Medford mail tribune., October 06, 1963, Image 40

1964:
auto:
show
Your car of today is the best
available but engineers and stylists are working
to make it even better
Automotive Trends for '64
Even while the cars you see in
beautiful color on these pages
are pouring from Detroit's as
sembly lines, engineers and styl
ists are working two, four and
in certain special, heavily guard
ed areas 10 years in advance.
For these men, the 1964 models have
long since been replaced by the fresh but
untried ideas on their drawing boards.
This does not mean that if you were to
fall asleep for 10 years you would awake
to find cars unrecognizable. Detroit thinks
in terms of the evolutionary rather than
the revolutionary change, perhaps be
cause many times in the past it has seen
truly fresh new concepts doomed to fail
ure in the market place.
Well, then, what can you expect to see
evolve in the future? Anything from a
gas turbine engine (Chrysler's gas tur
bine car is now being consumer-tested)
to a new type of body.
Today's auto body, including fenders
and all exterior and interior parts, is
stamped from sheet steel. This steel is
strong and relatively cheap. But it is
heavy and, despite elaborate protection
processes, it rusts.
What CAN BE done? Well, producers of
aluminum and even more exotic metals
such as titanium think they have the an
swer. They recognize, though, two basic
deterrents: the current generation of au
to men is used to thinking in terms of
steel, and aluminum does not bond with
itself as easily and as cheaply as steel.
Lastly, of course, even the light metals are
subject to a form of partial corrosion in
which their surfaces will "pit" until a
self-generating, protective but unsightly
coating forms.
This seems to leave the field to plastics,
and here some success is already evident.
Fiberglass already is used on certain low
volume cars such as the Avanti (Stude
baker) and Corvette (Chevrolet). But the
manufacturing procedure is time-consuming
to the point where, after volume reaches
about 20,000 units annually, it becomes
cheaper to use steel. Unless there is an
unforeseen breakthrough in technology,
this plastic is out of the running.
With this in mind, Ford has encour
aged one of its most talented engineers,
Gordon Buehrig, to study new, untried
plastics as a body material Hopefully,
large parts such as a door might be
poured in liquid form into a machine and
come out a finished item, even to the color.
Other dramatic if unseen improvements
are around the corner. Engineers foresee
the day coon when nearly the whole body
can be glued together (some parts already
are). You won't see anything different, but
you will hear the difference because noth
ing can squeak and the glue will act as its
own sound absorbent, ultimately eliminat
ing the need for upwards of 60 pounds of
such expensive add-ons as felt and plastic
currently used for this purpose.
EVER notice the doors of your car?
Don't they seem overly thick and
heavy? Well, part of this bulkiness is
needed to house the inflexible window
glass when it is lowered. Soon, a flexible
glass may be used in these windows. It
won't exactly roll up and down like a
household shade, but it does bend. Ford
is introducing it on the rear windows of
some of its '64 convertibles. The big ad
vantage here, besides bending without
cracking, is that the glass is more resist
ant to scratching and discoloration than
the plastic used in the past Used in doors,
this glass would save space which could
be devoted to more elbow room or slimming
down the over-all car width.
Much thought, too, is being given by
auto engineers to changing the funda
mentals of driving a car. For example,
the fraction-of-a-second lapse of time that
it takes to move your foot from the accel
erator to the brake could be eliminated by
combining these separate pedals into one.
By hinging one pedal in the middle, you
would press forward for acceleration and
backward with your heel for braking.
An idea driving control already has
been demonstrated by General Motors.
This is an adaptation of the old aircraft
"joystick" principle, where forward move
ment would give acceleration, backward
braking, and movement to either side
steering. Holding up these developments,
though, is not technology but fear that the
public cannot erase overnight the habits
of several generations.
(Continued on page 11)
" M lvL "''
ill i li l
Chrysler turbine ear has elaborate console but orthodox styling ( top).
...and
Beyond
By DONALD MacDONALD
Family Wtkly, Ortotwr , IK