The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-12-03
OVERLAND HAS
new STANDARD
OF GAR TESTING
MODEL 4 BECOMES FAMOUS IN
SHORT TIME AFTER PLAC-
ED ON THE MARKET

building Of motor cars, has under
gone marked advancement during the
last few years. New standards have
been created and new mechanical
testing devices have been perfected
to keep pace, with the development OF
the automobile itself.
1t remained for the WHY'S Over
land Company, however, to supply the
supreme test to its latest model, Ov.
erland which has just been announc-
ed. This test, it is believed has es-
tablished new standards of testing and
refinement of details to make a cal
practically perfect mechanically be-
fore it goes to an owner.
The history of the development
building and testing of Overland A
which introduces the new three point
spring suspension, covers a period OF
years. The car is the product of o
decade of progressive engineering
achievement toward the ideal light
weight car; of a years intensive en-
cheering experiment and two years
actual demonstration and test in all
kinds of weather and all sorts of
roads.
During the two years of test, Over
land was given 100000 miles of
actual demonstration. That's ten
times around the world before sim
gle car went on the market.
These tests were of great value to
the engineering and the production
departments of the Willys-Overland
Company and, finally, to the man who
buys the car. A staff of engineers
studied the car during these $1,000
miles of test to determine every re-
finement and improvement that might
be necessary TO make the car when
it went on the market free from SER
vice troubles and of assured economy
in operation and perfect ease of rid
ing because of new three-point springs
The value of 100000 miles of ex-
haustive testing may further be judg.
ed from the comparison with the usual
custom Of sending a new car into the
market after it has been pounded on
roads in some $4,000 to $4,000 miles
of demonstration. Overland it is
said, is the first car that has gone on
the market with pedigree of perfect
production after two years of con-
slant testing.
The section of the country picked
for these tests was in Natures lab
oratory Of the Colorado,
New Mexico and Arizona There ma
ture seems unfinished, rough, rock
strewn, tortured country. 1t was there
that the engineers decided that new
three point suspension springs could
be given a supreme test to develop
the unexcelled ease of riding which
thou hova pou introduced
Accordingly fleet of Overland As
were sent into this section. A staff of
engineers accompanied the cars to
watch every hour of performance. In
Colorado the cars were set to work
scaling mountain sides, twisting and
turning around the hairpins 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 stocky as
glue, hub and running board deep.
In New Mexico, there were great
stretches of deep shifting sands which
threaten to rack and twist the frames
of ordinary motor cars. In Arizona,
there were great stretches Of plain,
innumerable rivers and streams to
ford, worse mud than ever before and
stretches of road that were so rough
and tortuous that they resembled
saw-tooth blades of scraggy, sharp
rocks. No better testing ground can
be found than in the Rocky Mountains,
Over these roads, Overland a was
pushed to the utmost. Days were spent
in mud, in streams, twisting through
rocky defiles, scaling boulder-sprinkl-
ed hill and mountain sides. The driv-
ers were amazed night after night
with their freedom from fatigue be-
cause of the easy riding of the cars
due to the wonderful three point
spring suspension. "A.
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
situations in which horses were found
hoplessly mired and dozens of automo-
biles were passed sunk deep and i'm
movable.
While these tests were going on
other tests were being made in the
country within a radius of 300 miles
to the factory.
The new three point suspension
springs had done everything the en-
gineers had hoped for in introduc-
ing an almost uncanny ease of rid
ing; the all-steel construction of the
car gave it stamina unusual in any
light car. 1t was in these tests that
the WHY'S Overland company devel.
oped the phrase which describes Over.
land 4, because Of its three point
springs, as the most important i'm
provement in motor car construction
since pneumatic tires.