Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 1, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press Friday May 1, 1981 15-28 technical changes can sometimes alter car s Auto firms afraid Public won t pay for fuel plastics item on cars car rust May be thing of past As Auto makers spurn metals by Wallace Zimmeri the Globe and mail Toronto Detroit in a few years car rust May be As rare As running boards because Detroit s big three Auto makers Are replacing Metal with Plas tic. We re moving in the direction of the All plastic car including structural parts said Irvin Rybicki general motors vice president in charge of de sign. The successful use of plastic materials in wheel Wells Grilles and bumpers in cars already on the Road is Only the Start of using alternatives to Metal he said in an interview. General motors corp. Has been build ing the Glass Fibre bodied Corvette since 1954. A few hand built cars with flowing shapes difficult to create in Metal such As the Avanti Lotus and Bricklin have appeared Over the years. However the performance and Light Ness of plastics and other non metals in car bodies were always outweighed by their High production costs compared with steel. Then came the Energy crunch. Just five years ago we would t have looked at making Large parts out of plastic but now it s important to save weight even if the parts Cost said Robert la Prado director of Chrysler corp s plastics research team in Highland Park Mich. Plas tics weigh about a third As much As steel and research is making them More durable and easier to use in mass production. Bullish on plastics Ford has always been bullish on said Fred boiling Ford motor co s executive Engineer for vehicle materials development in dear born. He said plastics already predominate in the interiors of the new models such As the escort and they Are taking Over from metals in the engine compartment. For the future there is hardly a part the company has not experimented with in plastic. The Man in charge of pm s plastics research Irv Posen sits in his Glass walled office at the technical Centre in Warren Mich., surrounded by a child s fantasy collection of plastic models. There Are still some places Plas tic can t be used to advantage like the engine and the he acknowledged. Steel does a better Job and is More that s not to say that some Day even the engine won t be made of some super plastic it would save a lot of weight he said. New processes Are already replacing things made of Metal since Man started moving on roads. With one hand Posten picks up an Amber coloured Rod that looks like a ski with a bulge in the Middle. This seven Pound moulding replaces a 44-Pound, 10-Leaf Spring on the 1981 he said. It is made of Glass Fibre developed by pm and tested on machines that simulate the flexing caused by millions of jolts Over potholes. Plastic skins in the next few years Well be gluing plastic skins Over a steel Frame work. Urethane is already used to make bumpers this will expand through the entire front clip fenders and Posten predicted. Urethane elastomers Are moldable and soft he explained. They can take an eight Kilometres per hour 5 . Bump and Bounce Back to their original shape. At higher Speed the damage is different in collisions than with steel but it is easier to collision shops May have to Trade in welding torches for glue pots. For body areas that need More Stabil Ity such As doors pm is experimenting with More rigid epoxy resin materials. Posten picks up again with one hand a sliding door for a Gumc Van. Because plastic is More flexible we d have to make parts three times thicker to get the same strength As that would make the plastic about As heavy As the steel it is replacing there would be Little advantage unless ways can be found to strengthen it. One of the ways is to Mould deep Box like Struc Tures into the Interior portion of the door and glue on a Flat exterior panel. Some new Oldsmobile station wagons have plastic tailgates with Metal Infra structures. Porsche plans to Market a Model with Metal reinforced urethane fenders next year. Ford is making hoods for its econ line vans of a Sheet moulding com Pound plastic and has plastic fenders and doors in development for vehicles planned in the second half of the dec Ade boiling said. Of course our steel and aluminium Guys Are competing with stronger thinner plastics can be coloured before being moulded but because dyes can vary depending on when they Are made and the Type of plastics to which they Are added cars will still have to be painted to have an even Over All appearance. Plastic car models of future May make Metal scrap Yards obsolete although the design studios Are off limits to prying eyes pm s materials research laboratories Are churning out a remarkable array of replacements for Metal. Plastic wheels that look like magnesium racing wheels and Are Al most As Light Are ready to go into production if they receive approval from Federal testing agencies. They May be used in some japanese cars sold abroad next year. Wary of plastics Chrysler has experimented with plastic Oil pans valve covers and even transmission housing Lapado said but it has no plans to put them on a car now in production. Plastics Are not As ductile As steel so we re a Little wary of using them for Complex Metal plated plastic show Promise for Bright decorative areas Posten said. Acrylic windows have had limited Success however because they Are easily scratched. A number of questions about Quality stability and Cost have to be answered before plastic cars move into mass production boiling said. It takes ninety seconds each to Mould some plastic parts 40 parts an while equivalent pieces in Metal can be spewed out at 300 an hour. It could mean we d need More equipment and much larger the Large weight savings that plastic provides would mean fuel Economy that would offset the fact that plastics Are More expensive than steel and Are made from Oil products according to pm mathematical predictions. In Miles about kilo metres of driving the lighter parts could make a 50 per cent saving in fuel costs pm predicts. Resale values might also be enhanced because cars would keep their appearance they would not be affected by Salt and rust. How soon the results of All this plan Ning will appear in Auto showrooms depends in part on Oil prices and How quickly scientists and engineers can respond. Boiling reflects the Confidence of technologists that Detroit will be ready we never have problems in the Auto Industry we have Chal into the 1990s Delorean finally in production by William Borders . Times news service Belfast Northern Ireland after eight years of planning and an invest ment of million the much publicized Delorean sports car is finally in production. But the car s Price tag will be much higher than was at first planned and according to Industry analysts the design has been substantially modified. The sleek stainless steel autos now rolling off an Assembly line Here at the gentle rate of 18 a Day Are to go on Sale in the United states for about each some time next month. Every phase of successful enter prise has now been says John z. Delorean the former general motors corp. Executive who conceived the car and persuaded the British government to finance it. What remains now is the All important test in the Delorean concedes that the Market place for his car almost exclusively the United states at least at the begin Ning is not in Ideal economic shape at the moment for the introduction of a very expensive two seat Auto one Liat has almost doubted in Price since it was first conceived. But he maintains that the kind of buyers he is appealing to Are not feeling too much of a Pinch. The Market for these cars is far More Quality sensitive than it is Price says Delorean a tall ele Gantly groomed entrepreneur who exudes the Breezy self Confidence with which he talked the government into a financing Deal that his critics find far too generous. Delorean readily concedes that a car that costs has to be but he thinks this one is. He Hopes to sell of them this year next year and perhaps a year thereafter. He also talks hopefully of introducing a Delorean Sedan with four or five seats later in the 1980s. Such a project the company said May be financed by a general Public Stock offering in the United states. The last new sports car to reach the Market amid great publicity was the Bricklin developed by Malcolm Bricklin a millionaire promoter from Philadelphia. The car was assembled in Canada but production was halted soon after it began in 1975 because of manufacturing and financial problems. Only about were built. But the Delorean motor co. Says it has lined up More than 300 american dealers each of whom has a equity interest in the company and they Are said to have to firm orders for the car. Delorean left pm in 1972, when he was vice president and group executive in charge of All car and truck division s in North America. He said he left because the company had been unenthusiastic about his determination to build smaller and sportier cars. Pm seemed to feel that the executive s exuberance contrasted too much to the company s conservative management style. Delorean s Auto is Low 45 inches and fast maximum Speed 125 Miles an hour and is available Only in Silver the color of its unpainted stainless steel body. The reason for building the Plant in Belfast was that the British govern ment was willing to offer such Gener Ous terms Here. John Delorean chairman of Delorean motor co., sits in stainless steel car imported to . By Rick Ratliff Detroit free press listen to the predictions of some Auto design executives hopscotch ahead with them from decade to decade or Quarter Century to Quarter Century. You la sense an automotive equivalent of Darwin s theory of evolution at work survival of the most Effi their forecasts for cars of the future. Irvin Rybicki general motors vice president of design says we will find the shapes of 1990 cars strange indeed thanks to interest in aerodynamic reduction of wind resistance for the Sake of fuel Economy. But in the 21st Century cars May be stranger yet. Don Kopka Ford executive director of advanced and International design predicts Automo Biles will get lighter Slicker smaller and More modular through the Early years of the 21st Century. By 2025, he predicts the automobile will be Light enough to Fly. It will have its own Power generating source. By 2050, rocket belts May Render cars obsolete altogether he says. Utter nonsense Well see. Or per haps our children will. Hoods and lids to Rise new cars in 1990 will look As though somebody took our 1980 sedans and pumped air into them. Roo lines will stay where they Are but hoods and trunk lids will Rise steeply to meet them. These cars will look like flattened eggs or teardrops or darts. Goodbye to Chrome Hood ornaments and to intricate hubcaps. Hello to win Dows that seem to blend into Sheet Metal and to hubcaps that look like full Moons. Rybicki envisions such cars piercing air currents with the precision of surgeons knives. Rybicki 59, can speak of the automotive future with some authority. A pm designer for 30 years Rybicki has spent the past three As design vice president. Cars Are going to change very dra he says. They will get very Slippery. The wind Tunnel is changing the largest sedans in 1990 will seat six people but will be powered by engines with no More than five cylinders he says. The smallest cars in 1990 will seat just one person he believes and will be powered by three Cylinder engines. He predicts single seaters could offer All the comforts of an automobile with All the fuel Economy of a motorcycle perhaps boasting 70 Miles per gallon. Rybicki foresees a plethora of two seat runabouts for commuting and errands. Even in an Era Short on Gaso line and Long on frugality he predicts several lines of souped up sports cars will be made in the United states. He discusses the 1990s amidst Cham pagne coloured carpeting of his Eero Saarinen designed office at the pm tech Centre in Warren. Even a Quarter Century after it was built the office still evokes a gee Whiz from guests it is full of sinuous Cherrywood fixtures and features Remote control door Remote control draperies Remote control Tele vision set and a Coffee table that rises to dinner table height with the push of a Button. Comments tempered it s an appropriate place to talk about decades to come a pm equivalent of a Disneyland office of Tomor Row but uncertainties temper Rybicki s comments. I suppose that if we knew what the car would look like in 1990, we would have it in production right he says. But i m not sure you could sell it today. The cars today Are More fuel efficient but the Basic forms Are still the same. But cars in the next decade Are going to change Radical some predictions that Rybicki makes with ease especially those that involve the look of cars gone will be Broad upright Grilles and those stubby Box shapes and opera windows that Are meant to express luxury. By 1990, Grilles May be extinct he says. They hinder aerodynamic efficiency. He insists a car can look elegant without using such traditional trap pings of formality. You could do a Slippery form you could do another formal Cadillac without a standing Learned from race cars without a Grille the Cooling system would suck the air it needs from a lip underneath the car he says free ing the stylist to form a wedge that could Cut an efficient path through the wind. Such techniques have been Learned in race car design. Aerodynamics weight loss and new tricks of engine efficiency will boost Gas mileage to a Point at which few new cars in 1990 would get less than 30 Miles per gallon. But a Point will also be reached beyond which fuel Economy will not improve. Once it was thought that the most efficient Auto designs for combating wind resistance would have a Long Hood and Short rear deck like the Ford Mustangs of the 1960s. Rybicki says the cars of 1990 will show a different emphasis Small Hood Small rear deck Large passenger compartment ;