More safety instead of more horsepower!
06/23/2020
With stories of cars with 2000 hp and 3000 hp currently making their way through the media landscape, the claim "More safety instead of more hp" seems to be quite topical. However, the headline actually dates back to 1956 and is written above a seven-page (!) AMS article by Werner Oswald. And it begins with an assessment that is certainly correct:
"That our cars will change even because more in the next 20 years than they have done in the last 20 or 30 years, we consider quite certain. Technology is advancing ever more rapidly, and the goals set for vehicle development in particular today are so far-reaching that only the poets of utopian novels would have dreamed of them an age ago."
Oswald certainly could not have imagined in 1956 that an automobile would one day drive autonomously and, if necessary, at over 400 km/h, but obviously the progress made at that time was already enormous. To illustrate this, he wrote:
"Just think of the angular cars of 1926, hard-sprung, uncomfortable, unheated; they consumed a lot and actually performed staggeringly little in relation to that. 70 km/h was a very respectable speed for a one-liter car. A car that ran an honest 100 km/h needed a 5-liter engine and enjoyed a similar nimbus to that still enjoyed today, albeit to a more limited extent, in England by the so-called 100-mile cars, i.e. those that reach over 160 km/h."
Oswald had mixed feelings about the "horsepower race", especially as long as the chassis, visibility, ergonomics and interior safety were not yet convincing. And Oswald had plenty of examples to back up his thoughts.
We recommend taking a look at this article , which is now over 60 years old , and being amazed. Of course, the progress made in many areas since then has been enormous, but today we have to admit that there have also been some setbacks, especially when it comes to all-round visibility or the ease of operation of cars.
