The Steam Car: The Little Car that Could

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And, more, that monster will gulp gasoline, and convert it into cancer gas, at a steadily increasing price. It'll hurt at both ends, as the man said when he ate the chili. But don't worry; if the steering gear fails, or the automatic transmission suddenly kicks in when you didn't expect it, it may kill you before it wears out.

And for the same price, you might buy a car that needed no gearshift, thatjackrabbited 0-60 in a time that would make a professional dragster blench, that rolled along at a good clip, using fuel that would set you back all of a couple of cents in ten miles . . . and which would NOT make smog, not ever.

That car could be assembled by craftsmen, who were part of a living family; who felt pride in their work, whose hands touched that machine with the thought and feeling that a good workman gives. (There's a reason for the price of a Rolls, and it damned well isn't the speed, because I can wash out a Rolls with a hopped-up Chevvy.)

And maybe that one little family of People building Cars might scare the hell out of the companies that slap together jalopies. Especially if more such families got the idea, and built cars, or generators, or tractors, or whatever there is to be built.

I wonder if anybody will do it. I keep hoping that somehow, someday, the people will take the great art of engineering back, away from the peddlers and medicineshow salesmen who own it today. I'll bet it could be done.

You can put me down for a sedan, and paint it sunrise color.

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