Engineers of yester year compared to today!

Im not into these cars but The history of the Citroen Traction is pretty interesting In 1934 something the bodies were unitized and front wheel drive .Rack and pinion ,No air Most guys think this was a new idea.Their wrong . Without the pioneers and visionaries this would be a lost society.

 

Better than they used to be, but at about 10 years now for rusting, just bottoms of doors and where the plastic bumper joins the fenders and quarters. The Floorpans seem to stay in cars now, but brakelines and fuel lines will still rust out.

I used to make good money welding floors in Chevettes - we had prebent Chevette floor pans on the shelf and could get them done in under an hour!

 

My Pickett 902-T is sitting right here on my desk. Freaks my kids out that I can do some functions on it faster than they can do them on a calculator.

 

For those of you who weren't around in the early 50's just trust us older guys. Todays cars, although not as "neato" or as "cool" as those back then are light years ahead of the older cars. The newer cars ride, power smoothness, reliability, and almost evrything else worth mentioning is far far better today than then. Almsot all of the older ones were in bad shape by 45,000 miles and completely used up by 60,000 miles. Spark plugs had to be changed every 6,000 miles, oil & filter every 2,000, u-joints every 5,000 and on and on.

However, anyone could work on the older ones. They were simple, strong and easy to repair. Today? Forget it. When is the last time you "had to" change your plugs on your todays car? Maybe and I say maybe every 75,000 miles?

The older ones were hell back in the day, but fun now. The newer ones are fun now, but hell after 100,000,,,IMO

 

No, the interchangeable engineers are the ones that merely used the technology available to them. The good engineers are the ones that helped expand the technology and paved the way for the future.

I think my point is more that there will always be good and bad engineers. I don't think any from one era would be better than the other.

I find Curta Calculators amazing.

 

I'm an engineer also. I agree with your Dad. I went to an engineering school in West Virginia at West Virginia Tech. We did have a materials lab and we made our samples in the machine shop and then analyzed them in class. We also had to design something draw it up on paper and then make it. We had an old school machinist teaching us how to use everything and it was great. When I went to work I solved a problem and made the part and this other engineer was impressed. He asked me where I learned to do that and I said well I've worked with tools most of my life but lathes and stuff in college. He said all of his professors said that they'd have technicians to do that.

 

I see a lot of folk here comparing apples to oranges - ie: the best of yesterday to the worst of today.
Yet the worst of today's cars compare ever so favourably to the best of yesteryears.
The best comparison I could think of is the fastest of the sixties - Shelby's Cobras, can be bested today by some four-door sedans loaded down with so much luxury that you could do the 0-100-0 and your passengers would be in airconditioned comfort listening to Chopin and comparing notes on last night's meeting.
The Sable-Challenger crash mentioned above illustrates how, in just a few years, safety has increased by another multiple.
Anyone want to take their sixties car instead of the Sable?? Doesn't matter which, you'll be dead in all (save perhaps Mercedes and Citroën).
Mass does NOT equate safety, unless it's backed by engineering. Crumple zone engineering may not appeal, as the car is ruined, but, you are able to reflect on that, whereas before you'd simply be dead.
I like alive better than dead, though I haven't tried dead yet. Still, my parents seem not to do much since their funerals.
Fact is, comparing the best of today to the best of bygone days still nets you but one thing - they were/are the best that there is, and their output is/was the best that can be at the time.
Oh, and never forget that memory gilds; and things recalled are ever so much sweeter as the recollection process frequently skips the bad in favour of the good.
Cosmo

 

I have noticed that about my Mom and Dad as well. Hmmm.

 

One thing I gotta say; yesteryear's vehicles are light years more aesthetically pleasing than today's vehicles. Just my opinion, but kudo's to the designers and engineers of yesteryear! They knew how to design a car to look wicked cool, especially the fat fendered Art Deco era.

 

I haven't used a calculator in years that needed a battery...

 

Case in point on the WWII effort. The B-29 bomber program required over 1 million drawings done with drawing boards and slide rules ... no computers or CAD programs.

Amen on the improved corrosion resistance. I spent most of my life in the Rust Belt (Minnesota) and back in the 50's and 60's you could almost hear the cars rust. A friend once locked his keys in his well-corroded car and was about to search for a coat hanger to pop the lock when he realized that he was wasting his time. He simply reached in through the rust hole in the door skin and unlocked it inside the door!

 

I think it's fair to say that yesteryear's were more likely to be designed by Engineering backgrounded staff,
where as the look of a car became the remit of 'stylists' who are more art based.

While in my life time I have seen the reliablity, performance, and mpg make some strides, as an Engineer I still see cars as having retaining much of the same crudeness year on year.
So much is more about cost, and trying to re-use as much existing into the next model.
The aim has not been to build better cars, only the cheapest way to build a car the market will accept.
So please don't take cars as an example of engineering excellence, or in any way an indication of what Engineers can achieve.

As I have stated before on this forum, we have had the ability to make cars that do 100+ mpg for at least twenty years, but there is curently no pressure on automotive makers to give this to the buyer, and plenty of pressure from other quarters to not 'rock the boat'.

 

This is very true.