AN ALUMINUM CAR

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1920, Page 3

AN ALUMINUM CAR

—■" ■ i Some of the most important automo- j bil o work being done in America is in connection with aluminium alloys. -One firm has under construction a practically all-aluminium car, which, with a five passenger body, will weigh 121 cw - This is a full-sized standard track cur, the lightness of which has been secured by the use of special aluminium alloys, and not by paring down on dimensions. The front axle) which is an aluminium allov forging, and which is of .bigger section than the standard type present , steel axles, is only one-third the weight. The connecting rods are aluminium forg ings, heat-treated, whilo naturally cylinders and pistons are east aluminium. • The complete car is not yet on the road, but tbe aluminium axle has been used, and the aluminium alloy connecting rods have been employed, for a long time on various engines, in several cases without the drivers having been informed that th 0 rods were at all special. * There arc vast possibiltics for the more extensive use of such alloys in car construction but one of the drawbacks at present is the cost of aluminium, but no doubt ns time goes on sucli alloys will be able to be produced cheap er. Fancy what it would mean from a fuel and tyre standpoint if cars could be marketed at only half their present weight.