The Washington herald., 1920-02-08
LARGEST MOTOR.
NOT INDICATION
OF HIGH SPEED
0-Pound Cars on West
ern Coast Perform
Miracles. y
WEIGHT RETARDS RUNS
ALUMINIUM Alloys Come
Into Greater Use as
{ Material.
WEIGHT RETARDS RUNS

That the speed OF an automobile is
not to be judged by the power Of the
engine alone Is well illustrated In the
miniature racing cars so popular on
the Pacific Coast. Some of these
small cars, with driver, weigh In the
neighborhood OF 500 pounds and are
capable of travelling over seventy
miles per hour The engines used in
these cars are single and twin cylln-
der motorcycle types, which develop
around six and seven horsepower. Some
OF our popular touring cars have en-
gines developing fifty, sixty and seven
ty horsepower, yet these same touring
cars can travel at their very best
only fifty-five to sixty miles an hour
unloaded. They are held back be-
cause OF the excessive weight of the
vehicle 1t makes no difference how
much power you have, but how mich
power yeu have compared with the
load 1t has to move that determines
the speed at which the vehicle will
travel That Is why the miniature
racing car with the one-tenth horse
power can outdlstance the touring car
pve times as large and, sad to say,
more than five times as heavy.
saving of Gas.
IL is because our mOQeTn cars drp
toe heavy that the engines used in
them must be powerful and heavy
also. IL the excess weight could be
removed IL would be possible to get
the same road performance with real
fuel. oil and tire economy that are
TO be had in the lighter vehicle. Forty
miles on a gallon of gasoline and
moo miles on a set of tires may seem
Utoptan idea to some motorists, who
are driving ordinary cars giving ten
miles per gallon and 5000 miles son
tires. but the time Is coming when
the word economy" will be associ-
ated with far different standards than
the present ones.
One of our best makes of motor
trucks has an engine developing
over 100 horsepower. That engine
drags the truck with load at a
speed of about twenty miles per
hour maximum. That same power
in racing car engine pulls 1t
around a speedway at about lis
miles a. hour. The truck weighs
14,e0O pounds, the racing ear about
2,4O0 pounds, II the miniature rae
ing car mentioned above were to
have only a twenty-five horsepower
engine. it probably would travel
around 10 miles per hour because
of it's very light weight. Excess
weight Tetards road speed. Just as
a load" on a mans mind retards
his thinking speed.
Speed Great Asset.
- Every buyer or owner of an au-
bmobile wants speed. He may
have occasion to use that speed
Rbut few times or he may not
wish to use it at all. Neverthe-
less he wants to know that the
car is capable of travelling q GER
tain speed. The idea in the aver
age motorists mind. however, is
that in order to have speed you
must have a large, heavy, power
full engine. Some of them believe
the car itself must be a large,
poweTful-looking one. Both are
wrong. In order to have high We
hicIe speed, ii simply is necessary
to get a proper ratio between
Characteristic and car weight. The
engine may develop only twenty
horsepower. yet tAe car may travel
much faster than another touring
ear with a fifty horsepower engine.
AS a matter of fact, exactly such
cars are or have been on the mar
ket. They look scientific design,
because the engines were pro-
dueed after the vehicle and the
latter without regard for scientific
lightweight principles. The de-
siEners, insteau of realizing that
scientific light weight means speed.
economy, comfort and ability. went
ahead under conventional princi-
pies with the result that they had
a conventional car giving ordinary
results.
Racers Prove Light Cars.
. Considering speed alone, racing
car designers have learned the less
>pt lightweight cars with small en-
l gines. The most notable European
racing event in 1919-the largo
FIorio race around the island of
Sicily. was won by a car weighing
slightly over 2.000 pounds-a Peugeot
with an engine of only I53 cubic
Inches displacement. That Is about
the size of a Ford engine, less than
a Dodge or Maxwell and half the
size of an average engine of our
touring cars. That car is capable
Of ninety-six miles an hour, but of
course IL was built for speed and
that is its only qualincatiin. In
America we have a 1S3-inch car
weighing about 1000 pounds which
recently showed II could travel about
ZOE miles per hour for hour after
hour. 1t established many records
The designer. speaking to the writer,
said: IF j only had a chassis about
500 pounds lighter the engine
would pull it at 125 miles an hour" |
Safety Also Factor.
In order to produce a vehicle of
The medium weight necessary To do |
certain work. give a certain per-
'ormance at the expenditure of the
lowest amount of fuel. II Is neces-
sary to start the scientific design
nth the very first part It cannot