Innehållsförteckning för October 1954 från MotorTrend

Hudson Italia Goes Into Production WHAT’S NEW FOR CAR OWNERS NOTHING pleases us more than being able to announce a new addition to Detroit’s production sports car stable. We can (and do) editorialize continuously that driving is run, but the mental attitude we generate amongst our readers must be less frustrating when the right car is available to them. The Italia is such a car. It is built for your personal pleasure. It is not a new design; the prototype was featured on MT’s cover last December and production was predicted in June “Spotlight.” Yet, even after this long lapse, a look at the unchanged for-sale (at about $4800) version still boils the gasoline in our blood. The relatively low price is even more remarkable when you note that the…

IT WAS A BRIGHT September morning and we were breakfasting. The sausage and eggs never tasted better. I state this flatly because we have never tasted them since. The present dismal outlook of 30 months, 900 breakfasts featuring an inexpensive filler known as corn flakes is entirely the fault of a new car salesman. He had been calling on us of late, and I must admit it was a rather refreshing experience. Our previous relationship (in 1948) had been somewhat one-sided. In those days we visited him, many times, and as I look back on it, the underlying purpose of the chitchat (in his showroom) was the wistful hope that he might allot us a car. There were always several on display, but they had been Spoken for. Finally, in…

FACEL’S VEGA, a brand-new, French-born, DeSoto-powered, four-seater hardtop, is stuffed full of Gallic goodies that make for a new concept of luxury in a small car. A welded tube frame supports the car that, though it weighs 3440 pounds, is three inches shorter and six inches lower than a Henry J. The 170-hp engine drives it, at the buyer’s choice, through a Chrysler automatic transmission or a completely synchronized, four-speed manual gearbox. Axle ratios are optional, too; the Facel factory claims 109 mph with the 3.31 rear end and 123 with the 2.93. Utter luxury for four is the promise of the interior, whose seats hold two couples, discreetly divided by a high drive-line tunnel in the front and a folding armrest in the rear. The steering wheel does away…

IN SPITE OF New York’s frantic efforts to open up its traffic-hardening arteries with new one-way avenues, staggered lights, and no-parking edicts, the best way to buck the city’s daytime traffic, I’ve found, is to ride through it in a German Zeppelin! You can sail along silently at only one or two mph with your big, 12-cylinder airship engine idling at less than 250 rpm, or you can zoom ahead as fast as you like. Even the cabbies make way. Does this sound like madness? It shouldn’t, for the Maybach that I drove acquired its Zeppelin name honestly. Wilhelm Maybach, one of the great pioneer automobile engineers, was chosen by Count Zeppelin to develop a special 12-cylinder powerplant for the Graf (that is, Count) Zeppelin dirigibles. When the company turned…

WITH TUBELESS TIRES destined to play a larger and larger part in automotive progress, we’re hearing more and more about the development or the tires that are designed to hold air instead or an air-containing tube. The latest tire on the market, according to Walter J. Lee, Development Manager of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., is the result of five years of research and $5 million spent developing the exclusive “3-T” (tension, temperature, time) process. Goodyear’s new tubeless is not just an airtight tire, but a tire that achieves puncture-sealing qualities “without resorting to the unstable mass of heavy puncturesealing compounds found in earlier types of tubeless tires.” • Offered at price levels comparable to a conventional passenger tire-and-tube combination, the tire is born of the Goodyear-designed Ross-Waldron unit, a…

IF YOUR CAR isn’t feeling up to par, it’ll let you know about it in no uncertain terms! It’ll let you know by knocking, by being sluggish, or perhaps just by stalling frequently. But how can you tell what’s behind these symptoms? That’s where troubleshooting comes in. By checking out the possible causes of a symptom one by one, you can often narrow down the trouble to just a few ailments—or even the single cause. In some cases (such as when you hear an ominous thumping sound), simply recognizing one symptom, a symptom that commonly points to one trouble, is the full extent of analysis. In the chart presented here, we’ve listed some of the most common signs or a sick engine; opposite these are corresponding, common troubles—troubles that will…

AFTER SITTING around at lunch one u day and discussing classic-car prices, three of us from MT went out to price some. We wound up at a local used-car lot that deals in such cars. We drooled over some real great ones for a while, then went up to the office where the salesman and a man in white coveralls were sitting. “What’s the price on the ‘32 Lincoln?” one of us asked. “And the Stutz?” “How about the Duesenberg?” The prices on the first two were staggering, being much higher than we thought they should be—in the $3000 category. The answer to the third was “$395O.” Having noticed that there was a puddle of oil under the engine, we asked “What’s wrong with it?” The reply was, “It drips…

can certainly hurt you unless you’ve “looked” at it with Magnaflux. Here’s a new safety deal—for your car and you. FROM CHICAGO, home of the Magnaflux Corp., comes an exclusive report on an outstanding contribution to safe amateur racing. Within one month, facilities will be set aside in 15 major population centers (where there are Magnaflux factory branches) to offer free inspection service to contestants in any event which has the national sanction of either the Sports Car Club of America or the National Hot Rod Association. Magnaflux and its nonmagnetic counterpart, Zyglo, have long been used by the automotive industry to check for nonvisible surface flaws in highly stressed parts. Ford Motor Co. (all divisions) are the most active in this field, as they have a 100-per-cent inspection of…

MANY A TIME in these pages we have made the statement that the “boulevard” ride is incompatible with complete roadability. We were speaking, of course, of conventionally sprung cars, particularly American, which deliberately sacrificed cornering aplomb to the seemingly more important (saleswise) concept of cushioning sensitive Yankee bottoms. Such undue consideration for the passenger led to “knee action,” a copyrighted term which best describes the complete separation of one wheel from another. This was fine, insofar as it reduced shock to the framework of the car, but its very independence proved to be its undoing. Independent suspension of the front (and sometimes all four) wheels is used in various forms on practically every car produced today. Ride control of a sort is achieved primarily through shock absorbers which are set…

Second in a series on engineering the modern automobile I LIKE TO THINK of the period between 1920 and 1933 as a separate, well-defined—and very important—period in the evolution of the American automobile. It was during these years that mass production, an artificial boom economy, and the installment plan converted the automobile from a luxury of the middle class into a tool of the masses. By 1933, a family just “wasn’t” unless it owned a car. John Q. was sold on the automobile long before 1920, but it was only during the period in question that the economic future of our nation in general was irrevocably tied to the auto industry. Our economy was literally geared to wheel and crankshaft … and it still is. But this is no economic…

Your answer, plus some solid reasons why you think these cars do or don’t fill the bill, may win you a $50 U. 5. SAVINGS BOND PEOPLE CUSTOMIZE their cars for various reasons. Some owners stop to analyze why they feel the urge to change stock contours and/or trim; others go ahead as single-mindedly as a cat pursues a robin. At MOTOR TREND, we spend quite a bit of time on practical esthetics: why we think certain cars are good-looking, why we think others are not, and especially that most fascinating facet of sales psy chology, why the public thinks as it does. The end-results of these domestic battles seldom appear in the pages of the magazine, because of a reluctance to inflict our purely personal opinions on you. But…

WE NOW HAVE DETAILS on two of the world’s most incredible contests, the Redex “Reliability Trial” (how restrained can you get?) and the ‘54 Alpine Rallye. Hold on to your crash helmets, we’re off across the Pacific … ABORIGINES WITH TOMAHAWKS were among the trying hazards that beset drivers in the 9600-mile Australian nightmare (on the left is a typical stretch). To start with, all cars were stock, in the sense of the word that might well be adopted for other events. To Redex, that meant that springs could be strengthened but not basically changed, and oil pans could be protected (you’ll see why in a minute). In a burst of generosity, the sponsors allowed undercoating. That was all’, if your car had only oil-pressure warning lights, for example, you…

The battle of the sexes will probably rage forever. Here Author Ritter presents the distaff side of the controversial subject, woman driver vs. man driver. We don’t necessarily have to agree with all the points she presents (How could we? Wezre males!); but wezre forced to admit that she puts forth some pretty convincing arguments IF I SEE a woman driver, I always make sure to get another car in between us. Why should I take a chance?” “I’ve been driving for 30 years, and I never yet saw a good woman driver. They don’t exist.” “Believe me, Bud, women just can’t drive. They aren’t built that way.” Who says so? Why, men, of course. Where? Name any highway, countrywide. Why? Now the questions begin to get harder to answer,…

WHAT WITH the heat wave that swept the country this summer, the car we had for a recent MT Research test couldn’t have been a better one. Imagine yourself in the middle of Death Valley (Calif.), where you’ve been told you just shouldn’t be in midsummer heat. The broiling desert sun has sent the thermometer rocketing up to a temperature that slides down to 113° F at four in the afternoon. You step out of the car and a furnace-blast of air dries your lips faster than you can lick them wet again. But you’ve fooled the natives who warned you not to cross in the daytime, because you’re crossing the valley in air-conditioned comfort supplied by a Pontiac. While the outside temperature hovered in the 90s, the dehumidified, non-recirculated…

MANY BACKYARD BUILDERS can tell you of the backaches, bankaches, and headaches that go hand-in-hand with building a car; be it metal or plastic, it seems there are always problems. But now, with ready-built Fiberglas bodies available, a lot of waning enthusiasm has been restored to the devotees. Don’t think the manufacturer has only taken over your problems in building a new car; even before he gets his hands into a fast-hardening concoction of glass fiber, cloth, and resin, he has to go through the time-consuming and costly procedure shown here — the birth of a prototype. When “Doc” Boyce-Smith and Merrill Powell of the Victress Manufacturing Co. (a North Hollywood, Calif., firm) got together with designer Hugh Jorgensen for a tete-a-tete over a new car, the particularly attractive outcome…

CAD CORVETTE DON’T KNOW WHY it is, but seems like there’s a rash lately of Corvette owners not satisfied with what the Corvette can do with its stock (150-hp) engine (see June ‘54 MT). So what do they do? They yank out the engine and put a big V8 in its place. The two conversions we’ve heard about are Buick (reported on in August) and Cadillac. Olds engines or some of the new ‘55 V8s will probably be next. Up until a few weeks ago I hadn’t had a chance to get my hands on a Cad Corvette. At that time Hank Rhoades (of H. H. Rhoades & Son, Chevy dealers in Beverly Hills, Calif.) brought his personal car around. From outside appearances it looked as stock as could be,…

MADE OF flexible, fine-quality Italian leather, “Monza” driving gloves will supply comfort and style—and most important—a positive, non-slip grip on the steering wheel. Special ventilating feature assures hand coolness even on warmest days. Tan back, brown palm. Men’s sizes 8½ to 10. $7.95 postpaid. Pastell Importing Co., Dept. R-l, 3806 Main St., Culver City, Calif. THE NEWEST look in continental kits is Ford’s “Sport Spare” wheel carrier. Available at Ford dealers for all Fords from ‘52 to ‘54, the side-swinging tire mount allows easier access to trunk and gas filler cap. The easy-to-move carrier has a sturdy locking mechanism, and comes complete with gravel deflector and all extension fittings. Suggested retail price is $134.50. EDELBROCK S Dual-Quad Jet Manifold for ‘54 Mercs gives two-barrel economy at low speeds, automatic switchover…