AUTOS: The 1954 Cars

Behind carefully guarded doors this week, U.S. automakers are putting down the chips in a $350 million poker game. The stake: the cost of retooling for new models for 1954. The biggest bets are being placed on larger, more rakish-looking cars and more powerful engines. The use of power steering, power brakes and automatic transmissions has spread so fast that they will all be optional equipment on most lower-priced lines. Among the big changes for 1954:

GENERAL MOTORS, the industry's pace setter, is making the greatest changes, in January will bring out new bodies on all its five lines of cars. There will be two principal new types of bodies. One, three inches lower and two inches longer than 1953 models, will probably go into the cheaper models of the Buick and Olds lines. The other, an inch lower and five inches longer than current models, is planned for the bigger Buicks and Oldsmobiles and cheaper Cadillacs. Most G.M. cars will have wider vision with one-piece "wraparound" windshields. Cadillac, which is boosting its horsepower from 210 to 225, will offer sports models with some of the features of G.M.'s futuristic, experimental models displayed this year (wire wheels, cutaway fenders exposing the whole wheel). The industry rumor is that Buick is taking the boldest step of all by adding to its three existing lines a sports model, with 170-h.p. engine and a light metal frame and body, to be priced somewhere between the Special and Super models. Chevrolet and Pontiac have kept their new looks top secret, but production of the Chevrolet's fiber-glass plastic sports car, the Corvette (160 h.p., 102-in. wheel base, 2,900 Ibs.), will be boosted to thousands.

FORD, which will bring out its new cars in early January, has spent $60 million building new power plants for both the Ford and Mercury. The Ford will be stepped up from 110 h.p. to 125 with an overhead valve V-8 engine; the Mercury will go from 125 h.p. to 150. Ford's major body change is a new front quarter panel which gives a higher fender line, a longer-looking silhouette. Mercury's rear panel is being lengthened to give a similar look of greater length. The Lincoln is little changed, but its easy-steering type of front-wheel suspension is being put into both the Mercury and Ford.

CHRYSLER, which made its major body changes in 1953 models, is concentrating on more horsepower and spectacular experiments in color. When its 1954 cars come out in October, the top-price Chrysler's engine will have 235 h.p., the most powerful reported to date. Moreover, Chrysler is using its own torque-type automatic transmission (similar to Buick's Dynaflow) as standard equipment in Chrysler and DeSoto, and optional in Dodge and Plymouth. Chrysler is also going after the woman driver with bold use of color on interior fabrics, and new body-finish colors touted as the flashiest the industry has ever seen.

Other plans for next year:

NASH is bringing out a small (85-in. wheel base), four-passenger sports car in February. A combination of Nash and British Austin parts, it is expected to sell for under $1,500.

STUDEBAKER, which pioneered the U.S. market with a mass-produced sports car, will change its design little, but will add a low-slung station wagon to its line.