New Drive at G.M.

In Detroit, where secrets are hard to keep, General Motors has for many months been working on a top-secret project: a new and sporty-looking Oldsmobile that will be the first U.S. auto to have front wheel drive since the 1937 Cord. The new car--code-named "Holiday"--is a 1966 model that G.M. plans to introduce next fall.

The Holiday is bound to be controversial. Ever since Leonardo da Vinci proposed one in 1500, men have been designing vehicles with front wheels that provide the traction or driving power, rear wheels that merely go along .for the ride. Today, more than a dozen small European cars have front wheel drive, and both Renault and Peugeot announced last week that they would market new models in 1965. But Detroit has always been wary, discouraged by the performance and cost of experimental models. The Holiday is thus a bold G.M. step into an area where rival U.S. automakers and even other G.M divisions have feared to tread.

Spinning a Problem. Experimental cars tested by Detroit have tended to oversteer on curves, sometimes spinning out of control--a problem that the smaller, less powerful European cars have not encountered. Cars with front wheel drive have also proven less efficient on steep grades, noisier at low speeds. Their power must be transmitted to the independently--sprung and swiveling front wheels rather than to fixed rear wheels, requiring a more complex axle that could cost Oldsmobile $150 more per car than the conventional drive. Says a rival Big Three executive: "Front wheel drive is just not worth the added cost in a conventional American car."

Oldsmobile has apparently solved the mechanical problems, hopes that the advantages of front wheel drive will more than pay for its added cost Because front wheel power eliminates the need for a long drive shaft and a rear-axle differential, the Holiday will have a flat, low floor without a center tunnel or differential hump, more room tor passengers and luggage. Front-wheel traction and more weight at the front will make the car more stable on windy days and on icy roads. Perhaps even more important to Oldsmobile, the novelty of its new car should draw many additional prospects into Oldsmobile showrooms, where they may gape at the Holiday but buy a conventional model.

Wrapping a Drive. To further entice customers, Oldsmobile has wrapped its front wheel drive into a handsome, five-passenger hardtop that will be the biggest yet of Detroit's growing fleet of cars with fastback roofs. The Holiday will be 210 in. long, weigh about 4,100 Ibs., come equipped with a 425-cu.-in. engine and cost about $4,400--a price that places it in direct competition with Ford's Thunderbird, which still dominates the luxury sports-car market. To absorb some of the Holiday's development costs, G.M. is making many of its parts interchangeable with the 1966 Buick Riviera, which could be adapted to front wheel drive at a later date.

The Holiday has even created a behind-the-scenes controversy within General Motors. Oldsmobile's new general manager, Harold Metzel, 60, is an enthusiastic devotee of front wheel drive, apparently has been backed by G.M. President John Gordon and Group Vice President Ed Cole. Others in G.M.'s hierarchy are hesitant, and both the Chevrolet and Pontiac divisions have flatly rejected the concept. This dissension is only normal at G.M., where interdivisional rivalry--more than anything else--gives the big corporation its four wheel drive.

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