Economy in fuel consumption is another great advantage of our “48″ six-cylinder car which results from the carbureter to a great extent. The Locomobile has frequently been driven 12 miles to the gallon on a full passenger load. Owners have without exception reported fine results in this direction. Some of the features of our “Six” carbureter that produce this economy and general satisfaction are as follows:

1 . Special design of the aspirating nozzle producing the power of a multiple jet with the simplicity and easy starting of a single jet.

2. These results are accomplished without the attention of the driver and without the use of any automatic device of any sort.

3. The use of both hot water and hot air enables low gravity fuel to be consumed with entire satisfaction.

4. The hot air pipe is fitted with an adjustable opening through which cool air may be drawn in summer.

5. The quality of the mixture is controlled by a lever and quadrant on the dashboard. This facilitates self starting and enables the operator to get the most out of the car by varying the richness of the mixture to meet varying conditions.

A new carbureter has been provided for the “30″ Locomobile. It has the same dashboard control of the mixture as the “48″ carbureter. The use of this carbureter makes the “30″ Locomobile easier to start, more powerful and more economical. It is a valuable improvement.

All Locomobile carbureters are of the constant level aspirating type. The body is bronze and the induction pipe is bronze composition. The float is spun copper. The Locomobile gasolene tank, like everything else about the car, is permanently substantial. It is constructed of 24 gauge sheet steel, the strongest metal available for the purpose, and is heavily galvanized to prevent corrosion. The tank is braced internally with baffle plates, every joint and connection is reinforced. Every tank is tested with gasolene, up side down and in every possible position. The opening is under the seat cushion at the left of the car, provided with a removable strainer. Gravity fuel feed is employed; superior to any pressure system on account of its greater simplicity, reliability and safety. The force of gravity always operates, whereas any pressure system is artificial, is more complicated and needs attention. An important advantage of the gravity system is that the tank is located under the front seat where it is completely concealed and protected. The fuel tank is located at a sufficient elevation above the carbureter to insure a steady flow of gasolene at all times. The discharge pipe is located at the right and extreme rear end of the tank, so that the entire contents are available for use and the car may be operated until the last drop is gone. Roadster models, that is, the “30″ Baby Tonneau and the “30″ and “48 ” Torpedo models, are provided with a hand air pump enabling the operator to pump up a little pressure in the tank in case of any emergency. A relief valve prevents the operator from pumping up excessive pressure.

A large cone shaped strainer is permanently placed over the outlet in the bottom of the tank to prevent impurities from passing to the carbureter.

Crank-Case.

One of the most interesting details of the Locomobile motor is the substantial bronze base on which the cylinders rest. Bronze makes an absolutely rigid structure, which greatly prolongs the life of the motor. Aluminum, which is commonly used for the purpose, has but one-third the strength. In a bronze base, such as is used on the Locomobile, there is no danger of fracture or of the bearings getting out of line. The bottom portion of the engine consists of an aluminum casting bolted underneath the bronze engine base and used to contain the oil for the lubrication of the motor. Inasmuch as this part of the engine is not subjected to stress, aluminum is used to save weight.

Crank-Shaft.

This very important part of the motor is notable for its strength and fine workmanship. The crank-shaft of the Locomobile is a solid bar of alloy steel, which is first pressed out in rough form on a hydraulic forge and then heat-treated. The crank-shaft is machine finished all over, from end to end, whereas in most crank-shafts the bearings only are machined. It is balanced on a testing device with knife blades prepared for the purpose. The crank-shaft is forged with a flange at the rear end to which the fly-wheel is substantially secured. The crank-shaft rests on main bearings of liberal dimensions, perfect alignment being established before the crank-shaft is assembled in its bearings. The bearings of the motor consist of the alloy steel surface of the crank-shaft rotating in bushings of white bronze, compressed to the proper density and highly polished by a special process of our own. The bearing caps are secured by four double lock nuts and cotter pins.

Cam-Shafts.

Locomobile forgings with cams integral. Cam-shafts are heat-treated to secure proper hardness and are ground all over. Cams are ground on a special machine with special fixtures and are absolutely accurate.

Connecting Rods.

Locomobile connecting rods are very strong, drop forged from special steel in our shops. The bearings of the connecting rod on the crank-shaft are similar in construction to the main bearings, and are made adjustable by thin copper shims. The connections are very strong, the bearing caps being secured to the connecting rods by four studs a nut, lock nut, and cotter pin for each stud.

Pistons.

Selected gray iron castings are used, each casting being subjected to a sand blast and a careful hand filing. This shows up defective material, also removes any partially loose metal and prevents it from working into the motor and cutting the bearings. The pistons are carefully turned on a lathe, and then ground to exact size, the finished piston having a slight taper at the top to allow for expansion caused by the greater heat of the piston at its upper end. Piston rings are four in number, cut from specially selected, springy stock. The rings are turned eccentric, cut at an angle of 45 degrees, then compressed to circular form, held in a fixture, and ground all over their entire circumference. Pistons with rings in place are lapped with an abrasive compound until they fit perfectly.

Wrist Pins.

Pistons are secured to the connecting rods by hardened steel wrist pins ground to size. The wrist pins are forced into the pistons with a very close fit preventing any up-and-down motion, and are secured to the pistons by steel studs, which keep them from turning or moving laterally. The studs are prevented from working loose by a steel wire, the ends of which pass through holes drilled in the ends of the studs, and are then bent around. The wrist pin bearing is a steel bushing, hardened and forced into the small end of the connecting rod. Special provision for thorough lubrication of all wrist pins is provided.

Vahe System.

The valve springs are of specially selected stock, the valves are carefully made and precisely set the entire system may be operated for long periods of time without need of attention. Cam rollers are hardened steel and have a long bearing in the bronze lifter guides, a form of construction which prevents wear and rattle. In case it is desired to check the timing of the valves, marks on the fly-wheel enable this to be done with promptness and certainty.

Pump.

The centrifugal water pump is located on the exhaust side of the motor. The pump shaft is driven by a gear meshing with the exhaust cam-shaft gear.

Cylinders.

Locomobile cylinders are cast in pairs with valve boxes and water jackets integral. The practice of casting cylinders in pairs is considered to be the best as it produces a compact motor and does not limit the size or arrangement of motor bearings. A bronze cover plate is used for each pair of cylinders and carries the fittings for the water connections and the pet cocks. This form of construction greatly facilitates the production of perfect cylinder castings, enables the water jackets to be made uniform, and thoroughly cleaned out before the motor is built. This insures perfect cooling circulation. All cylinder castings are subjected to a very careful inspection, to a sand blast, hand filing, and finally to a cold water test. The cylinders are bored three times, and ground to exact size with water flowing through the water jackets to keep the temperature uniform and prevent distortion. Each pair of cylinders is secured to the bronze crank-case by eight strong heavy studs, with double lock nuts and cotter pins. This absolutely prevents the cylinders from coming loose. The compression is about 65 to 70 pounds gauge pressure, and the compression spaces are calibrated so that the compression is uniform in all cylinders.

Timing Gears.

Placed at the front of the motor in a housing formed by an extension of the bronze engine bed, protected by an aluminum cover. The timing gears are of metal and cut in our shop, following our practice for the past eight years or more. Metal gears are unaffected by the action of oil; fibre gears or composition gears swell when immersed in oil and shrink when the car is not used; and do not wear as long as metal gears. There are five gears in the case: crank -shaft gear, admission cam-shaft gear, exhaust cam-shaft gear, pump gear, and magneto gear. The separate gears are cut, and the complete train of gears assembled, with the greatest possible care to produce silent running. Lubrication is continuous and thorough.

Testing.

We have tested under its own power every motor that we have ever built, and we have preserved a record of this test. This will indicate our endeavor to make every motor as perfect as possible. When the motor is completed it is flooded with oil

Building the Locomobile Motor.

Tenth View Complete with magneto, wiring and spark plugs and placed on a stand where it is driven by a belt for a considerable period. It is then placed on the test stand, and equipped with its own carbureter and magneto and ignition apparatus, and run under its own power, slowly at first. After it is broken in, its power is tested by engaging the fly-wheel with the armature shaft of a dynamo. As the motor drives the dynamo its mechanical power is transformed into electrical power, which is easily and exactly measured. Each motor is operated on the test stand until it fulfills the established requirements.

Oiling System “40″.

Oil contained in the pan under the motor is splashed about, lubricating pistons, cylinders, and wrist pins. A gear-driven oiler forces oil through leads in the crank-shaft, thence through all its bearings.

Oiling System “48″.

A gear-driven pump forces oil to the bearings in a constant stream. Connecting rods dip into troughs the height of which is such that complete lubrication is assured; this feature in combination with baffle plates prevents any excess of oil and consequent smoking at the exhaust. A strainer prevents any clogging of the circulating system and can be removed for cleaning. An oil by-pass combines the advantages of a gravity head with a circulating system and does away with any tank under the bonnet.

Offering everything from silent starts to high-torque speed boosts with ultra-low emissions, the powerful integrated starter-generator’s capabilities appear to be a technician’s dream.

But it also might be a supplier’s nightmare. Engines could shed a host of time-tested components, from the gear-toothed flywheel and starter motor to alternators and other belt-driven accessories.

Adoption of any integrated starter-generator system also will mean large cost increases for both power generation and battery storage over today’s conventional systems, says Gary Cameron, chief engineer of Delphi Automotive Systems Corp.’s Energenix working group.

“If you just look at integrated starter-generator systems as producing electricity, it’s probably a multiple of three to five times more expensive than what you have on the electrical system today, roughly. The key to making the value work on these things is what you enable with this system,” Cameron says.

That same factor of three to five times current costs applies to the battery systems needed to manage the power generated and used by integrated starter-generator systems, compared with today’s relatively modest 12-volt battery costs, he says.

ELECTRIFIED GOLF

Siemens Automotive Corp. engineer Jorg Lehmann has placed an integrated starter-generator in the 1.6-liter engine of a Volkswagen Golf, a relatively heavy car by European standards. His team also installed a technically advanced automatic-manual transmission in the package.

Siemens chose the Golf because it already provided the engine control unit for the car. But the prototype is meant as a technology demonstrator only. There are no plans at VW to build a Golf equipped with the system.

Even in the demonstrator, though, Lehmann says the ability of the system to stop an engine and restart it, rather than having it run at idle speed, already is good and continues to be refined.

“There is a problem for the driver to get his foot off the brake and to the accelerator pedal as fast as this engine starts,” he says, citing times of 0.3 seconds to spin an engine past 500 rpm. Conventional starter motors typically take about 1.2 seconds to crank an engine to life.

But fast – and silent – starts aren’t the only key to the system’s impending arrival in production cars.

It’s the ability to turn an internal combustion vehicle into what the industry has termed a mild hybrid, driving a 42-volt electrical system that excites automakers.

COLD-START CURE

The systems have many different names, including start/stop generator; integrated starter alternator; and Integrated Starter Alternator Damper, which was trade named by ContiTech and shown in a prototype in 1998.

The device will allow automakers to use smaller, less gas-hungry engines because its electric torque helps speed off from a stop and uses an electric motor turbo boost when speed increases are needed on the road.

That lets a light-displacement gasoline engine work efficiently, maintaining speeds and charging batteries for the next boost.

Integrated starter-generator systems also are expected to reduce emissions during cold start and initial low-speed driving, the time when the heaviest tailpipe emissions occur.

While moving the car with its internal electric motor, the internal combustion engine’s output is used to heat the catalytic converter. When emissions system conditions are ideal, the engine begins to share more of the driving load. This feature requires some advanced battery technology.

Finally, the integrated starter generator may turn the harshest engine into a purring kitten. The device can pulse to cancel torque peaks in the driveshaft, smoothing the output of otherwise unacceptable powerplants. That capability could speed the introduction of new, clean-burning small diesel engines in cars.

“You have hit upon a key interest,” says Franz Wressnigg, president of Siemens Automotive Systems Group.

Wressnigg and Siemens engineers say that using a starter-generator makes it possible to reduce the compression ratio in light diesels while creating the kind of steady-state operating environment that is the engine’s strength.

Other companies also have tied the devices to diesel.

DaimlerChrysler’s Dodge ESX3 concept, the result of the company’s Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles work, uses a three-cylinder 1.5-liter diesel equipped with permanent-magnet integrated starter alternator supplied by Delphi.

Wressnigg says Siemens already has worked with one small-car manufacturer that believes a starter-generator type system makes it possible to offer a low-cost car by equipping the vehicles with a smaller, cheaper gasoline engine. He would not identify the vehicle or its maker but indicated it was not a North American manufacturer.

“You should not only take into consideration the electrical architecture but that you can reduce the engine size,” Wressnigg said.

KEY TO REDUCED EMISSIONS

Francois Castaing, former Chrysler executive vice president in charge of vehicle engineering, says the starter devices are crucial for getting improvements in fuel economy without a tailpipe emissions tradeoff.

“The cornerstone is a starter alternator integrated with the flywheel, something like that, and a new battery system. Maybe the first step will be a beltless engine with electronically controlled water pump, and electric steering and air conditioning,” Castaing said during a panel discussion at the Convergence 2000 meeting in October in Detroit.

Norio Omori, Denso Corp. senior managing director of engineering r&d, says that to reach fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions targets already set to be introduced in Europe, small to medium-sized cars will need a motor-generator system driven by 42-volt power.

“A hybrid vehicle including the 42-volt stop and start, minor or major (electrical) regeneration and electric vehicle driving at low speed will be necessary to meet that requirement,” Omori says.

COST MAJOR FACTOR

Harry Husted, senior systems engineer for Delphi Automotive Systems, warned that cost is a major factor in discussions of mild hybrids and starter systems. Delphi has named its system Energen 10 and believes it offers promise in fuel economy gains over its investment price.

“The value of a hybrid powertrain has to be greater than its cost. That’s very simple but also very profound,” Husted said.

That means that the move to starter-generator systems may begin with an interim solution – essentially a heftier belt-driven alternator that can act as a starter motor.

The system abandons some of the benefits of a true starter generator, particularly torque pulse damping, but does not require the total engineering change of a starter generator.

“Most of our competitors are offering induction machines on the crankcase housing; we’re offering it here and implementing many of the same functions,” said Daryl Wilson, Visteon Corp.’s technical representative for Energy Transformation Systems.

Visteon showed a water-cooled start/stop alternator designed in partnership with Gates Rubber, which supplies a toughened serpentine belt as part of the system, during Convergence 2000.

Wilson says that such systems offer an affordable, evolutionary way to move to a start/stop engine system.

“Delphi also has developed a start/stop belt-driven alternator, the Energen 5, and recently demonstrated an air-cooled version during the Paris auto show.

“We think it could be well suited for applications in small cars in Europe.

“There’s not that much lateral space in the engine compartment for the system, where this belt drive off to one side can fit,” Cameron says.

He believes a mix of technologies – air-cooled start/stop alternators, liquid cooled alternators and starter-generators – will come to automobiles in the era of 42-volt systems. But Cameron also believes voltages in cars will inevitably increase, demanding further refinements to meet fuel and environmental challenges.

Other engineers view the alternator as a low-cost but potentially time-consuming diversion on the path to true integrated starter systems.

But with 42-volt systems virtually assured for power-hungry cars of the next decade, all agree some form of integrated start/stop system is coming. Today ’s rasping, squealing starter motors will go to join the hand crank in the halls of automotive nostalgia.

There are engineering meetings taking place at major corporations where the “D” word is no longer permissible. These days the diesel engine can only be referred to as a CIDI (compression ignition direct injection) engine or CIDI technology. And while this does appear to be a U.S. only phenomenon, it is gathering momentum and popularity quickly. The mayor of Tokyo firmly renounced the diesel last October.

This comes at a time when diesels are about to become much more prominent an large pickups and also are beginning to test the waters in smaller pickups and SUVs. The diesel also looms large as a handy doomsday machine if CAFE requirements come to crowd out truck and SUV futures.

Cummins has re-engineered the B series for Dodge. The Isuzu Duramax will debut with GMC and Chevy heavy pickups for 2001. The Navistar V-6 is on the way and Detroit Diesel expects to soon announce a European SUV customer for its new 3 L, VR3024 engine. While set to apply diesels in record numbers on the moneymaking side of the house, the auto companies are trying to distance themselves from negative diesel perceptions when rooting for the all-singing, all-dancing green team Olympics. Would you please just drop the bogus spin and say it plain, boys? The modern diesel is a green machine.

CIDI is not new at all, although the latest versions with common rail fuel systems and pilot injection are light years ahead of pre-electronic diesels. With ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and aftertreatment devices, this will be the power plant that will take us into the fuel cell era. Why do we have to call it something else?

From one perspective it is very ironic that all the major hybrid entries in the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) feature diesel engines, although they are referred to as heat engines or CIDI engines and you won’t find the word “diesel” in any of the current collateral material or press releases. The DaimlerChrysler PNGV display did make reference to the diesel in its hybrid, but I expect CIDI terminology to take over there when Chrysler introduces the latest version of its NGV later this spring.

The PNGV program began back in 1993. It created a partnership between the federal government (including seven agencies and 19 federal laboratories) and the Big Three. At the time, that meant Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. The end point is 2004, when production prototypes are supposed to be fielded that are basically family sedans good for 80 mpg and zero to 62 mph acceleration in 12 seconds. At the Detroit Auto Show, Ford unveiled its Prodigy PNGV and GM unveiled the Precept and both contain an army of marvelous technology in addition to the propulsion systems. A diesel prime mover, or CDI heat engine, is used by both PNGV models.

There are electric concept cars coming. Ford is launching the “Think” family of vehicles. GM has a fuel cell version of the Precept. Honda announced the fuel cell-powered FCX vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show last fall and said it will be on the road by 2003. It remains for Honda to define “on the road.” All this is well and good. But I believe electric golf carts will still be outselling electric cars four to one in 2020.

The real story is the diminishing role of the gasoline engine, which I suppose people in the “not know” will call SIFI (spark ignition fuel injected) technology. Let’s try the big picture. At one end of the spectrum, look at the PNGV effort as the most serious attempt yet to bring forward family sedans that catapult the auto industry to new levels of fuel efficiency. This program has substance and is harnessing some space age technology — and not for space shuttle prices. And the diesel is the prime mover for these vehicles.

In the middle ground, look at how prevalent the diesel passenger car has become in Europe. Gasoline engines have lost significant market share. And then at the other end of the auto spectrum, we have the heavy pickups and the bruteutes, and the diesel segment is growing fast and could take over with higher fuel prices or a more aggressive CAFE landscape. The SUV marker in Europe is only evolving, but diesel is again expected to be a prime power source.

I fail to see where this charade with CIDI terminology here in the U.S. serves any purpose. It is a shallow attempt to sweep the proud history of the diesel engine into the dustbin, while the new engineering whiz kids lay claim to the advances. They simply stand on the shoulders of those that came before.

This battle of semantics is also a sop to authorities like CARB and SCAQMD to have them reconsider their anti-diesel bias. Fine. Go ahead. Score yet another point for the politically correct.

But the diesel by any other name is still the one to beat. The prospects have never been better.

The most primal part of the art of driving is what you hold in the palm of your hand: the stick. It’s no accident that hardcore auto enthusiasts are called gearheads. The shift gate is the way to a car’s soul; the stick throbs with the heartbeat of the engine. Forget its energy savings, forget the inevitable Freudianisms: In a fine gearbox, there is nothing less than music. You drive by ear as much as by hand.

I have heat-hazed memories of my first stick–a landlord-green Plymouth Belvedere with three on the tree in which, one summer, I stuttered and stalled across the Carolina Piedmont. The stick is human because it’s harder. It keeps reminding you of your fallibility; many a Nascar driver has lost a race when he missed a shift.

But hold on to your knob, because transmissions are about to change radically. With urban traffic at a crawl, the U. S. market for sticks, always small, has continued to shrink. It’s no fun to pump a clutch through a two-mile-long, two-mile-per-hour backup on the Gowanus Expressway. And soon you won’t have to choose between the craft of a manual and the ease of an automatic.

An early bid comes from Porsche: the Tiptronic S, which can shift between manual and auto. In manual mode, you shift by means of buttons on the steering wheel, just as in Formula One race cars. The Tiptronic would face more resistance among gearheads had it not come from engineers with the credentials of Porsche’s The 911 already offers a four-speed Tip, but the new five-speed version in the Boxster and in the forthcoming new 911 is a much-improved animal. Now Audi, too, whose new models reflect increasingly clever design and engineering, has licensed Tiptronic as the automatic option in the ‘98 A4 and in the new, larger A6, out next month.

The Tip’s chip reads a number of factors–throttle pressure, braking, and grade foremost among them–to adapt its shift points, reading the driver almost the way the driver used to read the road. It’s even integrated with traction control, responding to any spin or slip.

I tested the Tip against the stick in Boxsters on the autobahn, where race -car style buttons feel right at home. It’s easy to get used to thumbing and forefingering up and down through the gears–and you have push-button passing power at your fingertips. It’s at low speeds that the Tip feels odd: Working it through villages that rise up as suddenly as Brigadoon or around farm equipment that pops up on the blind curve of a narrow lane, you miss the clutch and stick when you’re trying to get back up to speed. Your right hand feels underemployed, twitching like a new ax-smoker’s, while your clutch foot dances reflexively on the ghost pedal.

But the Tip is well suited to the American exurbs; running it around a Northeast metropolis, I relished having a hand free to communicate forcefully with other drivers. Less satisfying is another auto/manual hybrid: Chrysler’s AutoStick. Like the Tip, it slots easily from auto to manual. But you still shift on the floor, up and down, and the motion felt uncertain and plastic in the Intrepid I drove. After a while, the manual option seemed a nuisance: The engine is powerful enough, and the automatic responsive enough, that manual hardly seems worth the trouble.

It’s with smaller engines that the stick has always been most appreciated. And only smaller engines, up to now, have been able to accommodate the technology that represents the true future of transmissions. Continuously variable transmissions, or CVTs, use belts instead of gears to transmit the power of the engine to the wheels. By cutting out the middleman of gearing, they can significantly reduce fuel consumption. They’ve been around for decades in Europe and Asia, but only recently has a successful CVT gone on the market here, in the Honda Civic coupe, in which it drives like an automatic with unearthly long first and second gears.

Now Ford is claiming a major breakthrough in using CVTs,with larger engines. Its engineers put an experimental CVT in a Taurus with a six-cylinder Vulcan. In demonstrations, it pulled strongly and steadily from a stop to sixty, with none of the wavering power of some earlier CVTs or the sometimes hiccupy shifts of the standard Ford automatic.

But CVTs can feel positively weird: They have no shift points; they’re as seamless as the clothes on Star Trek. Like compact discs, however, they are the way of the future–the simpler, smoother successor to the ragged grooves of gears. And, just as we miss the tone arm and needle, we’re going to miss the stick.

Five years ago, H. A. Humpy Wheeler, the marketing whiz behind the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the new Texas Motor Speedway, created the Legends cars, flashy five-eighths-scale replicas of late-1930s hot rods. Legends racing has taken off in the heartland, with country-music stars and off-duty Nascar drivers piloting their own. Here’s Humpy’s latest notion: the Bandolero, half go-cart, half racer, a 450-pound vehicle with a screamin’ V-Twin Briggs & Stratton engine and a wacky, faux-Ferrari fiberglass body. Named after Pancho Villa’s insurgents, the Bandolero fits in a pickup-truck bed and sells for less than seven grand. Wheeler envisions a whole racing circuit built around the car. For info on where to buy and race the Bandolero, contact 600 Racing: 704-455-3896.

Highway violence is rising, gas consumption is fast approaching pre-energy-crisis levels, and Barry White is back. The time is right for Interstate ‘76, an “auto-combat simulation” computer game compounded of muscle cars, heavy weaponry, a funk soundtrack, and dudes with huge Afros. The time is an alternative version of the 19705, the place a stylized version of the American Southwest that resembles the landscape of The Road Warrior You play an “auto vigilante,” roaring down the road in a 426-horsepower machine equipped with twin M-60S, determined to save America’s remaining petroleum reserves.

You can customize the cars–which have names like Piranha and Manta–by adding new tires, nitrous oxide, and more firepower. Interstate ‘76 puts racing games in the shade. It’s also a digital depiction of the daydreams of millions of us marooned on the interstate, itching to blow away the jerk in the Camaro who just cut us off. Interstate ‘76 comes on two discs, taking up a minimum of 80 megs on your hard drive, and requires a fast Pentium. It’s $49.95 from Activision.