Too Much Horsepower?

At the 51st annual meeting of the American Automobile Association in Los Angeles last week, the delegates had some stern criticism for 1) trucks on the roads and 2) the high horsepower in new auto engines.

"Everyone recognizes that the trucks perform a vital role in our economy," said A.A.A. President Ralph Thomas, "but the time has come for a proper and adequate determination of the share of highway building costs that should be borne by the principal beneficiaries . . . The passenger car owner is called upon to pay more than his just share of highway costs ... If highways did not have to be built to carry the heavy truck, but only to ... carry the automobile, we could build tens of thousands more miles of improved highways than we are building today with the same amount of money. The truckers, however, strenuously oppose any efforts that will compel them to pay their fair share of modern road costs . . . There are very strong and well-entrenched pressure groups which are going to fight us. . . ."

Another alarming aspect of the U.S. automotive scene, delegates agreed, is the increase in auto engine horsepower. Cried Dean A. Fales, onetime associate professor of automotive engineering at M.I.T.: "A race with death!" Fales, who has long taken a dim view of seats like sofas, slanting windshields and even the elimination of the running board, charged that the "power far exceeds maneuverability of the vehicles, with the result that there is lack of control [and] the accident rate goes up . . . The auto stylists or 'dressmakers' of the industry have been in the saddle since 1930. Engineers have had to take a secondary position, and the motorist has paid with his life." In addition to a cut in speed ranges, Fales called for better seats (with safety belts), rear-end engines for better weight distribution and better brakes. Impressed by what they had heard, the more than 800 A.A.A. delegates passed a resolution calling for automakers to "tone down the increasing emphasis on more and more horsepower and higher and higher speed potentials and devote more thought and emphasis upon ways & means of protecting the driver against his own mistakes."

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