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As you may have noticed from some of the Cold Starts I’ve written this week, I’m an old Popular Science I’m going to start editing the magazine again. I consider it an important part of my job to bring you the latest in automotive and science news from over 60 years ago. You’re probably too important, busy, and frankly too sexy to do this tedious task alone, with mold and dust on your hands and smelling like a cigar that’s been in a library ashtray since the Ford era. So I’m going to do it! That means that every now and then you’ll get submissions like this one, which is a random collection of stuff I found interesting or funny in that issue! Awesome!
This issue is featured in my Bally Astrocade, which I’m proud to own. It’s from March 1963, and the colors on the cover are bright and vibrant. I’m telling you this because Matt, our publisher, has drummed into me that we can’t have images before the third paragraph because it interferes with ad placement, video players, etc. I don’t know. Sometimes he goes on and on about it and I just blank out.
But you remember the important part: there are no images until the third paragraph! And look where we are now! It’s image time!
Let’s start with this weirdly sinister and scary ad. I don’t think Ford/Autolite intended to make the Model T look like a horror movie monster about to chew you into a rich, chunky salsa, but they definitely pulled it off! I mean, getting a mile per gallon better in a 1914 car is great, but did they really need to film it crawling out of a foggy swamp? Also, the car was a whopping 49 years old when this ad was filmed. So if they were to do this today, the comparable car would be around 1975. Hell, my Beetle is older than that.
So this is very interesting. I haven’t found any other information about this online so far, but it appears to be an early Tweel-like airless wheel designed to be used as a spare tire. It uses a rubber spring in the center and a hard rubber “tire” and appears to be only 2 inches thick. It reminds me of the skinny plastic wheels that repair shops use to move cars, which I wrote about back in March. This old Schmidt wheel is the only one that was ever tested at 100 mph. I’m curious to see what it would be like to drive a Beetle with 2 inch thick tires. It would be fun. And scary. But fun?
Here’s another great thing about Volkswagens – it’s a Type 2 van and appears to have a lot of home kitchen appliances built in. Does “demo” these ovens and ranges mean they actually work? Will they work if I connect them to an external 220V power source? I’m going to dial LL Smith at ED-3-0387 and ask.
Check out this amazing Fiat with a Ghia design! This is the Fiat 2300S Club, officially listed in a Fiat brochure at the time, but only two were actually built.
“…Ideal for long distance travel, sports and holidays in any country and weather.”
Pretty impressive. They call it a “shooting brake” and while that may well be the case, it feels a bit like a hatchback – we’ll have to check the dimensions against wagon rules to be sure.
I really love this old Econoline ad because it basically portrays the virtues of a van: the Econoline was just that, a van!
Another creepy advertising technique is a tire with human hands growing out of it, desperately clawing at the road. And the “safety disc” is… was Those little pieces of rubber between the treads that keep the gaps open and clear? This is a tire technology we don’t hear about anymore, along with the self-growing technology of human hands.
And finally, here’s something completely unrelated to cars, but very strange: a tobacco company is running a contest where you could win a horse. You get to name the horse, which, by the way, is the son of the legendary Citation. If your name is chosen, you’ll instantly become the owner of the horse. Horse owner! Luckily, the company will take care of the horse and even race it. Maybe you could take it home and keep it in your garage? Maybe?
I found a few forums online where people were sharing their memories of these contests and it seemed like many were also hoping to take a horse home with them.
It’s a strange world we live in, isn’t it? At least, it was the world 60 years ago.
Inflatable windshields and sporty fire trucks were once the rage.
A 1960 issue of Popular Science magazine features diatribes about front-wheel drive owners and early self-driving car experiments that are still relevant today.
It’s interesting to compare the cost of an electric car to the cost of a horse-drawn carriage in 1900.
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