Innehållsförteckning för October 1950 från MotorTrend

DAD SAYS: “I like overdrive Selector for gas economy and longer brake life.” With Overdrive Selector you use 35% less RPM continuously. There is no floor board acceleration to downshift. Constant compression shares the braking y burden. MOTHER SAYS: “TI like it because of the Hill-Holder.” Overdrive Selector holds with clutch pedal in or out, and engine on or off. You park on any grade with perfect safety. You climb the steepest hill without misgivings. BROTHER SAYS: “I like it because it gives the car Hot Rod performance.”’ Overdrive Selector gives you 6 forward speeds selectively … 45 MPH in low, 70 MPH in 2nd. As Junior puts it, it will take any automatic transmission on the road. AND DAD ADDS: “I guess you get the idea… we like Overdrive…

SHRINE CONVENTION HALL THE BEAUTIFULLY decorated Shrine Convention Hall in Los Angeles is the locale of the First Annual “MOTORAMA,” which will be held November 16 to 19, inclusive. Motorized equipment, which has never been on public display before in Southern California, will be featured on the exposition floor. Included in this vast array of beautiful and unique show pieces will be many record-holding automobiles, motorcycles and boats. In addition to the regular exposition displays and a complete roster of commercial booths, there will be numerous colorful exhibits by automobile, motorcycle and boat clubs and associations in both the amateur and professional fields. Outstanding personalities from the racing and sports world, whose names are closely associated with the championship equipment on display, will be present every day of the show…

SINCE the last war, Fiberglas (a registered trade name for the product of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Company) has become a possible threat to the makers of steel and aluminum. Plastics manufacturers have taken Fiberglas cloth, impregnated it with styrene-base resins, and produced a new material for the construction of automobile bodies. In common practice, three or four layers of the impregnated fabric are bonded together to produce a laminated part that has found favor with a few of the more experimental auto builders. Plastics have been around so long now that they aren’t really news anymore. Thousands of small companies are making a good living building cigarette cases, furniture, Christmas decorations, and toys out of the synthetic resins. Fiberglas is 10 years old in commercial applications and that makes it old…

The accompanying sketches and brief operational descriptions will serve as a guide to those interested in the differences in function of the automatic transmissions now on the market. For clarity, the drawings have been made as schematically simple as possible. DYNAFLOW (POWERGLIDE SIMILAR) LOW—Planetary gearset and torque converter HIGH—Torque converter ULTRAMATIC LOW—Planetary gearset and torque converter DRIVE—Torque converter for start; friction clutch shifts unit to direct drive FORD BORG-WARNER LOW—1st and 2nd gears of planetary gearset plus torque converter DRIVE—2nd gear of planetary gearset and torque converter for start, shifts to torque converter only for high gear SUPERMATIC LOW—Low gear of transmission only DRIVE—2nd and 3rd gears of transmission, automatic shift to overdrive FLUID DRIVE LOW—Fluid coupling with 1st and 2nd gears HIGH—Fluid coupling with 3rd and 4th gears HYDRA-MATIC…

THE SUBJECT OF GAS TURBINE PROPULSION FOR GROUND VEHICLES was the subject of one of the sessions at the National West Coast Meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers in August. The speaker was W. M. Brown of Kenworth Motor Truck Corp., who described the progress in development of gas turbines. Conclusions drawn were that “there is a place for the turbine in highway freight hauling; that the turbine engine is not yet proven; that it has not yet reached its maximum in performance and development”; and ‘that it is not yet available,” however, “the cost will not be prohibitive.” *** LOW-COST TRAILER HITCHES FOR MOST POPULAR MAKES OF BRITISH CARS have been developed by Dixon-Bate, well-known English truck engineering firm. These pre-fabricated brackets are carefully designed so as to…

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 DAVIS STORY Gentlemen: In your article on the Davis Car (Aug. ’50), you stated that two military vehicles with a jeep type body were built by Davis. One of them is owned by the Davis dealer in Macon, Georgia… he seems to find it a very satisfactory truck. Marshall MannMacon, Georgia Gentlemen: … The article on the Davis by Eugene A. Jaderquist was timely and most interesting. Three cheers for Eugene…. William W. ScottDaly City, Calif. WHAT IS IT DEPARTMENT Gentlemen: … Can you or any of your many…

NOTE: Because of the present world situation, it is difficult to conceive of any developments in the automotive industry that are more important to the average motorist than: the effect the Korean conflict has on one of the nation’s largest industries. That is why this article, prepared by our able Detroit representative, Harry Cushing, and which would normally appear as “Spotlight on Detroit,” is presented as this issue’s feature article. What Mr. Cushing has to say is of importance to all of us.–Editor. DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Cars are being made here on a day-to-day basis. With the nation committed to fight Communism throughout the world, no one knows whether military production orders will completely halt civilian vehicle making. The automobile industry is set for such assignments, however. Top executives of General…

NOTE: Last month we published an article “Is the Auto Just Transportation?” to which we added an editorial note that the article was one side of a controversy. We said we would welcome contributions setting forth the other side. We got what we asked for. Here is Mr. Lloyd James’ defense of Detroitmade machines.–Editor Mister—your intelligence as an automobile buyer is being put to question. There is a group of people who think that if you buy a new Detroit-built automobile annually you’re at least a two-thousand-dollar-a-year sucker. Who’s saying it? The sports car boys, and they’re couching their opinion in no uncertain terms. Your new crate is “a fat beast, a poor-handling, underpowered barge designed for women. Being a gutless eyesore, it is neither economical nor in good taste.”…

GENERAL: The American car is not entirely the despised blister-box many Europeans and Americans would have the world believe. The performance of certain U.S. “family cars” closely approaches that of fine overseas sport cars! Recent blows to the automotive chauvinists were the Le Mans Race and the Pan-American Road Race, the latter won, of course, by an Oldsmobile 88. The performance figures of this car, the new Cadillac, and others were widely published in Europe, have the motoring public there showing renewed respect for the Yankee product… California foreign car owners note: The Dept. of Motor Vehicles has repeatedly called attention to the fact that lighting equipment on most foreign cars does not comply with California laws (and other states’, too). A Calif. Highway Patrol official reports that the crack-down…

OF All the new cars on the road today, the 1951 Kaiser is undoubtedly receiving the most acclaim for its looks—looks that combine to make a good compromise between functional and esthetic styling. During three days of comprehensive testing of a four-door Kaiser De Luxe Sedan we heard more praise about the appearance of this car than any previous one we have tested. Through the Los Angeles Branch of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, we made arrangements to test the ’51 Kaiser. Later, on a sunny, warm morning, we arrived at K-F Distributors at 1101 So. Figueroa Blvd. in Los Angeles, where we picked up the car. Their exuberance about their new product was only natural, and had its effect on us, for we were of the opinion that its performance would…

AUTOMATIC transmissions have been, and will continue to be, high on the list of engineering agenda for design-conscious automotive manufacturers. What’s back of this interest? Progress in the modern-day automobile, or the answer to lazy drivers who no longer care about driving their cars? The automatic transmission, in its present form, isn’t new—in 1895 the Dey-Griswold used a torque conyerter—but is merely the application of an old principle: converting the torque (force of rotation) of the crankshaft through a fluid coupling to apply motion to the rear wheels. In the present mechanical transmission the same principle applies, the basic difference being that this force is converted mechanically through the efforts of the driver. This driver labor is what the automatic transmission eliminates—for no clutch and a minimum of manual gear…

LAST month’s editorial “Speed vs. Sport” has stirred up an immense amount of comment, most of it strongly in support of MOTOR TREND’s position that greater unity between hot rod and sports car groups is much to be desired. The idea has had immediate and tangible response from the Cal-Neva Timing Association, up to this point a coordinating body for 12 hot rod clubs in California and Nevada. At a general meeting preceding its August 6th Jakes meet at Reno, the subject was thoroughly discussed and a decision reached: sports car clubs will be welcomed as Cal-Neva affiliates, and individual sports car owners accepted as guest entries at all future events. There are plenty of sports car enthusiasts interested only in flat out speed and just as many hot rod…

NOTE: The following is a continuation of last month’s discussion of the importance of insurance to you as an individual.–Editor. ACTUALLY, the most troublesome situation that arises in the legal field concerning auto injuries is that with respect to an injured guest or guests in a car. In general, there are three variations of what can occur, depending on the state in which the accident occurs. Some states (a minority) rule that it is unjust to permit a non-paying guest passenger to recover from the host car-owner for ordinary acts of negligence on the part of the owner-driver. In these states, gross negligence must be proved. What constitutes gross negligence has not been consistent but it is safe to assume that a driver will be ruled grossly negligent if he…