A German Automotive Creation

GEORGE W. SUTTON, JH.

FOR the past three or four years, German automotive engineers have been experimenting in a worthy attempt to reduce the fuel consumption of automobiles. They have gone probably further than the designers of any other country in developing the well known, but little practised, principles of streamlining, in order that their cars may present the least possible resistance to the wind as they travel. The result has been a number of open and enclosed automobiles which, to our conservative eyes, look like freaks,

As a matter of fact, these cars are not freaks at all. They are scientifically designed, not only as to their extraordinary body lines, but in all the mechanical features of their chassis as well; and, in most cases, they are the products of some of Germany's greatest engineers. The Rumpler streamlined sedan, which we illustratedsometime ago, wasan example of the present trend of scientific automotive thought in Germany. The supercharger on the new Mercedes cars is another.

The streamlined sedan shown on this page is the most recent German attempt to lower motoring costs. It is the brain child of Herr Jaray, of the Zeppelin Airship Company, and the body is mounted on the German 6-24 h. p. Dixi chassis, There is a marked similarity between the glass-enclosed top of this car and the cabin of a Zeppelin airship. The design for this car was arrived at by a series of tests of small models in a wind tunnel. It is claimed that a reduction of from twentyfive percent to fifty percent in fuel consumption has been achieved by this Duralumin body,

There are no protuberances any place about this car. The headlamps and the radiator are both sunk within the body, and the radiator shutters are so arranged that they give a slight lift, like the wings of an airplane, when the car is in motion. The disc wheels are also fitted into indentations in the body, and the doors are so low that no steps are needed to enter the car comfortably. Two curved exhaust pipes project from the bottom, just in front, of and beneath the door.