CAR OF TOMORROW

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1020, 10 July 1930, Page 21

CAR OF TOMORROW

LESS WIND RESISTANCE AMERICAN FORECAST That the next great forward step in the development of ths American motor-car will concern itself not so much with the building of larger Power plants, but with the means whereby more complete utilisation may be made of the tremendous power of the present-day automobile engine, is

the opinion of Mr. Charles A. Penfield, a Californian distributor. “Our modern automobile really has tremendous power and speed,” said Mr. Penfield recently. “However, we have not yet learned how to utilise this power and speed to the maximum, and until we develop more perfect stream-lining we shall not. “When one travels sixty miles an hour in an automobile one encounters a tremendous opposing force in the ! form of wind resistance. When we j learn to minimise this we will be able to increase tbe speed of an automobile without adding to its power. Or, putting it another way, partial elimination of wind resistance will enable a motor car to go faster and ride smoother with a given charge of gasoline. Few persons realise that today, beyond a certain point, a car’s horse-power must be doubled if the

I ear is to be capable of just five miles j more o£ speed per hour. STREAMLINING “Not only are the multiple effects of wind resistance itself being studied by automotive designers aud engineers, but the adverse effects on the speed of a motor-car of such incumbrances as headlights, fenders, bumpers, and mouldings are also being analysed. The entire subject is literally immense, and streamlining, heretofore in popular parlance just a word to indicate harmonious lines on a motor-car’s body, is today approaching the status of a scienqe. ■‘The ultimate automobile will reveal new ideas of streamlining. It will be capable of greater speed and because of its streamlining will have

entirely different lines. This will not come about in a year or two, but in the course of time. Meanwhile engineers are working daily on this most vital problem, and when their labours have been crowned with success motorists will have revealed to them new conceptions of power aud beauty in automobiles.”