Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-01-07
New Cars
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car with the engine revving up
such fancy figures.
Another factor which makes
power increases less effective in
terms of performance, but no
less interesting to the student of
car trends is the drag Of the
modern cars various accessories
notably the. pumps for power
steering and air conditioning.
Dynamometer tests. are made
with the engine stripped so that
the ideal conditions which the
motoriSt thinks he is enjoying
because the car catalogue says
SO do not actually prevail when
he takes the wheel. However,
engineers point out that with so
many superhighways coming
into the picture there will be
more opportunity to use cars at
higher engine rpm.
OF course it must be noted
that the superpowering of the
new cars is due mainly to use of
optional higher compression and
four-barrel carburetion. Adding
this special equipment to Ford,
for instance. boosts the Y-block
eight to 1872 hip. On Ford's
racy Thunderbird the output
goes UP to 1913 with Fordomatic
and the 8.5-to-1 ratio.
With a similar compression
ratio and the four-barrel car
buretor Chrysler's FirepoWer en-
CINE for the New Yorker and the
Imperial hits $50 hip. Clipper
custom offers 245 hip. at 1900
rpm. with 8.5-to-1 ratio and the
four-barrel carburetor, and Pack
ard touches 260 h.p. with a
similar setup.
Cadillac whips its va motor
to 270 hip. with double four
barrel carburetor for the Ell
dorado convertible which you
may see rolling along in white,
silver. blue or copper hues. Buick
is using 9-to-1 compression ratio.
Centralized fabrication.
Dual exhaust also help the
power spree. This partially
explains Lincoln's 225-h.p. motor
This car. incidentally, is offering
q return engagement for centra-
lized chassis fabrication. newest
version being the Multi-Luber
offered as optional equipment.
In newest form the lubricant
flows through nylon. tubing to
couplings which fit over regular
grease fittings.
Lincoln is using its own auto
matte drive this year. a combina-
ton toruue converter with plane
tary gearing. AS on the Ford
Thunderbird and Mercury, Lin
coin engines now have the new
Champion spark plugs without
gaskets. This eliminates a point
Of leakage and also aids plugs
in carrying away heat from
their points.
The subject Of under-the-hood
development would not be COM
plete without a word about the
two new WHY'S SKIES with lis
horsepower L-head engines and
the new Plymouth with its 1877
hip. VS. engine. Optional on Ply
mouth is the six-cylinder engine
with 157-h.p. output.
Studebaker Commanders va
engine is rated lao h.p., while the
President rates ITS. Bucks
Special with 8.4-to-1 compression
ratio rates 1873 h.p., while the 1885,
hip. engine serves for the Super,
Century and Roadmaster.
Pontiac's new V-8. offering $50
hip. with an Stool ratio, has
something unusual in cooling.
Water goes from the pump to the
cylinder heads first, thus revers-
ing coolant flow. The idea is
to euualize temperatures SO that
the heads are not the hot spots
as in conventional systems, Like
other General Motors cars Pom
tiac uses the l2-volt electrical
system.
There are some interesting de- |
velopments in transmissionS. De
Sotos PowerFlite, for instance. |
uses q smaller diameter torque |
converter to provide higher |
stall speed. On Dyna- Flow there |
is variable pitch for the torque |
converter vanes, so that by his |
way of handling the accelerator
the driver can obtain greater
torque for special driving needs. |
Packard's newest contribution to /