Unremitting research and far-seeing enterprise have produced the motor car of to-day. Silence, reliability, economical running and controlled speed are among its characteristics. Luxury vehicles continue to make their limited appeal, but the inexpensive smaller types are now sold in vast quantities
THE DROP-HEAD COUPE enjoys a large measure of popularity, as it combines the advantages of the closed and of the open car. This Singer Twelve has a four-cylinder overhead-valve engine of 1,525 cubic centimetres. The R.A.C. rating is 11·4 horse-power.
ONE of the most startling developments that have ever taken place in the motor industry was the introduction, in the summer of 1922, of the four-cylinder Austin Seven. Sir Herbert Austin (now Lord Austin) can scarcely have realized how far-reaching the results of his courageous experiment were to be when he announced the production of a car which was unlike anything previously seen on the market. The Austin Seven was not unconventional in any way except its size; it was a perfect little motor car, but one of such light weight and diminutive appearance that few people believed that it was a commercial proposition, or that it had come to stay.
Owners of modern Austin Sevens would scarcely be impressed by the first post-war “Seven” to leave the works (a “Seven” had been built in 1910; see the chapter “Ten Years of Motor Car Progress”). The new model was an open tourer with a body which gave comfortable accommodation for two adults, a child and a small quantity of luggage. Its weight was no more than 6½ cwt. unladen, and it was claimed that the car would travel for seventy-eight miles on a gallon of petrol. The windscreen was of the single-pane variety, and attached to the peak of the hood was a celluloid strip which met the top of the windscreen when the hood was erected. The Austin Seven illustrated in the chapter “Luxury Cars and Light Cars” has the two-paned screen introduced slightly later.
One of the most interesting features of the little car was its four-wheel braking system. The hand-brake lever applied the front brakes and the pedal the rear brakes. At this time one of the popular objections to four-wheel brakes was that they were difficult to adjust and to compensate; the Austin Seven left the compensation to the driver by keeping front and rear brake controls separate. Although this diminutive car was the subject of many humorous anecdotes and much good-natured fun, its good qualities soon became manifest. Its performance on the road and its absolute reliability ensured it a successful future. The price of the first model was £230. Within fourteen years the Austin Seven, in saloon form with almost every refinement that would be expected on a big car, was selling for approximately half this figure.
Far removed from the light car world, but of great importance in its own sphere, was the 20 horse-power Rolls-Royce, introduced in the same year as the Austin Seven. Apart from the earliest examples of the Rolls-Royce, this car was the first “small” car to be produced by the famous firm, which had for years been associated only with the 40-50 horse-power model. The “Twenty” was a fitting companion to the larger car. Of advanced design in every particular, it was sold as an open tourer for £1,590; it was available also as an all-weather model and as a landaulet.
The light car’s bid for supremacy at this time is well illustrated by the constant reduction in price of the smaller cars. The larger and more luxurious cars seemed to have established themselves firmly at a more or less fixed price, but the makers of light cars were constantly improving their manufacturing processes and were striving to bring their cars within the reach of those who had, until then, been unable to afford a car of any kind. Low initial cost and low upkeep cost were the main “selling points” of the light car and, as demand increased, so did prices fall still further.
At the 1922 show, for example, the Morris-Cowley two-seater was priced at £255. By 1924 this price had been reduced to £198, and in 1925 it was £170. The price of the Austin Seven dropped from £230 to £165, then to £155 and £145. By 1932 it was possible to buy a luxury saloon on an Austin Seven chassis for £128. As the prices came down, so did the quality of the cars improve. Accessories were added, and additional refinements of every kind were incorporated in the standard specification.
The Austin Seven “grew up” to such an extent that the 1923 car weighed nearly 2 cwt more than the original model, and the 1937 saloon weighed more than twice as much as the first car of the type. These increases in weight were compensated for by constant improvements in the efficiency of the engine and by alterations in the gear ratio. One of the constant regrets of a certain type of motorist has been that the really light car was being allowed to “grow up” to such an extent that its original performance was no longer obtainable.
Throughout the period under review, however, the volume of traffic on the roads was increasing at a remarkable pace, and new legislation was introduced with great frequency. Uncontrolled speed was no longer tolerated, and the logical development of this state of affairs was the division of cars into two classes — the open sports car and the “family” saloon. This division, however, did not come into existence until some years after the time of the rise to fame of the light car. In the world of speed, development was extraordinary. The wonderful little A.C., driven by J. A. Joyce, was the first 1,500 c.c. car to cover more than 100 miles in the hour. In 1922, at Brooklands, it set up the new hour record of 101·35 miles — a performance which would have been regarded as outstanding for a much larger car a few years previously. In 1923, however, the Austin Seven, in racing guise, began by annexing all the records in its own class — that for cars of less than 750 c.c. In the hands of Eric C. Gordon England, a streamlined Austin Seven won a race at 63·75 miles an hour, and later in the year a similar car averaged 76·84 miles an hour in the 200 Miles Race.
Racing Achievements
Meanwhile Capt. (now Sir) Malcolm Campbell had been attacking the world record for the flying mile with the big twelve-cylinder Sunbeam, and raised the figure in 1923 to 146·4 miles an hour. The most successful cars of the year in racing were Sunbeams, and a man who was rapidly making a name for himself was Major (later Sir) Henry Segrave, who won the 1923 Grand Prix in a Sunbeam, averaging 75·3 miles an hour over the distance of 500 miles. Light cars were coming forward at Brooklands, and the famous “ three A’s ” (Alvis, Aston-Martin and A.C.) were rivalling the speeds attained by far larger cars. The 12 horse-power Alvis won the 200 Miles Race of 1923 at a speed of 93·29 miles an hour. On road and track the 12 horse-power sports and racing car, of which the Alvis was a fine example, was proving that the light car was a force that could not be ignored.
In 1924 the “Brooklands Model” Austin Seven was put on the market. This had an unsupercharged engine and a streamlined body, and was guaranteed to attain a speed of eighty miles an hour, which was almost unbelievable for so small a car and so small an engine. This model sold at £265 and became a firm favourite in the sporting world.
OVERHEAD-VALVE ENGINE of the Morris Twelve-Four Series III Saloon. The engine illustrated has four cylinders 69·5 by 102 centimetres, giving a swept volume of 1,550 cubic centimetres.
Most of the important races of 1924 were won by Bentley, Alfa-Romeo, Delage and Bugatti, but the 200 Miles Race was famous for the wonderful performance of the team of three Darracqs, driven by Kenelm Lee Guinness, George Duller, and Major Segrave. The three cars, having travelled in “line ahead” for the whole of the race, finished with only a few yards between them in first, second and third places. The winner’s speed was 102·27 miles an hour. Many fine performances were put up at Brooklands by John G. Parry Thomas, driving a giant Leyland. At last the speeds of the big cars began to increase in a way that suggested that the light cars would have a difficult task to catch up with them. Captain Campbell increased his speed over the flying mile to 150·77 miles an hour, driving the Sunbeam at Pendine Sands, South Wales. Such cars as the Talbot and the Vauxhall, however, proved themselves capable of high speeds at Brooklands, and a 1,500 c.c. Talbot covered a flying mile at the speed of 128·78 miles an hour. Even the Austin Seven was capable of more speed, and it brought up the 750 c.c. record for the mile to the figure of 84·29 miles an hour.
All this racing and record-breaking work was of incalculable importance in the development of the modern car. For years it has been a byword in the motor industry that “the sports car of to-day is the touring car of tomorrow”, and it was now becoming obvious that the racing car of the present was the sports car of the future. Nearly every improvement that was incorporated in racing cars eventually found its way into the specification of the ordinary utility car.
The speed of racing cars was being constantly increased by the use of specially blended fuel, higher compression ratios, improved tyres, better carburation and the development of streamlining.
In 1927 Major Segrave caused a real sensation. Attacking Captain Campbell’s flying-mile record of 150·77 miles an hour, he raised it to the then almost unbelievable figure of 203·79 miles an hour with his 1,000 horse-power Sunbeam at Daytona. This was by far the biggest advance ever made in this direction and, although the perfect surface of Daytona — far better than any previously discovered — was largely responsible, every credit must be given to Segrave’s great performance.
Saloon Cars in Demand
Unfortunately this fine British sportsman lost his life a few years later, while he was attacking the water speed record on Lake Windermere, in the Lake District of England, but Sir Malcolm Campbell carried on the tradition with his wonderful series of record-breaking runs at Daytona and Bonneville Salt Flats (see the chapter “The World’s Land Speed Record”).
The period between 1923 and 1930 saw the rise in popularity of the saloon body on the small car. In 1923 an aerial view of a big car park showed an enormous expanse of canvas hoods — khaki, black, or even white. Even among the bigger cars the open tourers outnumbered the saloons by some three to one. There was a movement for the improvement of protection against the weather, and hoods became more substantial and side screens neater and better-fitting. It soon became obvious, however, that the saloon was the car of the future.
Those firms that listed saloons as alternative models to their touring cars found that the demand for the saloons exceeded their expectations, and by 1926 even the Austin Seven was available in saloon form. So complete was the changeover in the three or tour following years that by 1930. many firms were not listing open models at all. Between 1925 and 1930 the sunshine roof made its first appearance, and this still further popularized the saloon.
Coachwork had been steadily improving, although the cars of 1925 were decidedly rectangular in outline. Straight lines, however, were gradually giving place to curves and rounded surfaces, and interior appointments were becoming more luxurious. Such refinements as cellulose enamel and chromium plating were introduced. Grouped instruments and pleasing instrument board layouts began to come into evidence in 1925 and the succeeding years, and the design of mudguards (which had become “wings”) underwent drastic changes. The mudguards, instead of being excrescences which appeared to have been built on to the car as an afterthought, became part and parcel of the bodywork. No longer were rear axles exposed to the gaze of following drivers. The bodywork was extended to form a complete whole rather than a box placed on the chassis for the accommodation of passengers.
BUILT FOR SAFE SPEED, this six-cylinder Lagonda has an overhead-valve engine with a volume of 4,453 cubic centimetres. Four speeds are provided, with a synchromesh gearbox. The engine is rated at 29·13 horse-power.
In 1925 and 1926 two important newcomers to the large-car market were announced — the 6½-litre Bentley and the Double-Six Daimler. The big Bentley was intended as a “town carriage” rather than as a sports car. It had a six-cylinder engine and its interior appointments were of the most luxurious kind. The four-cylinder 3-litre sports Bentley was continued. The Daimler was a revolutionary car in almost every way. Its huge engine, with two banks of six cylinders, was rated at 49·4 horse-power, and extreme flexibility was its main characteristic. A speed-range of from two to eighty-two miles an hour in top gear was claimed for the car. Double-six Daimlers were supplied to King George V.
About this time many firms which produced only large and expensive cars disappeared from the market, and the light car received a further impetus.
One particularly interesting newcomer was the 9 horse-power Riley, which set a new standard of efficiency and workmanship for small cars. This model was one of the first to incorporate a “silent third” speed in the gearbox, and was probably responsible for the controversy about three-speed and four-speed boxes that raged for some years. Four-speed gears had been standard equipment in the more expensive cars, but now they began to appear on small and cheaper cars.
At the 1927 Motor Show it was obvious that the saloon was to predominate. Its lines were being improved, luggage grids and outside trunks were being replaced by built-in containers which enhanced the appearance of the cars, and the rounded contours which were the forerunners of streamlining were evident on all sides.
By 1928 the really small car had brought motoring down to a more economical level than ever. The Austin Seven was no longer alone in the field. Its first rivals were the Singer Eight, the Triumph “Super Seven” and the Morris Minor. The Morris Minor appeared at the 1928 show, and introduced another controversy, as it had an overhead-valve engine. The engines of the other small cars had all been of the side-valve type, but the overhead-valve Morris Minor showed no signs of being less reliable than the others, and the extra efficiency of the overhead-valve engine made it popular in cars of all sizes.
Front-Wheel Drive
Other developments in the same year were the almost universal adoption of coil ignition in place of the magneto, and the use of pump circulation for the cooling water instead of the thermo-siphon principle. There was little change in methods of suspension, although the Lancia “Lambda” had for many years been successful with its independent front-wheel springing. Alvis and B.S.A. cars appeared with front-wheel drive, which was still standard on the B.S.A. three-wheelers and four-wheelers in 1938, as well as on some Continental and American cars.
In 1928 Captain Campbell raised the land speed record to 206·95 miles an hour, driving his Napier-engined car at Daytona. From 1929 onwards the story of the record is told in the chapters “The World’s Land Speed Record” and “A Triumph of Speed”.
One of the most interesting developments since 1928 has been that of the really small sports car. Before 1928 the sports car was pre-eminently exemplified by such British makes as Bentley, Alvis, Lagonda and by foreign cars such as Amilcar, Salmson and Alfa-Romeo. The Austin Seven sports model had the 750 c.c. class to itself. In 1929, however, the M.G. Midget appeared.
Mr. Cecil Kimber of Morris Garages, Ltd., had for some years been producing “hotted-up” Morris cars, known as M.G. cars, but the appearance of the M.G. Midget opened up a new era in small sports cars. These amazing little cars suddenly began to challenge all comers, even in important international events.
By 1930 the clear-cut division between sports car and family car was obvious, and the open tourer, as such, had almost died out. The sports car of 1930 was not an uncomfortable, noisy vehicle intended only for fast work in competitions. It became the car for the man who liked fast driving where fast driving could safely be indulged in, and in comfort and completeness of equipment it yielded nothing to the family car except a roof and windows.
In 1936 and 1937 the small open tourer showed signs of coming into its own again, but the interesting point about this was that the open tourer of 1937, selling for less than £150, rivalled in comfort and in performance the real sports car of 1922 which had cost three or four times as much.
CHASSIS OF ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM III. The twelve-cylinder V-type engine, in two banks of six, has cylinders 82‘5 by 114 centimetres and a swept volume of 7,340 cubic centimetres. The R.A.C. rating is 50'7 horse-power. Overhead valves are fitted and there are four speeds, with a synchromesh gearbox. The wheelbase is 11 ft. 10 in. Standard types of bodywork include a touring limousine and a Pullman limousine.
The period between 1930 and 1935 saw a revival of the vogue for streamlining, which had been tentatively introduced many years before. Streamlining was adopted more as a means of improving appearance than for any practical utility. Many streamlined cars of the period were freakish in appearance and, although their designs have been superseded by less unconventional and more pleasing bodies, they have certainly left their mark on the cars of the present day.
A demand for increased body space led to another fashion, which began in 1932 — the mounting of the radiator much farther forward than bad been the custom previously. This new fashion revolutionized the frontal appearance of cars, and although it brought with it new problems concerned with the distribution of weight, the automobile engineer was able to cope with them by the development of improved springing systems and more efficient shock-absorbers.
There is no question that the modern car owes its excellent suspension largely to racing experience. There was a time when shock absorbers (spring dampers) were the exclusive property of the racing car, which could not hold the road without them because of the light weight of the cars and the high speeds at which they were driven.
Independent front-wheel suspension, which was introduced on at least one light car in 1937, was used on all the most successful racing cars in 1936. The one development which does not seem to have been handed down from the racing car to the touring car is the supercharger. Arguments about “blown” versus “unblown” cars have been as heated as those about four cylinders versus six, or about four speeds versus three; but, although the supercharged racing cars have carried nearly all honours before them, the touring car has always retained atmospheric induction.
During the latter part of the period under review the famous Bentley came under the control of Rolls-Royce, Ltd, who produced a 3½-litre model (later replaced by a 4¼-litre car) which was outstanding as a combination of speed and silence. The new Bentleys formed a strange contrast to the old 3-litre models, the inimitable throaty roar of which gave place to a degree of silence never before approached in a sports car.
Flexible Engine Mountings
The famous Rolls-Royce “Silver Ghost” was replaced in 1925 by the “New Phantom”. In 1929 this car gave place to a new model, known as “Phantom II”, and in 1935 the “Phantom III” models made their first appearance.
The smaller model, introduced as the 20-horse-power Rolls-Royce in 1922, became the 20/25 horse-power model in 1929, and this was superseded in 1936 by a new car known as the 25/30 horsepower model.
In 1937 the Phantom III, with its 12-cylinder engine of 7,340 cubic centimetres capacity, was priced, in chassis form, at £1,900. As a touring limousine it cost £2,675. The 25/30 horsepower model cost £1,100 in chassis form and £1,740 as a touring limousine. Although the Rolls-Royce Company has never claimed inordinate speeds for its cars, the latest models have a performance that would be envied by the owners of most powerful sports cars. This performance is allied to extreme refinement and silence.
The desirability of silence (aided somewhat by legislation) was realized more and more, and even the small high-efficiency sports cars were considerably quietened by improved designs of silencer which did not introduce back-pressure or detract from the performance of a small engine.
Smoothness of running — another desirable feature of a car — was greatly improved from 1935 onwards by the general practice of mounting the engine (or the engine and gearbox, if they were built in one unit) on rubber bushes.
Flexible engine mountings were adopted by almost every manufacturer of small cars, and their effectiveness was largely responsible for the virtual disappearance of the small six-cylinder engine from the market. The new “fours”, with their flexible engine mountings, were as smooth, from the driver’s point of view, as the old “sixes”, and a four-cylinder engine was more economical from the point of view of taxation. In 1937 the six-cylinder light car was a rarity, whereas in 1931 and 1932 it appeared to be the car of the future.
LOWERING THE BODY on to the chassis of an Austin Ten. The wings are temporarily protected with padding. Rated at 9-996 horse-power, the Austin Ten has four cylinders, having a cubic capacity of 1,125 cubic centimetres. There are four speeds, with central change.
Another development that was responsible for a great improvement in the running comfort of cars was the introduction of the low-pressure tyre. Known at first as balloon tyres, these low-pressure tyres improved riding over rough surfaces and became universally popular. At a certain time it seemed that pressures were to become lower and lower, the size of the tyre being increased correspondingly. Some cars were produced with wheels which were little more than hubs having huge balloon tyres mounted on them. For various reasons, chief of which was probably the difficulty in jacking such a wheel up after a puncture, this scheme lost favour, and the tyres of 1937 were of the medium-pressure variety.
The years 1936 and 1937 also saw a surprising return to the pressed-steel wheel. For many years the wire wheel had been pre-eminent on nearly all makes of car. Its appearance was certainly smarter than that of the old “artillery” wheel. When the new pressed-steel wheels, with large chromium plated hub-caps, were introduced they were rapidly adopted by all the leading manufacturers, and at the 1937 Exhibition there were few cars, even of the smallest size, which retained wire wheels.
Much of the efficiency of the car of to-day is due to the improved processes of production which have made it possible to use steel pressings for the bodywork. Bodies have been reduced in weight and in price by this means, and at the same time the pleasing lines demanded by the motoring public have been made possible. Chassis have been made lighter, though not to a great degree. It seems as if the designers have only recently awakened to the need for improving the power-to-weight ratio; for, although such cars as the Ford V8 and the Railton have achieved wonderful results in this way, most of the smaller cars are generally considered to be underpowered for the weight that they have to carry. Possibly this is another aspect of the racing car which will one day invade the world of the family car.
Record After Record
The year 1937 saw a large number of fine performances by drivers of racing cars. In Class G (750-1,100 c.c.), for instance, an M.G. covered distances of one, five and ten miles (flying starts) at speeds of 148·7, 144·6, and 129·4 miles an hour respectively. In Class B (5-8 litres) a German Auto-Union achieved 252·5, 228·9 and 223·9 miles an hour (flying starts) over the same distances. All these performances were world’s records in their respective classes.
The performances put up during 1937 by the German racing cars were made possible only by the detailed study of every possible means of improving the power-to-weight ratio, and it is significant that these cars, with engines of more than 6,000 c.c. capacity, weighed less than racing cars of 1920 which had engines of half the size. The universal popularity of the comfortable saloon body has brought at least one serious problem in its train, and until it is solved the public will have to pay for its comfort either in petrol consumption or in loss of performance.
It is, perhaps, difficult to trace any point of resemblance between the early cars of Benz and Daimler and the modern motor car, other than the fact that an internal combustion engine is used for propulsion. But the development has taken place slowly and inevitably. Chassis, engine, body — all have improved out of all recognition in the course of fifty years, but almost every single development has been logical.
The effect of each single improvement has been almost unnoticeable, but their cumulative effect has produced a vehicle the reliability of which is accepted without question by millions of people who have little technical knowledge or skill. The modern car’s reliability has made technical skill unnecessary, and the motorist of to-day owes more to the pioneers and the band of workers who have followed them than he will ever realize.
STREAMLINED SALOON. This Lincoln-Zephyr is an excellent example of modern American practice. The twelve-cylinder engine, of 4,378 cubic centimetres, is rated at 36·3 horse-power. As with most American cars, there are three speeds. A larger Lincoln saloon rated at 46·8 horse-power, is marketed also.
