Innehållsförteckning för August 1953 från MotorTrend

FIRST NEWS WE HAVE HEARD of the Pan-American Road Race for 1953 is that it has been officially approved by the Mexican government. There will be two sport and two stock categories, classed by cubic-inch displacement. As it looks now, the stock class may have its dividing line set somewhere above the Ford-Chevrolet displacement. Talk is that they are going to ban racing kits because of the gripes about the Lincolns not being stock last year. The ’trouble will be in defining what is a racing kit and what is optional equipment. The route and direction will be the same, and rules will not vary much from 1952. Further details will be available when Martin Moreno and Romulo O’Farril return from France, where they are visiting with FIA officials. CHRYSLER…

DETROIT, MICHIGAN—Car owners who like high-grade chrome on their automobiles will be pleased with the recent announcement that the government has lifted restrictions on nickel for plating. Buyers may not benefit until 1954 models are introduced, but the action will be acclaimed by every plating expert in the auto industry. Auto engineers have recognized that plating jobs, under government-imposed limitations, have not been wholly satisfactory. Chrome-type, nickel-free stainless steel has been used extensively since the Korean War began. While in some instances these applications may remain even after nickel is again freely available, it is well known that good quality automotive brightwork affects sales. Barring a change in the international situation which could change the present Washington policy, it seems that the 1954 cars will again feature substantial quantities of…

WHAT DO YOU, the average American car owner, think the average American car should be like? Should it have average economy in the 25 mpg range? Speed over the 100 mph mark? Easy driving, smooth, comfortable riding, and years of good service? These qualities add up to a marvelous piece of machinery, and while many of our cars have some of these features, unfortunately none of our cars have them all. However, before you give up your search for that average American car, do this: if you’re a Mercury owner, or someone who has driven other cars in search of a good all-around automobile, compare your notes with ours, and see if you think, as we do, that the Mercury combines performance, economy, comfort and appearance as well as any…

WHEN THE ABOVE automobile rolled into MOTOR TREND’S parking lot, usually blase onlookers were unable to hide their curiosity. The especially odd profile view, suggesting that the highest hood hump occurs on the far side rather than in the middle, attracted mixed comment. But when we looked inside the car, admiration was unanimous. For Max Fleischer’s interior design may well be a preview of your hardtop of the future. A small and intimate rear seat might well be in a luxurious bar, particularly with the broad center armrest forming a flat and solid table. Magazine rack, storage chest, radio, and clock are within arm’s reach. Nor are matters skimped in the front. The driver, who must interpret the performance of his ’49 Olds 88 through an export Cadillac speedometer measured…

A FLAT-OPPOSED, four-cylinder, 80-horsepower engine drives the front wheels of this little Hotchkiss-Gregoire. It can reach 93 mph, and delivers 23 mpg at highway speeds. No, there’s nothing startlingly different about that, and its appearance—it bears a strong resemblance to many ’46-’48 American sedanettes—is attractive but certainly not amazing. It is the construction of the small streamliner that puts it in a class of its own. A one-piece aluminum-alloy dashboard and cast-aluminum front and rear side-members make up the chassis, as well as part of the body. The firewall section, largest of the five main castings, comes from the mold complete with all clamps and brackets needed to attach everything from the front axles to the body and windshield wipers. The five chassis sections and the cross-members bolt rigidly together.…

NOTE: The restoration of a classic is not a difficult task, nor is it a simple one. In past issues of MOTOR TREND, various phases of the restoration process have been thoroughly discussed. The author concludes the series with his important observations on chrome plating, glass replacement, and body moldings.—Editor STEP 8. (d) Plating. The most expensive single item connected with body restoration is chrome plating. Poor chrome can ruin an otherwise fine car. In spite of this, possibly because most collectors know very little about chrome, vast sums of money are wasted when they accept poorly plated parts. Chroming is expensive; make no mistake about that. Complete replating for the average classic will set you back more than $200. Poor chrome will not last more than a year at…

The gasoline you buy has sulphur in it. When sulphur burns it forms sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid eats metal. Little by little your engine is eaten away. To combat this damage, many oil companies are now using anti-acids in their oils. But what happens when these compounds are overcome? Your engine corrodes once more! Acid is one of nature’s methods of reducing refined metals to their original primitive state. Even the Shell Oil Co. has now proven that acid corrosion is the major cause of engine wear! There Is Only One Way to Safely Inhibit Acid Formation in Your Engine Of course, if you choose to carry testing apparatus (litmus paper or some such other device) you might be able to tell when your oil is becoming acid, due to…

CAR FRIENDS Gentlemen: I have just finished reading “How Often Should You Trade In Your Car?” Ah! Such an article! It really hit home. My husband’s hobby and love is cars. Therefore, he has tried for four years to get me interested in them too. It was only after he brought home a copy of MOTOR TREND that my interest became aroused. A lot of it is still Greek to me, especially all the figures, ratio, etc. Even so, I understand a lot more about them now than I did. I could go on forever, but anyway, I’d like to say MOTOR TREND is a top-notch teacher. Mrs. W. W. SmithEureka, Calif. For another wife’s rollicking experience with a car fiend, see page 24.—Editor SAD BUT TRUE Gentlemen: I have…

Will Water Burn in Your Car?* Before the war, if you’d said anything about mixing water with gasoline, most people would have said you belonged in jail or a straightjacket. In fact, even after the news came out about how American and German planes had used water and alcohol injection systems, lots of people still didn’t know that it would work on passenger cars. That’s when the OG-50 water injector came out—and I like to think that our pioneering work had a lot to do with the way water and alcohol injection has become so widely used in high performance cars. *Actually, water doesn’t burn today any more than it did before the war, but as Tom McCahill explained in Mechanix Illustrated, “What the water and alcohol do is similar…

LET’S FACE IT, I’m married to a car fiend. Not a pro, or one who can sink a lot of money into automobiles—just a guy who’s crazy over any four-wheeled vehicle that is chopped, channeled, or dechromed. Consequently, I’m one of those wives that spend half their time picking up stray motor magazines and “saving” them with guarded care. Perhaps I’m the forgotten counterpart but, believe me, this car hobby has made a potent impact on my life, my heartstrings—and my budget. You’d think I would have taken a clue from our college courtship days when I rode in Tom’s vehicles. “Wasn’t it fun!” I’d exclaim, to be stranded in an immobile, snowbound, but oh-so-sporty convertible—miles from home without a dime in our pockets. I laughed at stories of the…

TO FIND THE ANSWERS to the many questions on the Packard, we could have taken the suggestion offered by Packard’s famous slogan, and asked “the man who owns one” these questions: Why did you buy it? What do you like about it? Would you buy another Packard? Asking these and endless other questions would have been a time-consuming job, and even a complete cross-examination (under bright, hot lights, if necessary) would have left us with one important question unanswered: Would we feel the same way about the Packard? We road tested a ’53 Packard Cavalier, the lowest priced of the new big cars on which Packard is again lavishing its attention. (The less luxurious Clipper corresponds to last year’s “200” series.) Then we put ourselves in the shoes of a…

Correspondent for ireland and England SINCE THE END OF THE WAR, the design of the average British car has been a compromise between the kind of car the makers were used to producing for the home market, and the kind they found they had to produce for the export market. When you realize that it has only been in the last few months that an Englishman could stroll into his dealer’s showroom and order the car of his choice without having to take his place in a minimum queue of three years, and that the British motor industry has been producing more cars since the war than ever before in its whole history, it is easy to imagine what influence the needs of other countries, particularly the U.S., have had…

ITS ABILITY to be worked into intricate curves makes it a designer’s dream come true. It will not dent, rust, or react to oils or gasoline, yet for all its amazing strength, it is light in weight. That’s Fi-berglas, and these are some of the reasons why more and more designers and body builders are turning to Fiberglas to express their ideas. Here is a preview of the wealth of information on Fiberglas that will be found in the latest Trend Book. “Custom Cars Annual: 1954.” There are several methods of working with Fiberglas, but the construction procedures described here are limited to the use of Fiberglas materials as reinforcement and polyester resins as the binding agent. These methods are the most popular with the majority of builders, and anyone…

WOULD YOU SURVIVE the terrible effects of an A-bomb if you were caught in your car? Would the blast demolish your car? What protection would you have from the heat, radiation, and concussion of the shock wave? This country may never experience a sneak attack aimed at our shores, but taking timely precautions, the Federal Civil Defense Administration wanted to find the answers to these grim questions. The unearthly stillness of Yucca Flat, Nev., was shattered at 5:20 A.M. on March 17. The percentage of cars lost to fire—60 were used in the test—was surprisingly low. Where fire occurred, it apparently began with smoldering fabrics. There was some scorching of paint and tire sidewalls. No gas tanks exploded, regardless of the amount of gas in the tank, or whether or…

Plus Safer, More Accurate Steering Precision Machinist Finds Simple Answer to Problem that Baffled Experts for 42 Years! Odds are 100 to 1 against accurate wheel bearing adjustment in your car—regardless of how much it cost, or how new it is. A fundamental weakness in the design of conventional front wheel bearing nuts makes it nearly impossible to adjust wheel bearings accurately, or readjust them accurately as wear occurs. This play in front wheel bearings causes re-alignment and adjustment problems. Your tires, brakes and bearings wear out faster than they should; steering is harder and less accurate—all because of excessive front wheel wobble. Detroit engineers, with millions of dollars of equipment at their disposal, have never found the answer to this “unsolvable” problem of automotive design. Then a precision machinist…

1. GRAND PRIX − International Motor Sports Show, New York, N. Y. “International Motor Sports Show Car of 1953” 2. GRAND PRIZE—Sportscar Club of America, Pebble Beach, California 3. GOLD MEDALLION in design, 1953 International Motor Sports Show, New York, N. Y. 4. GRAND PREMIUM AWARD—1953 Motor World’s Fair, Miami, Florida 5. FIRST PRIZE FOREIGN SPORTS CARS—Concours d’Elegance, San Francisco, California. Specifications and details: 110 miles per hour! Acceleration: 0-60 mph in 10.5 seconds! Record-breaking Austin A-90 overhead valve engine has twin S. U. carburetors. Delivers up to 25 miles per gallon. Three forward speeds, synchromesh transmission with overdrive! Wire-spoke knock-on wheels. Adjustable windshield. Tachometer. All at no extra cost. Priced at $2985*—including heater and Federal taxes! Available through selected Austin Healey dealers. For further information on this model or…

AS A DRIVER, you are forced to share your place on street and highway with a lot of people behind other steering wheels. You actually know very little about these people with whom you rub fenders, but if you are an average person, you place complete and almost childlike trust in their ability. Like you. your driving neighbors are pilots of two-ton guided missiles which were never intended for purposes of destruction. However, you place your trust in many people who can’t; many people who won’t; and many people who don’t pilot these automotive missiles in a manner which will keep you alive and happy on the street or highway. The can’ts, don’ts, and won’ts bear the major responsibility for a gruesome statistic: over a million people killed in traffic…

THE SALESMAN WILL tell you the Hudson Super Jet belongs in your garage. The Jet rates praise from the salesman because it’s a very lively car. easy to drive, economical, and has a comfortable, soft ride. Its 114 horsepower rating (with Twin H-Power) is near the top of its field. It is priced to compete directly with the Big Three and the independents. Its wheelbase is shorter than other cars in the low-price field, so it has less room. Unless you’re looking for spaciousness, you’ll like the way the existing room has been divided between headroom and legroom, and front and back seats. The car will appeal to many people. You may be the owner of a low-priced car, or a small car. You may have a large car and…

ONE OF THE MOST interesting developments in the American-built sports car scene is the newly designed Fiberglas automobile shown on our cover and on these pages. B. R. “Woody” Woodill, ex-Dodgedealer-turned-sports-car-manufacturer, has plunged into a project unique in its conception in that stock Detroit parts are combined with a clean, brand-new sports car body. The Wildfire, in limited production now for over a year, takes on a saucy continental flair in its second design (for design number one, see Dec. ’52 MOTOR TREND). The new car features a smooth-contoured front airscoop, a simple grille using Willys parts, and high rear fenders. Woodill, at a time when most people would have been satisfied with the mounting pile of orders for his original car, shut down his production line and gambled on…

THE MONTH AFTER F.D.R. was inaugurated for the first time, the moribund Marmon company completed construction of a solitary V-12. The cold hand of the Depression was felt when the car was on the drafting boards, resulting in its engine’s similarity to the 200-bhp, ohv, aluminum powerplant of the V-16. The new one was created by the simple expedient of sawing the four middle cylinders from a V-16 and welding the halves together again, leaving an 850-pound, 45-degree V-12. Compression ratio was 5.75:1, not so startling for its day as its big brother’s 6.5. Disposing of the conventional frame, this two-door sedan has a literal backbone a la Mercedes, a great 8½-inch tube that runs from the differential to the rear of the transmission. At this point, it splits into…

ARE YOU TIRED of pushing a brake pedal all day? If so, you will probably like the Hydraulic Power Brake Kit, a self-contained unit that lets you stop more easily. The unit becomes a part of the hydraulic system. In effect, it is two master cylinders in parallel, with the differential in piston area of the two pistons giving a mechanical advantage to the normal line pressure. Because there is no outside source of power, you get reduced pedal pressure with slightly increased pedal travel. With adequate brakes, this is not excessive. Brake adjustments may be a bit more frequent. The instrument Fred Bodley devised to measure pedal pressure consists of a hydraulic cylinder actuated by foot pressure, with a pressure gauge to record it.(Foot pressures should not be confused…