Fast and furious

Like so many inventions in the past, further development was easier once the initial blueprint was established. The action was fast and furious in the first years of the new century. Because many of the car manufacturers were being run by engineers and not businessmen, they had the authority, and the audacity, to build exactly what they wanted.

We may think that our fuel-injected, 16-valve, electronically-chipped and heavily-appointed cars of the 1990s represent the pinnacle of automotive design, but this is not the case. In fact, apart from the electronics, most of the concepts found in a typical modern car are little more than an advancement of an idea originally devised decades ago. Only the lack of suitable materials available to engineers at that time stifled inspired thought.

Another factor, of course, was the price. As the car¢ s popularity spread, so to did the demand for cheap, simple transport for the masses, epitomized by the Ford Model T By the mid-1920s nearly 700, 000 cars were in daily use on British roads and more than ten million could be found in the USA. Things weren¢ t rosy for all vehicle manufacturers, however, with many small outfits floundering early-on. As the car became big business across the world only the strongest survived.

This was never more evident than in the aftermath of an economic slump in Europe in the early 1920s, followed several years later across the Atlantic during the Great Depression.

To help the British car industry survive in these though times, the government set up a special horsepower tax which penalized foreign imports. The idea was to tax cars on their power output. This basically sound idea was seriously hampered because the levy imposed (based on calculations performed by the Royal Automobile Club) was derived from a formula which would have baffled even Albert Einstein. Instead of it being related to engine size, it was bizarrely connected to the size of an engine¢ s pistons. Thus, ¢ small-bore/long-stroke¢ engines – the most inefficient design of all – achieved the lowest taxation. As a result, engine development in the UK was crippled for years. The tax was finally replaced in 1947 by a flat-rate charge better known today as the road fund license. Incidentally this coincided with the launch of the Standard Vanguard, with a ¢ short-stroke¢ engine aimed directly at export markets.

The 1930s saw a significant shift towards the affordable car, both in the US and in the UK. Ford¢ s Y Popular became the company¢ s first truly British car. It cost just 100 – easily within the realms of the ordinary worker, as contemporary advertisements at the time showed. With more than 1.5 million cars on the UK ¢ s streets by this time, the car was fast being viewed as not simply a luxury, but more a necessity. Expectations rose too. Safety glass, proper windscreen wipers and better interiors were now standard even in the cheapest car.

The advent of World War II saw progress in aero-engine design which decades later would have an effect on the car. Multi-valve engines were used by Rolls-Royce for extra power and superior high-octane fuels were introduced for added performance. One American fighter used an engine which made use of an embryonic variable valve-timing system – an innovation which is increasingly being seen on car engines 50 years later.

The immediate postwar years were bleak on the automotive front, however. I Britain car manufacturers were ordered by the government to export, so half of all production was destined for overseas. There was a real shortage of cars, fuel and even tyres, and used-car prices soared to meet the increasing demand. To stop any speculating and selling-on for a instant profit, new car buyers were forced to sign a pledge that stated that they would not sell the car for a minimum of two years.

While the countries of Europe tightened their collective belts with the continued imposition of rationing, the US car industry returned to its pre-war ways by offering unprecedented levels of refinement to potential car buyers. Fully automatic transmission, cruise control and powered brakes, seats and windows were all common fittings.

In the UK new car designs were scarce, with most postwar models being carry-overs from the 1930s. It was left to the humble, yet technically advanced Morris Minor and the stunning Jaguar XK120 to woo enthusiasts at the 1948 Motor Show in London.

That same year saw a remarkable car launched in America – the Tucker ¢ 48 ¢. Preston Tucker was a flamboyant small-time car manufacturer who wanted to make it big with what was described at the time as the first completely new car for half a century. With features like a special passenger safety cage and standard seat belts, the Tucker was decades ahead of its rivals, but it flopped due to the company having little business acumen. Tucker made big claims and promises to raise the $12 million he required, and although later charged with fraud, his only crime was over-enthusiasm.

Preston Tucker thought the big car-makers were out to get him but his failure was due principally to being out of his depth and expecting too much too soon. Had the ¢ 48¢ been a success, the progress of auto technology may have moved on much more rapidly.

The 1950s was a time when the car industry tried to shake off its postwar blues. Although these were still austere times, it turned out to be a golden age in motoring. American bosses of both Ford and Vauxhall became more involved in the designs of their UK satellites, while the sheer size of product output by parent companies in the US saw the demise of many superb, but small, European car-makers.

From a technical viewpoint, the 1950s was a decade of advancement thanks to the universal quest to improve the motor car. Engineers and pioneers were given license to express and exploit their ideas with a freedom which has only recently returned. Rover experimented with gas turbine power, the rotary engine was designed and advanced automatic transmissions using continually-variable gear ratios were produced.

Not surprisingly, the 1950s also brought us two of the most significant designs in automotive history – the Citroen DS and the evergreen Mini.

The DS was a technological delight, with its complex hydraulic system powering the brakes and suspension, which in turn imbued the car with levels of performance hitherto unseen on a family car.

The Mini was the result of a world fuel crisis which highlighted the need for a practical economy vehicle, rather than the free-wheel ¢ bubble¢ city cars that had became a popular sight in Europe after the Suez War of 1956.

With the space race just beginning between the superpowers and the Cold War showing little sign of thawing, the pace of technological progress was frightening. Anything and everything looked possible.

It didn¢ t last long. By the mid-1960s realism was starting to creep in. of all the major car developments of the previous decade only three – the Mini, tubeless tyres and disc brakes – gained popularity. The rest disappeared almost as quickly as they came. Even the Mini, which is now approaching 40 years of age, didn¢ t make a profit in its first decade of production.