Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-03
THE Capitals ninth annual
/ automobile show has come

and gone. The doors to the
latest exhibition of the
rnarvels of the motor world were
closed last night, and the big eX-
position was pronounced another
success, both from an attend
ance standpoint, with all records
, broken, and from a sales stand
i. point, which, after all, is the deal
erS' primary viewpoint.
I. There is a whole lot more car
for somewhat less money this year,
it was amply illustrated by the
2 sleek and graceful, well equipped
and luxuriously fitted machines
which were on display the entire
week. The motor car OF today
cannot by any stretch Of the
Imagination be compared with the
motor car of past years, and even
a marked advance over the mod
els of as recent time as last year
can be noted by even the most
casual and least motor minded"
observer. There can be no more
a matching up of the old horseleSS
carriage, or even the first cars of
the present era Of the Streamlined
body and gently purring motors
with the new creations OF the mo-
tor manufacturers, than there can
be a matching up Of chalk ana
{ cheese.
These cars of today are different
all of them-from the cars of
yesterday, but there is a steady
trend to be noted by the careful
observer in the adoption OF some
sort of uniformity of body struc--
ture, of engine construction and
of performance goals.
The automobile has gone
through the stages OF experiment,
plaything of the rich, and luxury
of the man of moderate means,
and has finally come into the
realm of necessity. 1t is almost as
necessary today as the bathtub
stopper. Of course. there are
some people who walk. But they'd
rather ride.
Refinements Numerous.
There are numerous ref1nementS
TO be found In the present-day car
over the old cars. There has been
q gradual elimination Of the nom
essentials. AS the wood-turner
takes his crude block and slowly
gets rid of the rough edges, de-
velopS. graceful curves, gets the
groSSneSS out of his creation and
finally turns out a thing Of sur
passing beauty, so have the body
makers Of the motor industry re-
fined, and eliminated, until today
there is the graceful, trim and
powerful looking motor car. These
developments have been carried
on by great many different Or
CARNATIONS, but they have led to
the same end, and the result is a
SameneSS Of looks about the cars
Of today. Particularly is this true
of the cars of the same. price
fields. OF course. the car in the
cheapest price field could not be
likened greatly in looks to one in
the highest price field, but there
is that gradual development, with
the same object of producing a
trim and graceful looking job,
that has brought that seeming
uniformity to the motor car.
The cars of out-of-the-ordinary
motor construction are few.
Most cars nowadays are skies and
straight Fights. There are a few
fourS and q few v-type Fights.
Within the six and eight fields
this uniformity of design is most
marked. The body styles Of the
closed cars have become almost
entirely uniform. One nowadays
buys a body style as one would
buy a sofa style. The body styles
have become almost as standard
lied as were the carriage styles of
a by-gone day. The closed car Of
one maker is very much like that
Of another, and the same is true Of
the open styles and the CONVEX
tibles. The convertible is a COM
paratively new creation, and
therefore there Is less uniformity.