Proposals & Prototypes

Legislation aimed at improving the safety and reducing the air-pollution characteristics of the automobile has speeded efforts--and imagination--on other fronts.

sbThe Department of Housing and Urban Development, eager to cut down on air pollution and city traffic headaches, last week endorsed a snappy 9-ft. "minicar" that would be about half as long as today's intermediate Chevrolets and Fords, create one-tenth of the pollution. Developed under a $299,995 HUD grant to the University of Pennsylvania with help from General Motors, the three-passenger, 100-mile-range "hybrid" could whiz along highways at 60 m.p.h. on a small gasoline engine, switch to a battery-powered electric motor for tooling around town.

HUD hopes to have a prototype built next year, figures that because the car is designed to use existing auto components, it could be mass-produced at a cost of $1,600. HUD ultimately envisions an urban transportation concept under which commuters would pay a fee to join a vast minicar pool, get to and from work in cars kept at central lots, which during the working day would supply idle cars to other pool members.

sbA safety commission from New York State showed off a design for a four-passenger Safety Sedan, developed under a $385,000 contract by Fairchild Killer Corp.'s Republic Aviation Division. Billed as a car to be developed with "an aeronautical approach," the sedan could, according to the safety commission, be mass-produced as cheaply as Detroit's lower-priced models, be far ahead in safety. Though New York State has no plans to build it, the design has such features as four-wheel drive for maximum traction and resistance to skidding, an all-window defrosting system, four roll bars, a "driver's periscope" affording wide-angle rear-view visibility, and a hydraulic, energy-absorbing bumper that extends forward one foot when the car speeds beyond 37 m.p.h. The tanklike car is supposed to protect passengers against injuries in front and rear collisions up to 50 m.p.h., side bashes up to 40 m.p.h., and rollovers up to 70 m.p.h.

sbMadison, Wis., Inventor Bruce B. Mohs, 35, has built over two years at a cost of some $15,000 in parts alone a prototype of a plastic-covered, steel-bodied car called the Ostentatienne Opera Sedan. It boasts a 270DEG windshield visibility, hidden rails in the sides to protect its four passengers (who enter through a single swing-up rear door), cantilevered roof beams that act as skid rails in case of a rollover, and seats that swing in a collision, placing body weight against the seat instead of a narrow seat belt. Mohs, who claims that the sedan is the first big U.S. car built since the Duesenberg was last made in 1937, invited Ford to see its features. To Madison came the curator of the Henry Ford Museum; he was unimpressed.

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