one of the few Tucker cars and give it an unbiased write-up as you…