The Washington herald., 1920-02-01
LEAN MAN, FAT MAN, LIGHT
OR HEAVY POWER FOR HILL S
Excess Weight Is Waste of Fuel--Engineers
Recommend Right Cars for :,
Country Climbing.

In a hill race between a fat man
Ind a lean man. you VIII without
ssitation choose the lean one TO
Sin. You will choose him TO win
In a race of stamina, of speed. In
any demonstration OF physical abil-
ity. You will say that the fat
man has too much weight to carry
around to be good performer.
In that respect he is no different
from a man-made piece Of ma
: chinery-an automobile.
Generally speaking, the lighter a
car. the better hill climber 1t Is.
No better illustration of this can
be given than that of a notable
- mefican hill-climb conducted a
, few years ago in which a twenty
horsepower car of very popular
axe. won from a big field includ-
g a 100-horse-power Benz and
gn powered cars of American
snufacture. The high-powered
ars were heavy and their power
cant little because 1t had too
uch to do to overcome the mere
eight of the vehicle. The 90
-se-power car was light in
sht compared with, the others
4 the ratio of power to weight
greater than in the high-pow-
ID cars.
Take any of the heavy cars on
? market today and one will find
At while they climb hills in fair
good fashion, they are not the
st hill climbers in high gear and
far from being economical
nbers. 1t is the lighter weight
which are the hill performers
ync they do their work at a mini
mum expenditure of fuel.
Lighter Cars Are Needed.
The idsaI hill performer is not
here BECAUSE the. scientific light
weight car is yet to be born. Such
| car from conception to execu-
Won, in every detail a lightweight
:. will be a scientific lightweight
performer. Such performance
u call for the mounting OF ordi-
- hills at level-road speeds and
tremely steep grades at reduced
seds out still without a gear
ange. While fuel consumption
be greater for the hill climb
Z IL Will be SO greater that the
vsrage of forty miles per gallon
fiH hardly be altered. At least
he owners pocketbook wils be
tile affected Light weight alone
Jill not do this because we have
ome so-called lightweight cars on
ne market today which do not do
Scientific lightweight con-
ruction will do il.
This construction calls for a We
nicle Of the minimum weight-l,0 900
pounds for a ve-passenger car
vet having a power-to-weight ratio
three times greater than in any
existing CNr. 1t is this power-to
weight ratio which largely deter
mines hhl climbing ability and
since the scientific car should have
total weight of only 1000 pounds,
its fuel consumption even in grade
climbing wilr be far less than that
OF an average car under the best
of level road conditions.
In order to illustrate the power and
energy needed for hill climbing one
fas but to turn to human perform
ance. You can walk up a 10 per cent
grade one-half mile long quite easily
u you have no load to carry. Put
Twenty-Five pounds on your back and
you slow down a bit 1t is harder
to get up. Put 100 pounds on your
ukackk and II becomes a task not ac-
Fcomplished by every man. You begin
10 slow down considerably. You
! sweat even IL it is a cold day. II
Akes more energy, more power. You
cannot carry the load up at the same
speed that you carry yourself alone.
You with the 100 pounds on your back
represent the heavy car. Going up