Revolution Ahead?

Newsmen trooped into the sprawling plant of Continental Motors Corp. in Detroit last week to see a highly touted "revolution." The revolution turned out to be a new, lightweight, air-cooled engine developed by Continental for Army Ordnance. As Continental's President Clarence ("Jack") Reese unveiled it, he predicted that the new engine would first revolutionize the building of motors for U.S. Army tanks and motor vehicles, then commercial trucks and buses, and that ultimately it would drive a cheaper, high-powered car.

The new engine, said Jack Reese, can be made in four, six, eight or twelve cylinders. (The cylinders are finned like an aircraft air-cooled engine.) A 4-cylinder motor weighing 770 pounds develops 250 horsepower and takes up little more space than the radiator and fan of a comparable liquid-cooled engine.

Sand & Snow. U.S. Army Ordnance had wanted such a power plant ever since maneuvers in Alaska proved that conventional liquid-cooled engines were impractical for such climates. It put Continental, the biggest maker of air-cooled engines for tanks in World War II, to work. Jack Reese claimed--and Army Ordnance backed him up--that the engine will operate efficiently in desert heat or Arctic cold, and weighs only one-third as much as liquid-cooled jobs of equivalent horsepower. Developed by Continental Engineers Carl F. Bachle and Edward A. Hulbert, the new engine is simple in design and requires only a small stock of spare parts.

The Army is planning to equip virtually all front-line vehicles, from tanks and prime movers to trucks and weapons carriers, with the new engine, and two truck companies are ready to order it as soon as it is in production. So Reese thinks it will be at least two years before the new Continental brings about any changes in passenger cars. In any case, Reese expects that it will be hot competition for General Motors' new high-compression motor shown this week, and that it will return Continental to the place in the auto engine industry that it once held.

Red Seal & Red Ink. In its heyday, Continental powered hundreds of models of independent automobiles with its famous "Red Seal" engines. But it was on the downgrade in 1931 when onetime Mechanic Jack Reese came in as purchasing agent; only a million-dollar RFC loan saved it from bankruptcy. In 1939, when Continental lost $215,165 on $7,000,000 in sales, RFC forced a reorganization and insisted that cost-conscious Jack Reese run the company.

As president, cigar-chomping Jack Reese wore his hat on the job, worked 16 hours a day trimming off Continental's fat (he cut costs $75,000 a month), and drumming up new business. In three months he lined up $5,000,000 worth of engine business from J. I. Case, Checker Cab, Sears, Roebuck and others. By the time war orders came in, he had Continental in such tiptop shape that it turned out $796 million worth of aircraft and truck engines.

At war's end, it looked as if Continental might skid again. From the 1944 peak of $246 million, sales fell to $46 million in 1946. Nevertheless, Reese spent $15 million to step up his capacity from 14,000 engines a month to 22,000. While this was going on, Continental piled up $3.6 million losses, but by late 1947, with production in full swing, Reese turned the profit corner. He netted $386,000 in 1947's last quarter, boosted it again to $1.3 million in the first quarter ended April 30 this year.

Reese has now cut his day down to 13 hours, finds a little time to shoot ducks and fish. If orders for his new motor keep Continental as busy as he hopes, he figures happily on stepping up his working day to 16 hours again.

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