Here Comes 1924

GEORGE W. SUTTON, JR.

The Mechanical Features of Automobiles Come in for Some Belated Attention

A COUPLE of years ago it seemed as if practically all important developments in automobile body and chassis construction had reached a permanent standstill. To some extent this is still true of motor car bodies. The chassis, however, now appears to be on the point of a revolutionary shake-up. In fact, it may be that within two or three years the automobile chassis as we know it today will be, in many of its main features, entirely obsolete. The automobile industry, during the past six months, has made more mechanical progress and instituted more radical mechanical changes than have ever taken place in a similar period in the thirty years of its history.

It might be gratifying if a somewhat similar statement could be made concerning the progress in motor car body building, but this is not the case. Bodies are, essentially, as they have been for many years. Of course, there are the soft top sedans which have been given the trade name of "coaches", and upholstery fabrics have been improved mightily in quality, durability, and appearance, as have window regulators and other bits of car fitments.

Various individual and successful attempts have been made to construct convertible cars, which are of pleasing lines and fairly free from rattles, squeaks and leakage during rain storms, but there is no concerted movement toward the adoption of convertible cars.

It is regrettable to note that, so far as exterior car colors are concerned, the slogan of the industry seems to be "back to black". It appeared for a little time last year that the introduction of vividly colored sport cars would cause the adoption of livelier colors for other types. For a time this was the tendency, but a survey of the latest standard cars and a discouraging trip through the Annual Closed Car Show at New York indicates that the manufacturers have found funereal colors more satisfactory than those of gaudier hue, and as readily salable.

THERE has come again a period in motor car building when competition is forcing the car makers to adopt strenuous measures to attract the new hordes of buyers, who now have a bewildering choice of new mechanical features offered them. Hardly a week passes that some manufacturer of a popular car does not announce a mechanical change so important that in the scientifically dull times of two or three years ago it would have been the most widely discussed feature of the year among the motoring public.

Changes of a very specific nature have taken place in Buick, Cadillac, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Cole, Chandler and Apperson cars during the past few months, changes which will be continued into 1924 and will be thoroughly tested in the fiery crucible of public service, r'our-wheel brakes, balloon tires, changes in methods of carburetion and other important evidences of automotive advancement have occurred with great rapidity.

To date, approximately thirty well known makers have brought out new models which will constitute their offerings for the coming year. In some of these, notable changes have been made in the lines of one or more types. But among the thirty, a number of big names are missing—Chevrolet, the long line of cars controlled by the Durant organization, including the Locomobile, Princeton, Flint, Eagle, Durant Four and Star; Maxwell, Chalmers, Hudson, Essex, Jordan and many others. We may be sure that some of these cars will appear in the very near future in new and interesting guise.

While tremendous and radical mechanical changes are being made, a considerable majority of the makers of standard quantityproduction cars have been content to continue, for 1924, their present models with only minor changes in lines and construction—Hupmobile, Dodge, Nash, Ford, Case, Reo and others similarly well known.

Nothing in past years in the motor car industry has equalled the bitterness of the controversy over the subject of four-wheel brakes. Eight American cars are now available with this equipment, including three of the General Motors' cars, Buick, Oakland and Cadillac. In fact, in all the strenuous application of new mechanical principles which has taken place in the past three or four months, General Motors has taken a place of great activity; and it is undoubtedly flue to the popularity of its cars, and the fact that the new Buicks, Oaklands and Cadillacs are appearing with four-wheel brakes, that the battle over this form of braking has become so violent.

The three General Motors' cars named and the Rickenbacker, Packard Single Eight, Duesenberg and Marmon are all being advertised extensively and vigorously as users of the four-wheel brakes. On the other side of the fence there are some very important manufacturers who are advertising just as widely and even more vigorously that the four-wheel brake is unnecessary and exceedingly dangerous. Studebaker is leading this fight., backed up by Rolls-Royce and other distinguished companies. The statements of the contenders are so diametrically opposed as to what four wheel brakes will and will not do, that it is impossible to form an opinion without a great deal of personal experience, and even this does not seem to work out. The spokesmen for both sides are eminent engineers and when engineers disagree about a matter so important as to affect the safety and lives of motorists, it behooves the layman to remain neutral until four-wheel brakes have had a long test in public service.

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To this writer, the most interesting and constructive mechanical innovation of the year to date is the new gear shift introduced by Chandler. This is a very simple but, apparently, very practical device which allows even the most inexperienced driver to shift from one position of the gears to another, at any time, regardless of speed of engine or car, without the disagreeable clashing and damage to gear teeth and other parts of the car which, since the beginning, have always been the bane of the inexpert driver's life. There is hardly any question that if this Chandler gear shift proves successful (and there appears no reason why it should not) it will speedily become an accepted feature on all standard cars. It seems to me that none of the other mechanical changes of the year is so likely to promote the ease and comfort of car operation and the safety of the average motorist so much as this. In traffic and on hills it should prove a real boon.

Balloon tires are, undoubtedly, going to be accepted by the motoring public. Already twenty-one tire manufacturers arc making them in sizes ranging from 28 x 4 inches up to 40 x 10. A move of considerable importance, because it may create emulation, was the adoption of balloon tires on Cole 1924 models instead of fourwheel brakes. The company based its action on the belief that balloon tires supply most of the advantages of four-wheel brakes without the objections which some people arc making to them, and promote riding qualities hitherto unknown in smoothness and the absence of wear and tear on the car.

There is a conviction firmly entrenched in the public mind that some day all automobiles will run on steam. In the beginning of the automobile industry there were many steam cars, but the gasoline car, for reasons which may or may not have been sound, grew more rapidly in popularity. Today steam as an automotive propelling agent is making very little progress. The wonderful Stanlby Steamer is in the hands of receivers. The Doble is being built in small quantities on the Pacific Coast. There is practically no other steam development to report, although many plans are, as usual, being announced for the early introduction of new steam cars.