Indholdsfortegnelse for October 1952 i MotorTrend

IS IT RIGHT? By John Grant THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE of the city traffic had been left behind. The last red light had blinked green and the four Grants looked with expectant pleasure to the immediate prospect of a two-lane macadam strip which was to lead to our two weeks of loafing. June sunlight and the smell of ripening fields lulled our urban consciousness. The appearance of the oil tanker in the distance proved to be only slightly distracting, an inconvenience which must, by all means, be put behind us. After all, a Diesel does smell, the air vent was open and the youngest was inclined to car sickness. I played it plenty safe … kept looking for approaching traffic as we bore down on the monster ahead. Granted, a…

A DVERTISED BY KAISER-FRAZER as America’s “lowest-priced full-size sedan,” with exceptional economy and performance, the Henry J has quite a reputation to uphold. After 800 miles of diversified driving, including every type of road, through desert, over mountains, and through city streets, the Henry J, provided to MOTOR TREND Research by the Los Angeles Zone Office of Kaiser-Frazer, proved itself to be a top fuel economy car. After compiling our overall fuel consumption figures we were amazed to find that our test netted an overall average of 26.34 miles per gallon, just .03 of a mile per gallon less than the Mobilgas Economy Run Henry J, which finished third in overall miles per gallon. Our average was all the more interesting since half of the fuel checks were taken in…

L. J. Kumstbeck, Milwaukee, Wise.—A majority of the dash is covered with a practical thickness of cork. Indicative controls are grouped so that there is a minimum wandering of the eyes for readings. Horn, dip switch, and turn indicators are operated by finger-tip levers on the steering column. FROM THE RESULTS on hand, design of a beautiful instrument panel and interior was a very popular subject for our MOTOR TREND contest, just completed. There were several ioo entries from all over the country, plus two from England. The winner of the Mile-O-Meter Award Trophy and the $100 Savings Bond, as judged by the impartial panel of three experts (Burt Chalmers of Coachcraft, Ltd.; Henry Keck, interior design consultant; and George Jergenson, art instructor, Art Center School) is John P. Fischer…

NOTE: Since MOTOR TREND discontinued its monthly classic car article a jew months ago, countless requests have been received seeking a resumption of the column. Frankly, we were surprised at the large number of classic car enthusiasts, best illustrated by reviewing our Sell ‘N’ Swap ads. As an example, 48 per cent of the ads in the Sell ‘N’ Swap column in our September 1952 issue pertained to the classic car field. The remaining 52 per cent applied to foreign, sport, antique, hot rod, custom, and modern cars. In conformity with our policy of giving our readers the material they desire, Classic Comments will once again be a monthly feature. —Editor THIS MONTH we feature an interesting and extremely rare Rolls-Royce owned by an architect in Connecticut. His name is…

FINGER TREAD NOT NEW IN GERMANY Gentlemen: I couldn’t miss the article in the July issue on “Latest Trends in Tires,” by Jim Potter. I thought that you would like to know that the non-skid tire design as mentioned have been mass-produced here in Germany since at least 1949 and to the best of my knowledge before that time. This new design has been saving many lives of European drivers for many years. I guess the only reason it took certain companies so long to come out with this finger tread is that more businesses worry more about a few cents than a few lives. Pvt. Bernard R. Barteau Hersfeld, Germany We are doing additional research on tires and hope to give our readers a comprehensive report on this motoring…

ONE OF THE MOST frequent items that we editorialize on are our road tests. We have good reason to do so, since road tests are the mainstay of MOTOR TREND. We are always striving to improve them and trying to make them mean more and more to you, both as readers and as potential car buyers. Over the period of the last two months, the MOTOR TREND Research team has tested eight cars. You can’t test as many cars as this (and as varied in style, price, and performance as they were) without thinking a little about the value and merit of our testing procedure. Nor can you write as many reports as we have about these cars without feeling that in some instances you are getting repetitious, and that…

SINCE THE TURN of the century, the phrase “Ask the man who owns one” has been familiar to automotive-minded persons. Synonymous with the name Packard is the pride of ownership exhibited by those persons who drive Packards, and they have good reason to be. Maybe the Packard isn’t a “bomb” and maybe it doesn’t handle like a sports car, but for the average motorist it provides good family transportation. So that we could get an owner’s reaction to our test car. the Packard 300, we took it on a weekend 1300-mile, round-trip jaunt from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. This route took us through all kinds of picturesque country, from desert at sea level through narrow-laned hairpin mountain passes at 8000-foot altitudes. For marathon driving runs of 10 hours’ duration…

THERE IS AN OLD saying about first impressions usually being right, or at least if they’re not right, they stay with you for a long time and are hard to shake. It certainly was true on MOTOR TREND Research’s test of the 1952 Mercury. After just a short ride in this new car, we (Walt Woron and myself) compared notes and found we agreed on the following: it has good pick-up; has a soft ride, floats over bumps without undue bouncing; the vision is very good; steering is easy and the seat is comfortable (although there’s not enough fore-and-aft adjustment); the armrest, even though it is a good feature, gets in the way when you’re making quick maneuvers. After driving 1000 miles we found that we still felt the same…

IF PRODUCTIVITY IS the fruit of man’s labors in the economic vineyards, how bountiful the harvest in the Arnolt fields! AUTOCESSORIES LTD., Division of Arnolt, Warsaw, Indiana, has just announced its zillionth contribution to the sports car world—a new 12-volt battery especially built for the MG; The battery is built to give extra long service … plates are made of antimonial lead and pure grain oxides … mat insulation is rubber and glass … cell covers are leakproof … 75 amperes, 18-month guarantee … available with standard wet charge or dry charge for indefinite storage. When you write for details, send 25c for their regular catalog. They’ve got everything! PROPERLY SHARED with all young men (and old) of good will—what with a holiday shopping season staring us in the eye…

BY NOW, as the hunting and fishing seasons draw to a close throughout the United States, innumerable sportsmen sit and brood darkly about the vast misfortunes that befall the hapless traveler. These battered brothers in sorrow remember the tent that blew down during the storm; the pack horses that stampeded with all the supplies and were never seen again; the chilly tree they sat in while the bear ate their food; the gouging motel operator who unexpectedly lifted his rates to twenty dollars a night at the start of the season; the burr-headed room clerk who fouled up the reservations; and the old family car that just couldn’t pull the house trailer up the hills. Perhaps these sportsmen do not realize that they are initiates into the old, honored fraternity…

THERE ARE FEW American cars on the road today that can match the punch of the Chrysler Saratoga. With the powerful V-8 engine it has, it’s little wonder. This engine, now rated at a modest (for it) 180 brake horsepower, will soon be up to over 200 bhp. An experimental engine, basically the same as the present powerplant, put out 310 bhp, indicating its great potential for higher output whenever the competition for greater horsepower engines among the automobile manufacturers requires it. Yet, it now has all the power that most persons ask of a car. Power of the FirePower Is Astounding Since the introduction of the sensational FirePower engine with the 1951 line of Chrysler automobiles, its fame among motor-minded car owners has steadily grown until today it is…

THIS SHARP LOOKING ’49 Ford custom, belonging to Bob Bettencourt of San Francisco, was customized by the former owner, Harold Scott of Richmond, Calif. Scott chopped the roof four inches and channeled the body over the frame four inches, giving the car a low, rakish look. A ’51 Pontiac grille was reworked, the hood smoothed, and the headlights frenched. The body was coated with 17 layers of a passionate fuchsia paint. The interior is done up in cobra skin and alligator trim, and a smart miniature cocktail bar divides the rear seating section, doubling for an arm-rest when not in use, thereby providing for comfort at all times. Scott removed all the door handles including the one for the deck lid, plugged and molded the holes in the body. Bettencourt…

THE MOTORING WORLD has been watching with considerable interest the development of the gas turbine engine engineered by the Rover Company in England. In test runs at Jabbeke highway in Belgium early this summer, 27-year-old Spencer King and his cousin, Peter Wilks, age 29, drove the car at average speeds of 151-196 mph. Although several features of the car have caused the engineers considerable problems, the car’s powerplant offers automobile manufacturers an objective study in a completely new type of engine for automobiles. Since the car was first demonstrated in 1950, a much improved engine has been developed, incorporating a heat exchanger which cuts fuel consumption, originally much too high, to an acceptable figure. An official of the Rover Company commented, however, that while “the heat exchanger is efficient in…