(4 of 4)
Hudson & Terraplane offer as optional equipment "Axleflex," President Roy Dikeman Chapin's answer to knee-action. The wheel-and-spring assembly is traditional but the axle is hinged in the centre by parallel bars, permitting each wheel to bounce independently. President Chapin is convinced that the public is more interested in performance than innovations. Since he returned to Hudson from Washington, where he was Herbert Hoover's Secretary of Commerce, President Chapin has sent Terraplanes into one hill-climbing contest after another, to hang up some 70 records. And he has pulled Hudson out of its deep, deep hole.
Roy Chapin got his start with the old Olds Motor Works about the time "Come, Away with Me, Lucille. In My Merry Oldsmobile" was a smash hit. But he soon left the merry Oldsmobile and ended up in Hudson in its infancy. He agrees with those engineers who believe that the place to begin streamlining is the rear, not the front of a car. And Hudsons and Terraplanes show his attention to rears, which this year are all strictly teardrop.
Nash's regular line featured an optional independent spring front axle somewhat similar in principle to Hudson's "Axleflex.''
Studebaker, which has carried on vigorously under the leadership of Paul Hoffman (and whose sales in dollar volume have recently been exceeded only by GM, Ford and Chrysler), offered a line of boldly streamlined sixes and eights. One of its features is a six-beam headlight. Studebaker's show was always crowded. No motor manufacturer made a more effective bid for popular interest.
Auburn displayed two lines of eights, two lines of sixes. The custom eight features a dual ratio rear axle.
Reo's big contribution to 1934 motoring is automatic gear-shifting. You still have to put the car in low gear (with a push rod on the dash) but once in gear a few steel weights spinning like a governor on a drum in the rear of the transmission do the rest. When a speed of about 18 m.p.h. is attained, centrifugal force throws out the weights, engaging a small supplementary clutch which throws the car into direct drive (high gear). When the car slows down below 18 m.p.h. the weights drop back, the small clutch disengages and the car is automatically in low. As the low is a fast low, Reo has provided a manual shift which changes the ratio to a low low and high low. Reverse is also manual.
Hupmobile approached the egg-shape of pure aerodynamics more closely than any other make at the show except Chrysler and De Soto. But its broad front and smooth taper to the rear was achieved without scrapping all points of traditional design.
Lancia, from Italy, was the only foreign exhibit. Last week Lancia was testily advertising that it had had independent front wheel action since 1920.
Manhattan crowds flocked to the 34th annual automobile in a buying mood and U. S. motormen had ample reason to expect good hunting when they left the council rock.