Indholdsfortegnelse for March 1951 i MotorTrend

THE CROSLEY Super-Sports is the only mass produced sports car made in the United States today. In case the designation “sports car” conveys any impression that it is only a fair weather toy for well-to-do playboys, let me correct that notion right now. In addition to its sporting character, the Crosley is a perfectly practical machine for everyday knock-around use, requires no pampering and priced at $999, factory delivered, Cincinnati, Ohio, it warrants very serious consideration from the budget-conscious car buyer. The car tested was the 1951 edition, and was provided by Ross Cumming, Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., Crosley distributors for the Los Angeles area. I warned Jack Early, sales manager, that I would give the car the same thorough tests that all big cars undergo. He just laughed,…

DETROIT, MICHIGAN—As war clouds gather throughout the world, America’s dynamic automotive industry is plunged into one of the critical periods in its history. It is a time of acute uncertainty. Rapidly changing conditions and new developments tumble into the motor capital with each tick of the clock.… No one here will look any more than 24 hours ahead, and then, any talk of the future is carefully hedged. This great industry does not know where it is headed, and at this time nobody seems to be in a position to point the way. Thus, anything a Detroit columnist attempts to write a month in advance of publication is very likely to be outdated by the time the periodical reaches the newsstands. It is presumptuous to talk positively about conditions here,…

IN ADDITION to the many mechanical and artistic problems of the classic car owner there is another vexing feature which falls under the heading of “social” problem. No Rolls or Stutz owner has yet hit on the perfect rejoinder for the yokel who leans on the tonneau and quips “How many gallons to the mile, Jack?” Or the considered remark that will cool the moppet’s “Will it really do a hunnerdunfifty?” One of my most bitter memories concerns the reaction of a barely pubescent delinquent to my Packard. He was just tucking the radiator ornament under his coat when I appeared on the scene. With an ill-concealed grimace of disappointment, he turned to me and lisped, “Thith yourth?” When I nodded, he screwed the cap back on. Then he climbed…

BRAKING with a minimum of effort and pressure is the purpose of the Accela-Brake, the newest braking accessory to be placed on the market. This item, introduced in “Trade Topics” (Jan. ’51 Motor Trend) is an application of vacuum booster principles (plus a pressure equalizer) used for a number of years on truck brakes. It eliminates the time lag involved in lifting the foot from the throttle and moving it to the brake pedal. The Accela-Brake pedal fits over the throttle pedal and activates the brake by a slight pressure of your heel. The brake is auto-matically released when the throttle is again depressed. The braking unit, consisting of an accumulator (pressure equalizer) and a control unit, is installed under the hood of a car. Vacuum is taken from the…

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. RESTYLING DEPARTMENT Gentlemen: I am enclosing a snapshot of a 1939 Willys Overland coupe which I recently remodeled. The body was moved back eight ins. and dropped five ins. This model has a 102-in. wheelbase. It is finished in birch gray, with vermillion wheels, and vermillion-colored, leather upholstery. Edgar W. FrazerWest Orange, New Jersey Gentlemen: The body [of my ’39 convertible Plymouth coupe] has been body sectioned, just above the fenders, 5½ ins., with two-in. lowering blocks at the rear. The car stands four ft. six ins. to the top…

NEWEST “special” in sports car competition is the Cannon, product of the enthusiastic owner of a North Hollywood automotive engineering firm. In its road racing debut, the Cannon, driven by Jim Seely, placed third at the Pebble Beach meet, conducted by the Sports Car Club of America in November, 1949. The Cannonball, as it was immediately nicknamed, features an unusually sturdy box type frame, with independent coil springs forward and transverse leaf spring at the rear. The car combines excellent handling characteristics, with a degree of passenger comfort not often found in specials. The engine is a Mercury, bored and stroked to 270 cu. ins., with milled heads and one of the owner’s special ground cams. This partially modified set-up was intended only for testing chassis features of the car…

ANSWERING a burning question in the minds of all sports car enthusiasts, “Why doesn’t someone build a production sports car?” General Motors has taken the first long step by building Le Sabre (shown here). The only catch is that the car is an experimental model for the purpose of testing mechanical and styling ideas that GM designers have sketched on drawing boards and have discussed in conferences. The car, a custom-built two-seater, under development four years, is now being constructed and should be completed about a month after this issue of Motor Trend reaches the newsstands. “The point of building this car,” says Mr. Harley J. Earl, GM Vice President in Charge of Styling, “—is to be prepared for the future. This is the car of the future only in…

IN TWO DAYS running, the 840-mile course (90 miles longer than the one selected for 1950) chosen for the 1951 Mobil-gas Economy Run to the Grand Canyon, will subject the cars to every sort of altitude, weather and driving condition that the average motorist would encounter in a full year of driving.… Conducted under the rules and sanction of the Contest Board of the American Automobile Association, the 1951 Run will be held on March 6 and 7, and will again run from Los Angeles to the south rim of the Grand Canyon via Death Valley and Las Vegas.… A change that will make the 1951 Mobilgas Economy Run even more comprehensive than its 1950 predecessor is the lengthening of the course by adding two segments. The first takes the…

NOTE: When Harry Cushing, MOTOR TREND’S Detroit Representative, suggested the idea of an article to include statements from leaders in the automotive industry on the future of the industry, we gave him a quick go-ahead. After the material was all prepared, the bulk of it special to MOTOR TREND, it became evident that because of the present national emergency it was even more important than we had previously thought. What the presidents of these companies have to say concerns all of us.—Editor. IN MOVING into 1951, the automotive industry is confronted with an important two-fold assignment. First, it must do its part in meeting every call of the military for production of weapons. Second, it must do its part in maintaining and in strengthening the nation’s highway transportation system. Motor…

IN A MODERN sense the definition of a pedestrian—one who journeys on foot—may be more accurately interpreted to mean a human being who, for the moment, is not behind the wheel of an automobile. Unlike the motorist, who is protected from the effects of his own miscalculations by a strong steel framework, the pedestrian has only his soft, frail body to ward off any abrupt contacts with a passing automobile. Certain areas are marked off into sidewalks wherein the person on foot is free to blunder about in whatever erratic manner he chooses. But when his path parallels, crosses or otherwise intrudes on the lanes designated as the rightful property of the motorist, there are various rules and regulations which try to guarantee that the pedestrian will still be a…

WORLD TRENDS, 1951: These lowest common denominators can be quickly detected in British and Continental car design: minimum wheelbase, almost always a forward-mounted engine of minimum dimensions and displacement, maximum passenger and luggage space. That’s the rough outline of the common man’s car, and there are many variations practiced, and even more possible, within it.… To date the enthusiastically-heralded unit construction of body and frame has failed to replace the traditional separate, rigid frame. This latter is now generally of box section, and there’s been marked increase in the size of the sections, with an accompanying decrease in gauge of metal. Torsion bar suspension is displacing coil spring i.f.s. with gradual sureness; Lanchester has adopted square-section laminated or “leaf” torsion bars, desirable because breakage of a leaf doesn’t mean failure…

WHERE WERE YOU ON JUNE 13? WHAT WERE YOUR EXPENSES for gas, oil, tires, etc.? Those are questions that are intended to be answered by the “Kar Diary,” a new device of compact design, with a roll of paper controlled by two protruding knobs, mounted in a plastic case 4½x3x¾ ins. An opening across the face of the device, marked with subdivisions, provides convenient space for entering date, place and car expense on a single line, or two lines. After each entry is completed, a slight turn of a roller knob brings up a new line for the next entry. The record may be turned back for examination of entries of any preceding date. A complete record may be kept for an entire year on a single roll, with refills…