Indholdsfortegnelse for May 1953 i MotorTrend

JUST AT PRESSTIME, we returned from a cross-country trip (real crosscountry, New York to Los Angeles, 2982 miles) that burned some things into our mind even more indelibly than before. We’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about them, while they are so fresh in our thoughts. You’ve been hearing a lot lately about highway conditions in this broad country of ours. And we at MOTOR TREND have felt for a long time that there’s been good reason for it. If you want to have the inadequacy of our national highway system hit home, take an enjoyable jaunt as we did over the Pennsylvania Turnpike. This 327-mile strip of divided highway leaves you so impressed with the pleasures of driving with no stops, with no towns to pass…

TINTED GLASS—glareproof and heat-resistant—tops the entire passenger compartment of the Ford Motor Company’s XL-500 (The name was changed after our cover went to press). Scarlet Fiberglas forms its lower body. Chrome is not used at all as pure applied decoration. Rear fenders hump frankly over the wheels. Front bumpers curve without a break into heavy side guard rails that continue to the rear of the car. The hat, raised outline of the functional airscoop is picked up again by the radio and airconditioning louvers back of the rear seat. Underneath, the car is a modified ‘53 Lincoln, with a more powerful version of the current engine. It has power brakes and power steering. Less than 57 inches high when loaded, it is 81½ inches wide and 2l6¼ inches long. In…

HAVE YOU EVER wanted to own a Duesenberg, a car with a staggering original price tag? J. W. Gore of Fort Wayne, Ind., had this desire and, finding a fair-to-rough condition classic in California in 1950, he promptly made the purchase. He drove his car, with 83,000 miles on the speedometer, cross-country to his home and spent nine months in the restoration process. Although he did much of the work himself, particularly the wire wheels (he is widely known as an expert), he placed many parts of the car in the hands of others. Today it is an understatement to say that the car is equal to the day it left the factory in 1934. The Duesenberg SJ sport phaeton, with all-aluminum body by LaGrande, has many unusual features that…

You can save gas—you can save repairs—you can cut dollars off your mileage costs … all by using a Mile-O-Meter installed on the dashboard of your car. Want proof? Here it is! YOU’LL SAVE GAS! You’ll save gas because Mile-O-Meter’s miles-per-gallon scale warns you immediately when you’re wasting gas. All you do is drive so that the indicator swings as far to the right as possible … you do that and you get far better mileage. It’s that simple! It doesn’t matter what kind of car you have … if you keep the indicator out of the “red” area as you drive, you’ll get all the gas mileage your car can deliver. YOU’LL SAVE REPAIRS! Mile-O-Meter shows you how you can cut your “cost-per-mile” to a minimum. It helps you…

WHETHER YOU ARE the proud owner of a new Ferrari or just some form of transportation for getting to work, there is an item in the upkeep of your car that you can’t escape. In approximately 18 months to two years of service, regardless of the loving care you may bestow upon it. your battery is going to give up and die, requiring replacement. Any life span over the pro rata guarantee period can be considered exceptional by performance standards of most batteries on the market today. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a battery manufacturer has offered a six-year written guarantee with the first year unconditional. Three months is the usual time for the unconditional guarantee, and the pro rata period is usually from 18 months…

Will you help us to improve our reports on different makes of cars, and to analyze dealer service throughout the nation? MOTOR TREND has received hundreds of letters applauding or criticizing every make of car manufactured in the U.S., from virtually every angle. Prominent among these letters have been those in which the main beef was service. There are those who maintain that “they just don’t build cars the way they used to,” that materials are poor and the cars hurry down the line so fast that they can’t be put together properly. Others recall the “good old days” with no regrets and say that our new cars are so satisfactory. so durable and long-lasting that we have come to expect utter perfection. When we don’t get it. they say,…

ACTUAL FIGURES VS. GRAPHS Gentlemen: Sorry to see you change from actual figures to charts and graphs to indicate acceleration tests on new cars. For the average reader I think the actual figures in seconds are preferred. D. P. Altenburg Eggertsville, N.Y. Several readers have requested both, so both it is (see this month’s road test reports on the Ford, page 23; Pontiac, page 28; and Cadillac, page 32).—Editor $40 STYLING ACCESSORIES Gentlemen: I’m enclosing a picture of my ’51 Ford. Basically, it’s a stock tudor, but for about $40 worth of styling accessories, I think I’ve come out with a pretty good looking result. The grille bar was $20, skirts $20 painted, and I swapped the stock grille bar for nosing and partially decking. Lowering blocks were a few…

LIKE MOST GENERAL MOTORS cars, the Pontiac attempts rather successfully to be all things to all men. It is lively and fast. It is impressively big and heavy (the MT Research car weighed 3910 pounds). It is outstandingly economical to operate and maintain. It is colorful but not radical in appearance. Perhaps the Pontiac’s most desirable feature is its price, which is not far above the low-price cars. For some years now it has led its direct competitors in sales. The most popular Pontiac (the eight-cylinder, four-door sedan with Hydra-Matic) is not the cheapest one, however. The MT Research staff, as usual, made tests with the most popular model. Since it was equipped like the ‘52 test car in all major components, including engine, transmission, and rear axle ratio, the…

IN AN OLD colonial town a few miles off the Mexico City-Leon leg of the Pan-American Highway, there’s a former Princeton man who runs an art school. He’s lived in the town and been popular with the people a long time. He manages the baseball team and the Lions Club. But perhaps his best contribution to the town is a battered jeep. Everybody knows the jeep. He lets the local boys take turns driving it. They all dig into its insides until it’s a wonder it has any, and they hang all over its outsides until anything but a jeep would give up. These kids are hungry. The machine-age banquet is going full blast, and they find themselves with noses against the window. They yearn to drive and tinker as…

DURING THE FEW short years since the war’s end, the art of customizing has come a long way in Detroit. Where once a bull-nosed Ford was enough to attract attention, now it takes a fairly radical job to raise Motor City eyebrows. Along with the transition has come the development of style and philosophy which cater to the vagaries of Midwestern weather. Workmanship, too, bears the stamp of the craftsman, and the products currently being turned out will withstand the ruggedest test of alternate exposure to rain, salt, ice, snow, and humidity. Although convertible body styles are popular pieces for customizing, the Detroit enthusiast often finds a closed car more practical for year-around use. The result is that among the auto capital’s 50 to 100 real customs there is a…

NOTE: If you haven’t already done so, turn back to page 48 and take a look at the photographs of the beautifully restored Duesenberg. The car is exceptional, isn’t it? Should you have the desire to do a restoration job like it, you’ll find assistance in the detailed instructions following.—Editor SO YOU BOUGHT a classic; congratulations. It makes no difference whether you purchased a Duesenberg, Rolls-Royce, Packard, Mercedes, or Marmon. This series of articles is designed to help you in the restoration of any classic. It is a guide aimed at helping you achieve the best results at the cheapest cost. The restoration of a classic car is entirely different from the restoration of an antique, veteran, or sports car. Your vehicle is the product of a specific era in…

THE PRESENT TREND toward higher horsepower with the introduction of each year’s new models has brought with it a steady rise in compression ratios. This has made the use of premium gasoline almost mandatory. Even in those engines advertised as giving satisfactory performance on regular fuel, premium gas may have to be used when combustion chamber deposits accumulate. Octane requirements will vary considerably according to operating conditions. At constant speeds of approximately 40-50 mph on reasonably level roads, most automobile engines will operate satisfactorily with a fuel of 50-60 octane. A fuel of much higher rating will be required when the engine is working hard, as in accelerating, hillclimbing, or near full-throttle. An injection unit that will supply the extra anti-knock requirement under controlled conditions will enable the engine to…

DETROIT, MICHIGAN—Look closely at the two color photographs of the Lincoln XL-500 which are reproduced on MOTOR TREND’S cover this month. (the name was changed after our cover went to press). Some of the more outstanding design features are expected to highlight the company’s 1954 models. According to the latest plans, reportedly being finalized at the factory, a new body is hurriedly going into the works. It will feature, among many changes, the front grille and rear fender treatment of the experimental car. Orchids are due Chrysler for being the first automobile company to put the brakes on the so-called ‘‘horsepower race.” Earlier this year they had planned to announce a 220 blip engine, but after evaluating all factors involved, a decision has been reached to keep present powerplants at…

FLAGGING THE TRAFFIC violator to the curb, the motorcycle cop strode over to him and asked, “Didn’t you see that red light you just went through?” “Yes, I did, officer,” the motorist admitted ruefully, “but I didn’t see you or I wouldn’t have gone through it.” Actually, this conversation did take place near a busy intersection in Los Angeles. In most cases, however, dialogues between traffic officers and erring motorists are not comical—or friendly. For some reason or other, the average driver seems to have a chip on his shoulder as far as motor cops are concerned. This seems to be true the width and length of this vehicle-driving nation of ours. In a private poll taken recently of motorists from various walks of life (all of whom had received…

CUSTOM FANS fortunate enough to visit the recent World Motor Sports Show in New York found plenty of ideas there. Especially interesting was the array of grille and deck treatments. Up front, the tendency was to neatness and simplicity; such plain grids as Nash and Frazer stock grilles appeared on many a dechromed model as almost the sole decoration. In the rear, things were different. Fins and antennae joined the ubiquitous spare tires, which emerged timidly in some cases and aggressively in others. Bumpers, fenders, and taillight housings held exhausts. Even tire treads came out of concealment to add their workmanlike patterns to the busy activity.…

SIMPLE AND ALERT as a racing sloop is the little Fiberglas Henry J built by Tom Masano, Kaiser dealer of Reading, Pa. Whether or not its central tail fin acts as a rudder, it pleasingly repeats the line of the fenders, though it does not duplicate it. High fenders and low, Italian-type hood put the car’s visibility up among the best. To avoid time-consuming measurements, a plaster mock-up was built directly on a wrecked chassis. The female mold was made on this, then sawed in half and removed. Layers of impregnated Fiberglas, applied over the female mold, made the body itself. The door and hood, cut out after the body was fitted to a new six-cylinder Henry J chassis, were strengthened with right-angle aluminum extrusion. Trim, seats and accessories are…

ITALY: A FEW DAYS AGO I was sitting in a restaurant where motorists who find themselves on a cross-country drive usually stop for lunch. An elderly man with a friendly and brisk manner seated himself at my table and ordered a wiener schnitzel. We got into conversation and before long began speaking of cars. I enumerated the advantages of the Mercedes-Benz, especially for European highway conditions. This man, on the other hand, swore by his Fiat 1100. “My friend,” said I, “the Fiat, you must admit, is a pretty old car by now.” “Go ahead and laugh,” replied my acquaintance quickly, “but my Fiat 1100 has chalked up 300,000 km [186,000 miles].” With that he bent forward, moved the curtain a trifle and pointed outside. “There she stands.” I took…

AERO-TONE MFG. CO. in Detroit announces a new rear seat radio speaker which can be installed at home by nearly any mechanically minded motorist. Included in the kit are an adaptor and simple wiring harness which plugs into the set already installed in the car. Time to install: less than an hour. The speaker is equipped with a three-way switch permitting playing either front or rear speaker, or operating both together. The 4 x 6-inch speaker sells for $9.95; the 6 x 9-inch sells for $13.95. Order from Aero-Tone Mfg. Co., 4836 Joy Rd., Detroit 4, Mich. NEW SMOOTHYLITE designed to replace tail-light unit on 1952 and 1953 Ford is now available. This unit consists of a 5¾-inch bullet-type extension that screws into tail-light section. Complete unit with lens and…