The U.S. oil industry let out a howl of anguish four years ago when General Motors' research wizard, Charles F. Kettering, announced a revolutionary new auto engine. By using gasoline with a 105-octane rating, Kettering's high-compression engine could get 30 miles to the gallon. Complained oilmen: to provide enough 105-octane gas to make such a revolution practical would require a $2 billion rebuilding of their whole refining equipment.
In Tulsa, Okla. this week, before the American Petroleum Institute, General Motors planned to take the wraps off a still more advanced high-compression engine—the "19XX"—which answers the oilmen's objections. Like Kettering's, it has a 12-to-1 compression ratio, but it operates on 96-octane gas, within easy reach of refineries now making high-test gasoline (90-octane). G.M. has installed the engine in a 1951 Cadillac, put it through stiff road tests. Combined with a powerful new (and still secret) automatic transmission, the engine has already proved that it can cut gas consumption from 29% to 40%, depending on speed. G.M.'s present research chief, Charles L. McCuen, believes it can shave $2.5 billion a year from U.S. motorists' fuel bills. It can be put into mass production as soon as war restrictions ease enough to permit the huge retooling required.