Imperial Valley press., 1919-11-22
NEW STANDARD
OF TESTING FOR
OVERLAND CARS

The testing of motor cars, like tn,
building of motor cars, has undergon,
marked advancement during the las,
few years. New standards have beer
created and new mechanical testing de
vices have been perfected to kpep pace
with the development of the automo
bile ITSELF
1t remained for the WHY'S Overland
/ Company, however to supply the su
preme test to it's latest model, overland
1 which has just been announced. This
test, it is believed, ras established new
standards of testing and refinement OF
details to make n car practically per
feet mechanically before it goes to an
owner.
The history of the development
building and testing of Overland 4,
which introduces the new three point
spring suspension, covers a period OF
years. The care is the product of q
decade of progressive engineering
| achievement toward the ideal light
weight car; of a years intensive engi
neering experiment and two years ac
Itual demonstration and test in all kinds
of weather and all sorts of roads.
During the two years test, Overland
4 was given 25O,000 miles of actual
road demonstration. That's ten times
around the world before Il single car
went on the market.
These tests were of great value to
the engineering and the production de
partments of the Willys-Overland Com
pany and, finally, to the man who buys
the car. A staff of engineers studied
the car during these 100000 miles of
test to determine every refinement and
improvement that may be necessary to
make the car when it went on the
market free from service troubles and
of assured economy in operation and
perfect ease of riding because of new
three-point springs.
The value of 250,000 miles of eXhaus-
tive testing may further be judged
from the comparison with the usua!
custom of sending new car into the
market after it has been pounded on
roads in some $4,000 to $4,000 miles of
Overland 4, it is said,
is the first car that has gone on the
market with a pedigree of perfect pro
duction after two years of constant
testing.
The section of the country picked
for these tests was in Natures labor
atory of the Southwest-Colorado New
Mexico and Arizona. There nautre
seems unfinished, rough, rock-strewn
tortured country. 1t was there that
the engineers decided that the new
three point suspension springs could be
given q supreme test to develop the
uneXcelled ease of riding which they !
have now introduced.
Accordingly a fleet of Overland As
were sent into this section. A staff OF |
engineers accompanied sthe cars to
watch every hour of performance. In |
Colorado the cars were set to work ,
scaling mountain sides, twisting and
around the hairpin turns of
the precipitous cliff and mountain sides +
and rolling over the boulder-strewn |
roads. There was plenty of mud-seas
of it, thick and stick as glue, hub and I
running board deep.
In New Mexico, there We're great 1
stretches of deep shifting sand, which |
threaten to rack and twist the frames |
Of ordinary motor cars. In Arizona,
there were great stretches of plain, in
rivers and streams to ford, /
worse mud than ever before and strech-
IS of road that were so rough and tor
tuous that they resembled saw-tooth \
blades of scraggy, sharp rocks. No /
better testing ground can found than |
n the Rocky mountains.
Over these roads, Overland was
pushed to the utmost. Days were spent I
n mud, in streams, twisting through I
-ocky defiles, scaling boulder-sprinkledi /
lill and mountain sides. The drivers 4
we're amazed night after night with
their freedom from fatigue because of
the easy riding of the cars due to the 4
wonderful three point spring suspen-
sion.
The three point springs had saved
the cars, had given new ease and
comfort to the drivers the balanced
light construction had conquered the
worst of the roads; the power of the
car itself had pulled it out of road sit
uations in which horses were found /
hopelessly mired and dozens of auto
mobiles were passed, sunk deep and |
While these tests were going on,
other tests were being made in the 1
within radius of 800 miles
Of the factory.
The new three point suspension
springs had done everything the engi-
neers had hoped for in introducing an
almost uncanny ease of riding; the all
steel construction of the car gave 1t n
stamina unusual in any light car. 1t
was in these tests that the Willys-Ov-
arland Company developed the phrase
which describes Overland 4. because of
It's three point springs, as the most inn
portant Improvement in motor car con-
since pneumatic tires.