Showdown

Most people have never driven a modern automobile. They do not know what free-wheeling is. They still think one has to press a pedal to start the engine and then another when shifting gears. They think shifting gears silently is an accomplishment. They do not mind it when the car roars in second or reverse. They fiddle instinctively with the choke when the motor splutters. They would be startled to see a dashboard with no choke at all.

Such people may be tempted to buy a new car when they see the 1933 automobile shows, led off as usual by the New York Automobile Show last week. On exhibit were 300 models representing 29 makes of cars. Some of the usual element of surprise was missing because many manufacturers, sales-hungry " (and perhaps wiser than before) had already revealed their 1933 wares. But even jaded engineers and salesmen found much to get excited about. And never before in its 33 years has the Show been such a show in the showman's sense.

No "steerers" waited to nab visitors and whisk them off to certain exhibits. But manufacturers went further than ever before to rivet attention on their booths. Worthy of a Roxy was the Chrysler exhibit: 35 salesmen and seven girls dressed in creamy flannels; rug of the same color and all the cars shaded to match; a huge merry-go-round said to have cost $20.000 displaying Chrysler parts and a chassis, presided over by a Sousa-like gentleman with a wand.

"Get a key and win a Rockne," chanted a blonde in a streamlined yellow dress. By the Chevrolet exhibit stood a tall young man in the red costume and black busby of the Scots Guards. A cinema showed, while a voice told, how Studebakers can tumble down a hill, be righted and driven off; how they can hurtle over bumps without capsizing or breaking springs. A jacked-up Hupmobile lit with a clavilux raced against a pastoral landscape conveying a dreamlike blonde who pretended to shift gears and then stared at the crowd, not replying to youths, flushed by dinner, who requested a ride. A horrible robot with red eyes and a death-green face demonstrated Rockne placards to the accompaniment of diabolic roaring and swaying. People crowded around to see if it was human or mechanical* Boy and Sea Scouts made models for the Fisher Body Guild. A cutaway Buick motor, electrically driven, revealed the working of pistons and valves. By every General Motors car was a shiny blower to demonstrate the actual workings of Fisher draft control. On every floor, in every corner, was testimony to the desperate drive for business which autodom will make this year.

Behind the working models and the showmanship there was, ready for use, the U. S. Passenger Car, 1933 Model.

This car is more streamlined than its predecessors, but it is still far (except for a daring egg-shaped sedan by Fierce-Arrow) from the extremes proposed by such engineers as Sir Charles Burney, ach?ocate of the motor-behind car. The streamlining begins with the radiators. They are all protected by grills or shutters and most, following Chrysler's 1931 idea, are slanted back, expressing modernity with a snow-plowish thrust at the bottom. Front fenders are wider and more elaborate. Most are skirted behind the wheel, following the idea of the 1932 Graham and the ''spats" on airplanes. Small parking lights on the fenders are popular. Most streamlined of the cheaper cars are the new Willys models, little bug cars with headlights wrapped in the fenders. The trend towards longer wheelbases has stopped but body lines give an illusion of length and height, even in some of the high-priced cars which give an impression of locomotive massiveness.

Show colors ran mostly to blues and blacks. There were some bright hues but the opalescent trend seems to have halted with 1932. Interiors are apt to be bright broadcloth rather than mohair. Instrument panels are more condensed although the airplane type of speedometer is popular. Bar bumpers are almost universal. Many hood louvres open horizontally instead of vertically.

Mechanical improvements abound. Some are fairly simple, such as a lever which enables one to drain the crankcase without crawling under the car (an old Rolls Royce idea). The development considered most important by engineers is the more general appearance of power-brakes on nine makes.

Most engines have rubber mountings on the ''Floating Power" principle. Some of the cars have automatic chokes and about half have automatic starters (Chrysler's "Coincidental Starter" connects the starter to the accelerator as does Chevrolet's "Starterator"). Freewheeling, which last year had its loud foes, is taken for granted. Silent helical gears have invaded the lower-priced field. Although the public firmly believes that riding comfort and safety depend upon weight, most cars are lighter with lower centres of gravity. Rifle-bored crankshafts are more widely used. Under most hoods are downdraft carburetors with intake silencers. Automatic manifold temperature control is popular.

Prices are lower than ever before. Nineteen thirty-three's cars will compete in the following groups:-

Over $2,000

Cadillac V-8 $2,695 Marmon 16 $4.825 Cadillac V12 3,395 Packard 8 2,150 Cadillac V16 6,250 Packard 12 3,720 Franklin 12 2,885 Fierce-Arrow 12 2.785 La Salle 8 2,245 Fierce-Arrow 8 2,385 Lincoln 12 2,700 Stutz 8 2,495

Over $1,500 Reo 8 1,745 Stutz 6 1,995

Over $1,000 Auburn 12 1,145 Hudson 8 1,075 Dodge 8 1,115 Hupmobile 8 1,195 Franklin 6 1,385 Studebaker 8 1,000

*These prices, subject to change, are FOB factory and in each case represent the line's cheapest model. Where there is more than one line of the same number of cylinders, only the cheapest is considered. *Rockne's "Robot" was acted by one John W. Kelly, eccentric, who believes he is actually two people, calls himself "Mrs. J. W. Kelly, $5,000 mechanical man, what is it?"

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