Evening star., 1931-06-07
FURNACE OIL SEEN
IN AUTO OPERATION
Cummins Diesel Races Gives
Promise of New DeveI-
opment.

DETROIT. Mich, June (NANA).
AS an aftermath Of last weeks In
dianapolis Motor Speedway race. at
tention has been focused on the future
possibility of Diesel operation for auto
mobiles with Furnace oil as fuel.
At Indianapolis, c. L. CumminS, en-
gineer of Columbus, Ind, who devel-
oped the Cummins-Diesel oil-burning
racer, showed that he had something. I"
His oil-burning car-with its tortoise
like speed compared with the gasoline
driven entries-accomplished something
that no other car has ever been found
capable Of in 19 years on the speedway.
No Stops Made.
It ran 500 consecutive miles in COM
petition with never a stop. The car,
piloted by Dave Evans and Thane
Houser as mechanic. averaged 86.l7
miles an hour. While it was moving
unhampered by the caution flag that
thrice warned the racers to slow down
and hold relative positions because rain
made maximum speed dangerous. the
lone ou-burner was hitting of between
SO and 80 miles an hour without a
falter
In the official list Of flnishers, the
Diesel at first was placed twelfth, but
a protest and recheck put it back one
notch and in the thirteenth position
without altering the time average.
This was in a field Of 40 cars that
were started, IS Of which failed to last
cut because of mechanical trouble, &C
cidents and other causes.
In making the run Evans started the
Diesel off with 35 gallons Of oil in the
fuel tank. Only 81 gallons were used
and only quarts Of water were re-
Quired to repleniSh the radiator after
the car came in.
An official view Of the cars perform
ance was expressed by w. D. Edenburg,
chief steward of the A. A. A. Contest
Board.
The Cummins car" he said, "cov-
cred 500 miles without a stop and
burned only 81 gallons OF furnace OIL
In speed, it suffered more than the gas
oline cars in the controlled field during
the rain as 1t did not have the reserve
speed to make up the distance when
the control was removed, never averag-
ing much above 80 miles an hour.
However. to the engineers its run
meant a great deal more than 1t does
to the racing fan and the layman."
The performance Of the oil power Is
significant in more ways than one.
During the same week an airplane using
a Packard-Diesel engine stayed aloft
longer than any other plane has ever
done without refueling. In an endur-
ance flight at Jacksonville, Fla. 1t
stayed in the air "a hours and 80 min
utes, or nine hours and 10 minutes
above the former record.
The Packard engineers who have
developed the Diesel principle for air
craft use, have confined it to that
field. Up to now they have been cold
on the possibilities for automobile usage.
Advanced Stage Reached.
In Germany, Diesel engine power for
busses has reached an advanced stage.
One year ago, German bus with OIL
burning equipment which had been i'm
ported to this side and rebuilt In Phil
adelphia. was driven overland to the
Society of Automotive Engineers meet
ing at French Lick, Ind. There 1t en-
g3ged critical attention and comment.
1t remained for Mr.. Cummins, how
ever, to work the idea up for automo-
bileS. He is credited with adapting a
marine type power plant to motor car
use, As the car was raced last week,
the engine had four cylinders with
cubic-inch displacement of 366 inches.
Empty, it weighed $3.50 pounds. The
chassis was a Duesenberg Model A, the
design of which dates back to 1925.
During both the trials and the race
the Diesel emitted no excess smoke,
which heretofore had been one of the
objections to it.
Copyright, 1881 by North American News
paper Alliance, 1ne)