Glass Ahead?

At General Motors' costly ($4,100,000) show of its new cars in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria last week, U.S. Steel's Director Irving S. Olds stared thoughtfully at the Corvette, Chevrolet's shiny, white experimental sports roadster. Olds* had good reason to stare--and perhaps to worry. The Corvette's body is molded of fiber-glass plastic, one-quarter the weight of steel but equally as strong for most products, though much more expensive.

To show the importance of the new sports-car trend, G.M. unwrapped three other futuristic sports cars, also made of fiber glass. Cadillac's three-passenger Le Mans is only 51 in. high to the top of its windshield, 5.3 in. lower than standard jobs, and 24.8 in. shorter, partly by virtue of vertical steel strips replacing the usual horizontal bumpers. Its souped-up engine develops 250 h.p./- Oldsmobile's low-slung Starfire convertible has a panoramic windshield extending around and past the door opening. Buick's 50.4-in.-high Wildcat, of black fiber glass with a green leather seat, has front-wheel disk hubs which remain stationary while the wheels revolve, their airscoops cooling the front-wheel brakes. Pontiac showed off a streamlined version of a landau, with pink leather seats and ceiling lining and a carpet of black broadtail.

Plastic Progress. Except for Chevrolet's Corvette, the fiber-glass models are showpieces not intended for immediate production. But some 300 Corvettes will be made this year. Although they will cost G.M. $5,000 or more, it intends to sell them for about $3,000--which, with bigger production, should bring a profit.

The industry has been experimenting with plastic bodies for 30 years, and many bugs must still be worked out. But the rustproof fiber glass boasts many advantages over steel. Plastic bodies do not require the expensive dies used in making steel bodies. Thus, it may be possible to turn out small numbers of sports cars in various models, give buyers more individuality in cars.

Sales Goal. G.M.'s splashy show was latest proof that 1953 is going to see autodom's hottest competition since before the war. In that race, G.M. is determined to regain the 46% of the total U.S. market it once had. In a decade the percentage has slipped to 41% largely because of postwar metal allocations based on a period including G.M.'s 1946 strike. Acting President Harlow H. Curtice predicted that G.M. will boost its sales from 1952's $7.5 billion to a new record of $9 billion or more this year. With able selling, added Curtice, the industry can make 1953 a 5,500,000-car year, second only to 1950's record 6,600,000.

* No kin to the late Motor Pioneer R. E. Olds (Oldsmobile and Reo).

/- Cadillac's regular models offered so much power (210 h.p.) that with one cautious eye on safety campaigns and a sly eye on snob appeal, it advertised "a serious and timely warning."' The warning: "TREAD LIGHTLY--PROUD FOOT! That great power . . . was not put there to enable a Cadillac to dominate the highway or to dash into the lead when the traffic light turns green . . . If other drivers covet the honors at the stop light--just smile and let them go. They are first away by your courtesy . . . Just be happy and satisfied . . ."

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