Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-24 | Page 48 | Salient Points in Auto Conservation

til POUTS I auto craiTi Scientific Reasons for Present-Day Engine and Chassis Designs. ' ' Tn the Xew York show issue of ' An-tomotivo An-tomotivo I'ud usuries, ' arc two articles whu-h merit tin? particular attention of every Jli:pmobilo distributor and dealer. Ju case you havo uot secu this issue, whk-l1 is dated Thursday, January 3, I ant oin to quote you briefly some of the more important poiuts made," said TC. I:. Kicliard ol' the yland Motor Sales company, Hupmobilc distributors: uWn should t'oeus our attention on two matters wheolhase and displace-jnent. displace-jnent. "Weight per hu-h of wheclbase : ran be materially reduced. We have boon wasteful of wheolbase because we have not economically used space. Every incli of unnecessary wlieelbase means unnecessary weight. This, in turn, requires gasoline, oil and tire "upkeep. "up-keep. One typical medium-priced car was shortened seven i nohe? in wheel-base wheel-base three months ago. The ear has equally as much room in the tonneau and two inches more room in the front compartment. This is one example of what can be done. It is not, necessary neces-sary to sacrifice space, but to utilize it, '' Whv is there no real hih-priced ear on the market with a wheelbase around 11-? Because the public would - expect to see n big car for that money. This condition is going to ehauge. Explicit directions for shortening unnplMso 1'nncol be riven for everv make of car because space is lost by different ears in different ways. This is because the wheelbase has been fixed before the- car is laid out and is simply utilized because ir is there. Almost universally engines are too largr. It would be perfectly feasible to se.-ure all of the sood performance thst anyone i-nuld demand in a five-passenger car with an eugiae of :!0n cubic indies pus-ton pus-ton displacement. An encine of this size, regardless of the number of cylinders cylin-ders us'ed, would require but a short hood. Perhaps one of the greatest errors er-rors the sales department has injected into the industry is the matter of talking talk-ing horsepower.' It has led indirectly rothe us e o f 1 a r g e engines, where as -horsower means not hi n g. ' ' The trend of rear axle design started in 1!I lias continued eonsist-ent'v eonsist-ent'v to date, with spiral bevel rising; Mcs'dily to 70 per i-ent, bevel losing stt-addv nod now at IS per cent. The' popularity of the spiral bevel is marked. "i'roni 1010 to .1016 the clutch field-wa field-wa tpiite evenly shared between the disk and cone, with the cone leading in l!iJ2, but since H'tri the disk has gained sn as to have nearly three times the OL-Tcentage the cone has. The del ini te movement in rear axle design 'xtonding over eight years lias been the constant, consistent gain of the three-Quarter floating type and the eqna?,v" steady los of the floating design. The sem i-f loatio g type has hehi its o" n. "Problems of heavy pssnKne have completely ended the cylinder controversy. contro-versy. Ignition has followed the natural t rend towa rd single current source, this being" now the battery. ' Sneaking broadly, the majority of manufacturers whose prieps permit the drilling of the crankshaft, prefer to supply the pins in this; way. The leading lead-ing advantage or the pressure system is that ir gfts the oil 'to the bearings quicker in cold weather, and most of the wear on hearings takes place dur-iii!r dur-iii!r the first five minuter of rnnniug. "The three-speed transmission integral integ-ral with the engine a a unit is found on three-quarters of the li-rted cars. "'In springs. 44.4 per cent of the listed list-ed chassis have somi-eUiotie, 2fi.fi ean-tilever ean-tilever and 17 pr -ent three-quarter I the balan'-e bring divided between platform, plat-form, transverse and special sy-ient--. " Kor lour years the use of vanium ga-oiine ted has increased" steaiilv, and g-avity and pressure feed have decreased de-creased just, as steadily.??