FALL TURNS OPEN CARS INTO CLOSED ONES

Advance Notes of the Autumn Automobiles

The Motor Department of Vanity Fair is designed not only to interest its readers, but to serve them. It is conducted by an expert who will answer personally any questions with regard to cars or accessories and their makers

ALTHOUGH it is not yet here, the season is approaching when the touring car and roadster must give way to the closed body. Already there is no lack of straws to show which way the wind is blowing as to closed car styles. It is quite safe to predict that this Autumn and Winter will see a greater variety of coachwork as applied to the automobile than any that have preceded them. The great army of motorists, which is gaining strength not only in total numbers but also in the proportion of its body which constitute all-the-year round devotees, has apparently tired of the conventional limousine. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it has become convinced of the merits of some of the newer types of closed bodies. For this reason an unusually large number of Sedans, Berimes and convertible types as well as coupes will be seen before and after the first snow flies.

Not a few motorists had the foresight when buying their 1916 models during the last few months to specify the convertible type so that they might be prepared for the chill of late Autumn touring as well as for still more severe conditions of climate. The man who remembered in the dog days that there would be a tang in the air after the Harvest Moon found that the designers of motor cars also had been blessed with prevision. There are a dozen kinds of double-purpose bodies this season where there was one before. It was and is simply a matter of choosing the particular type which meets your special requirements.

Some of these bodies are separate from the regular touring equipment. When not in use they may simply be stored in the garage. A few minutes' work and the fastening of half a dozen bolts serves to put the superstructure in position and a number of ingenious devices are employed to make concealed electric connections so that the customary interior lights may be used without any additional wiring. The point of juncture, in these cases, between the body proper and the top portion is cunningly concealed by means of mouldings. In other types of convertible bodies the superstructure folds away into the walls of the body itself, the top or roof folding back much like the ordinary touring car top. The same principles are embodied in some of the coupes which become runabouts in the transformation.

Not a few clever ideas in construction have served to make the interior of the closed types—whether permanent or convertible—more livable, so to speak. One of these is illustrated in a Sedan which is shown in this issue. In this car the extra seat problem is met by having these chairs fold into the back

of the divided front seats. When not in use they are completely out of the way and hardly reveal their location. A simple pull, however, serves to bring them out of their hiding places and into serviceable position. This arrangement has some advantages over the plan of letting these seats disappear into the floor, since the carpet does not have to be cut for them and there are no joints,, to collect the dust. Of course, it leaves the interior with an exceptional sense of roominess. Some of the coupes have followed the lead of the three-passenger roadsters of the "clover leaf" or "club" type and take care of a third passenger comfortably and under cover by dividing the chief seat and putting in a single chair back of the aisle. This good plan is usually supplemented by providing compartments for small articles of luggage on either side of this single chair. These open on top of course.

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IT will be a distinct oversight on the part of the makers of closed bodies of any type this season if they fail to supply one important detail: a step light. The convenience of this device was shown in last Winter's cars and proved to the hilt this Summer when its usefulness for night work with touring car or roadster was made apparent. It is a simple matter to install one of these lights, or one on each running board apron for that matter, which add very materially to the comfort of motoring after dark, and the purchaser of a car at this time will neglect his own interest if he does not sec that step lights form part of the equipment of his new machine. This applies especially to closed bodies, of course. There are no practical or mechanical reasons to advance against the step light. It does not need to be of high power and the short time it is in use makes its demands on the battery practically negligible. It should be on all cars that call themselves modern.

The closed car of this season, while preserving the harmony in the body of the long and straight chassis lines, has an appearance of spaciousness within which is attractive. This effect has been produced in some cases by doing away with the rather foolish three passenger rear seat and providing one which is amply broad for two persons to take the place of the older form, which, at best, was apt to be snug for three. The use of the car walls for recessed compartments with as few fixtures as possible, such as vanity cases and the like, sticking out from the walls has also made for this sense of roominess. A good example of this tendency is shown in one of the illustrations in this issue. This limousine with its low seat, lack of fussy detail and inviting silk cloth upholstery has many of the points which should be looked for in the closed body. The way the communicating telephones are handled is particularly nice.

Althougk no driver of a motor car 1ikes~o think of collisions and none would em pioy a chaufleur he believed prone to have such unpleasant contretemps, nevertheless one must be prepared for emergencies and can at least take comfort out of the Pharisaical thought that the other man will be to blame. As a matter of fact this is not always so far from the truth, especially in traffic where the collision is one from behind. Any one who has done much city driving knows all too well the genus chauffeur who is prone to jam on his brakes and come to a spectacular stop without warning. The undoubted fact that no one with these "'orrid 'abits" should be permitted to have a driver's license is, unfortunately, no protection to you. You bump into him just the same unless you act quickly, practically duplicating his performance and laying yourself open to the charge of being just as bad a driver. These conditions in city driving led to the growing use of the front—and sometimes the rear—fender on cars of all types. Also they have led to a marked improvement in the fenders themselves. One of a newest types is pictured in these pages. It is of rubber construction with a powerful core and is guaranteed to be unbreakable under any strain that it could be expected to meet under reasonable conditions. Naturally it is highly resilient and takes up the shock of a blow quickly. Fenders of this type are intended, it need hardly be said, for the protection of the car on which they are mounted— its headlights and front construction— rather than the protection of another machine or of pedestrians. As a matter of fact, a rather odd discovery that has come from a study of the statistics of street accidents is that most persons run over by vehicles are hurt by the rear and not the front wheels. The proportion of rear wheel injuries is so large that it has led the omnibus companies of London and of Continental cities to mount fenders at the sides of the buses, filling the space between the front and rear wheels and flaring outward slightly toward the back. This plan has now been adopted on the buses on Fifth Avenue also.

The newspapers have been full of the great opportunity which is presented by the war to the American motor car manufacturer to capture the markets of the world. Yet it is doubtful whether, in this country, the extent of the paralysis which has struck the automobile industry abroad is fully realized. Every motor car or motor truck factory in Great Britain, for instance, is under government control and engaged either in turning out special motor equipment for use at the front or in the manufacture of ammunition and other war munitions. Not a car is being made for the private trade. The president of the Motor Trade Association of England, P. L. D. Perry, who visited New York recently, said that, excluding cyclecars, not a thousand Britishmade machines for private use had been sold since the war broke out. Proportionate conditions are to be found in the tire and accessory market and it would seem that the time was ripe to reverse the process by which America has brought over so many of the foreign motors of the best marques. It is devoutly to be hoped that greed for immediate financial returns will not lead manufacturers to place any cars or appurtenances on the foreign market, which by lack of performance, can injure the reputation of the American product after the war. The desirable market to establish is the long market and not the temporary one created by the war demand. It is an opportunity which should not be overlooked.

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ONE of the influences of the war on motoring has been to encourage the manufacture in this country of parts and accessories which have been imported exclusively heretofore. Although the American industry has been far in advance of that on the other side of the Atlantic for some time in certain developments which relate to the comfort and luxury of motoring, notably in self-starting appliances, French and English makers have produced some devices which we have been glad to import. One of these is a compact little shock absorber of which an illustration is reproduced here. This is a French product but arrangements have now been made to manufacture it in this country. Among its advantages are its small size and light weight and the neat plan by which the degree of stiffness can be modified to suit the load by the adjustment of a single set screw. The device is designed to take up rebound as well as the downward shock on the springs.

Road conditions which would not affect tires if the surface of the highway were dry, may have a very serious effect if it is wet. This is because rubber when wet will cut much more easily than it will when dry. Slight cuts in the tire which may have been overlooked, also give the water on the roadway a chance to work in beneath the tread, so that a shoe which looks quite sound from the outside not infrequently is harmed so much from within that it not even worth rebuilding. Therefore, watch the small cuts and beware of hard driving and unduly sharp application of the brakes over rough places in showery weather.

For a quick tire repair which will stand often more hard usage than a vulcanized section a new tire patch has been brought out. This patch, which can be put on in a minute, locks into the tire in unique fashion. Another tire protective device of novel construction is an outside boot to cover a serious injury which is made of a combination of rubberized tire fabric and steel studded leather. This construction overcomes the common disadvantage of leather boots—stretching under conditions of dampness. The new boot has adjustable hooks which make it fit snugly variations in tire sizes and treads.

ANOTHER new tire accessory is a permanent gauge which takes the place of the ordinary valve stem. By the use of this device the motorist is able at all times to read the pressure within his tire and keep it up to the standard prescribed by the manufacturer without applying a pocket gauge or causing any other delay. The gauge is protected against weather conditions and is neatly finished so as to add to rather than detract from the appearance of the wheel.

A handy thing to have in the tool kit or in one of the compartments when touring is a small electric lamp which can be swung over the arm and leaves both hands free to make necessary adjustments. Some of the cars of the year are provided with trouble lamps, of course, to serve this purpose, but when this is not the case or to serve as additional lighting, this little lamp is convenient. Its range of usefulness is increased, as in examining sign posts for example, by the fact that it is not attached to the car. It can be had without batteries for $3.50.

The Motor Department of Vanity Fair is designed not only to interest its readers, but to serve them. It is conducted. by an expert who will personally answer all and any questions with regard to cars, and their accessories.