Midget Motorcars Were Ahead Of Their Time

The May 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics, posted on Modern Mechanix, included the following article about a German engineer and his radical new concepts for automobile design.  This gent was ahead of his time.  Listen to the questions he asked in 1931. 

WHY should the automobile you drive to work in the morning weigh a ton or more, be pushed along by cumbersome shafts and gearing, be powered with a heat engine which actually wastes more than half of the heat, or consumes more than twice the fuel it should, be equipped with four expensive tires and wheels when three would do, and require ten to fifteen feet of valuable curb space to park?

Why should your car be slung on steel springs that are merely enlarged replicas of the old springs of horse and buggy days, and then force you to buy air or liquid or spring or elastic shock absorbers to correct their faults?

Why should an engine be placed up in front with its shaft running lengthwise of the body and the power then carried back to the rear axle or forward to the front one and turned at right angles through power wasting bevel gears? Why not place the motor in line with the axle, its shaft in the same plane, and deliver the power direct to the wheels?

Or, better still, why have an engine in the body of the car at all when you can have two smaller motors built right into the wheels, and eliminate all shafts, gears, and differential?