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Dymaxion Car Being Restored
An anonymous reader notes that R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car is being restored by the company Crosthwaite and Gardiner. Only three of the vehicles were produced in the 1930s and only one survives. "Synchronofile.com has been granted the great honor of announcing the restoration of the Dymaxion Car — because our readers are now invited to help in the project. Can you identify the manufacturer for the component shown at the link?"
I mean, it's so obvious.
Now THAT'S a name that means quality. Say it a couple of times with a slightly chilled gin and vermouth resting idly in one hand and a fag in the other.
From Wikipoedia:
The Dymaxion car was a concept car designed by U.S. inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller during 1933. The word Dymaxion is a brand name that Fuller gave to several of his inventions, to emphasize that he considered them part of a more general project to improve humanity's living conditions. The car had a fuel efficiency of 30 miles per US gallon (7.8 L/100 km; 36 mpg-imp). It could transport 11 passengers. While Fuller claimed it could do speeds of 120 miles per hour (190 km/h), the fastest documented speed was 90 miles per hour (140 km/h).
not bad for a 30's car and a V8 (albeit an 84hp V8).
Is it the Shenzhen Kiss-jia Company?
After reading the "summary" and all the links I still don't know what any of this means. From what I gather three cars were made in the 1930s and they need to know who made the turn signals. Thats about all so far....
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Seriously, an article on some obscure car should include at least one image so we know what the heck it's talking about.
http://www.washedashore.com/projects/dymax/pictures.html
Hi it's Iran here, we need help re-constructing this piece of history.
Details of components can be found by following the link above.
Just kidding here. But it was a beautiful idea. RBF may have been a crackpot, but he was my sort of crackpot - no axiom sacred. Yes, they weren't exactly safe, but then Ralf Nader wouldn't have passed on the Model A Ford-era cars with their beam front axles and rather philosophical approach to braking and steering, either.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Surely a skilled machinist could just make a matching turn signal indicator from scratch.
A quick google reveals
KSJ Auto Sales NJ
KSJ Auto Parts Malaysia
KSJ Engineering India
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
According to the Wikipedia article, the Dymaxion car had 30 MPG and could transport 11 passengers with only three wheels. Suck on that, Detroit.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
great car analogies come by.
It is said that the fatal crash which cursed the prototype was due to astonishment.
Despite its remarkable innovations the Dymaxion car misfitted common sense.
Euro's are shaking.
http://0p3nfr4m3w0rk.org/install/dymaxion-car.jpg
Looks more like the gondola of a blimp to me.
This ain't rocket surgery.
Slashdot users
Get their knowledge
From many years
In junior college.
If you took that thing and updated it to meet current U.S. safety and emissions requirements, you'd get nowhere near the same gas mileage.
Balance that with modern light alloys and I'm not so sure.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
You mean some sort of scale such as a thumb, the standard for the inch? It's about 3 inches across, The K-S-J is perhaps 3/4ths of an inch wide.
Who *cares* who made the part? It'd obviously be trivial for any competent machine shop to duplicate.
Oh yeah, because all of those cars from the sixties and early seventies got such great gas mileage before they had to add the emissions control equipment. And the cars were so much lighter then too without seatbelts and air bags.
But it didn't have to carry all the now-required safety and pollution-control features. Those add weight and inefficiency.
The thing had a canvas roof. You don't get much lighter than that.
The GP was correct; this car's efficiency would drop like a rock if brought up to spec. Heck, it'd drop like a rock if you merely tested the existing thing on a modern drivecycle. Also, the rear wheel steering was a really, really bad idea.
Santa Ana Winds: Like the Dustbowl, but with awards shows.
Also according to the Wikipedia article, it made 85 horsepower. I didn't see how much it weighed, but unless it was under a ton it would underperform modern expectations when merging onto an interstate.
This car is a looker. Suave and vibrant are the words that come to my mind when I see the pictures. Galls would yearn to be picked up, shagged and brought home in this absolute crumpet catcher. Definitively worth an article on /.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Just aim a cannon[loaded with a fissionable warhead at high velocity] at some fissionable material. The more FM, the better.
Just make sure you try this at 'home', after all, it's not rocket surgery...;-)
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Does it have to be 120VAC 60Hz?
I know inverters lose energy in the conversion, but could not DC at *some* voltage be usable/efficient enough to make this worthwhile for examination/exploration?
I am just asking, 'cause I am out of my area of expertise here, and am probably off course if it hasn't been done yet....just curious.
Maybe it's more efficient to use *n*VAC and not convert to DC, or to optimise VAC to the engine?
On the surface, to a layman, this may seem possible...or I am truly over my head here and clueless. If so, please throw me a bone/clue!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Galls would yearn to be picked up...
[my emphasis on OP's spelling choice]
Do you mean Gauls, Gals, or 'gals'[as in females].
Or is this some kind of kinky gall bladder pr0n I have not heard of yet....
You need to be more specific.....this is /. after all...Definitively worth an article on /. ;-)
And don't blame this on 'sticky keys' either....Clean Off/Out Your Keyboard!!!!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Why, in seventy years, haven't we seen anything half as innovative in either design or efficiency come to market?
To my mind this in itself is reason enough for Detroit to have wound up a wholly owned subsidiary of the US government, which also guarantees that we will never see anything remotely progressive taking to the road in these United States.
Yugo anyone?
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
It's been similarly pointed out that electric vehicles were very successful - at the end of the 19th century, because lead acid cell powered vehicles work well at horse speeds and horse ranges. Once the IC engine made much higher speeds and longer ranges possible, the electric buggy was dead.
Once trucks started their steady growth and road traffic started to rise, something like this would be too unsafe and too unmanoeuverable at higher speeds.
The reason you haven't seen anything so innovative in 70 years is that the last 70 years have had constant steady progress. Now, in 2009, a volume car maker can have a low cost vehicle with antilock brakes, power steering, air con, a high-efficiency Diesel engine, and roadholding and reliability unimaginable 30 years ago, let alone 70. If anybody had a really dramatic breakthrough - unlikely - they would have to get it to market faster and cheaper than the existing industry could improve their product to achieve the same thing. Look at the Prius, which is basically a California Special because the likes of VW and BMW can outgun it on nearly every front using existing technology.
There may be a future for electric bicycles running on dedicated cycle tracks - if the "pedalling is good" nutters don't force you off the road - but it will take a very fast, very dramatic environmental change to cause a step function rather than incremental development.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The Euro's what are shaking and why? Because an American architect built a car in America? I mean, the Euro wasn't even around back then and it only was on the American-architects-don't-build-cars standard very shortly.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
You're comparing the wrong eras.
Try comparing the weight of an 80s or 90s car to the same class today.
The Honda Accord, for example, has gained about 550 KG (1200 pounds) over its various iterations.
I don't know how much of this is due to attempts to make the car more comfortable and quiet, and how much is due to safety regulations, but efficiency gains are definitely being eaten by weight gains.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Henry VIII's thumb was an inch, YTMV (Your Thumb May Vary)
Maybe from something like this?
http://www.spaceagepaint.com/custom.aspx?id=15
I wonder how many similar cars were built at the time?
The 2-front 1-rear three wheeler design is vastly supervisor to the 1-front 2-rear. But the big problem I see with the Dynamaxion is three fold:
1) In an emergency situation, people react by crushing the break pedal. In a front wheel steering car this increases the down force on the steering wheels, improving traction, and gives the driver more control over the car. In a rear wheel steering vehicle, when the breaks are applied hard, weight still transfers from the rear axle to the front. But that means less down-force on the rear wheel and less steering control.
2) The cab forward design of the body put the majority of the vehicle's weight over the front axle already making the vehicle steer and handle worth a crap even under only moderate breaking.
3) The accident that kill the driver was the other vehicle's driver's fault. But that driver was guilty of following too close. When the driver of the Dynamaxion hit the breaks (transferring weight to the front axle, and the person following too close hit the REAR of the Dynamaxion, the vehicle flipped forward. Even though it was the other drivers fault, it was the incredibly poor design of the vehicle that allowed it to roll in such a manor.
There were amazing technological feats to this car, but the single rear wheel steering combined with the cab forward body was absolutely 100% retarded.
If you want to see the pinnacle of 3-wheeler technology, look into the T-Rex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Rex_(automobile) And Aptera http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptera_2e or some of the tilt-steering prototypes.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
The car steered with its single rear wheel. While not totally impractical, this does make it unstable and hard to drive. With front wheel drive instead, it would look very much like a larger capacity Aptera. Not bad for being designed 70 years earlier. (I like the rest of the design. I just think there might be a reason why nobody uses rear wheel steering. The Northrop University "White Lightening" human-powered vehicle also used the setup of driving the front wheels and steering the rear wheel. Feedback from the drivers was that it was difficult to steer correctly, and took a lot of getting used to.)
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
They're trying to restore the entire car, and all they have to start with is a turn signal light? And they're looking to replace that! Looks like a lot of remanufacturing will need to occur.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Yes it does.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Nothing against Bucky, but I wonder what kind of mileage you'd get if your car didn't have all the various emission and safety features that decrease mileage.
It is unwise to ascribe motive
The most practical application that I wanted to find info for was a friend in Alaska. They're in geothermal active areas, so a subterranean loop would provide for a very warm side, always warmer than the cool side of the ambient air. A lot of people up there live off-grid, and have to truck, boat, or fly diesel fuel in to keep their generators going. That's a cumbersome task in mid winter.
Ok, you've generated some nice imagery there. Somehow I took your Alaskan environment and tied it up in my mind with Dymaxion cars and Fuller-dome shaped (shush, Stewart, let me work with this) trailers using Stirling engines. You'd only travel when the sun was up, or when you had fuel for the iron stove in the back to run the engine.
There's something very Steampunk, very Golden Age of SF, Popular Mechanix cover about the image. "Well, looks like the sun's coming out. Pack up everybody, let's get ready to roll". Or, since it's a Stirling, "Well, it looks like snow, let's make the best of it and make some miles. Light the furnace, John-Boy."
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Sorry, but I haven't had time to read the entire thread. If what I'm writing is a rerun, then so be it. Fuller, like Frank Lloyd Wright, George Ellery Hale, and more than a few other greats of the 20th Century, was part genius, and part con man. His plan to design a revolutionary car was flawed by the fact that he assumed that his great intellect was a worthy substitute for experience in designing cars. Aside from the points about stability raised by others, I point out that there was a plenum in front of the radiator. It's purpose was to hold the DRY ICE that was necessary to keep the car cool. Yes, that's right, Fuller couldn't be bothered to actually design a working cooling system! Instead, every time the car was to be driven, an assistant dumped dry ice into the plenum! I'm having this fantasy about feet of clay being exposed to dry ice, and then shattering the first time somebody says a word....
Dymaxion... reads like some kid with crayons inventing a super car. Yeah, and I'll call it the Dymaxion.
There is a difference between innovation and plain daft design.
Buckminster Fuller came up with the geodesic dome. Well done that man. The rest was self indulgent twaddle. Dymaxion indeed for fcks sake.
Air bags were exceedingly rare (and dangerous), but seat belts were standard equipment by 1970 in the USA. Also, cars were much heavier then due to the perception of quality and the need for crash survivability before the concept of crush zones. There were emissions controls, too, but generally only EGR until 1973. Also, you should compare the power ratings for, say, 1975 cars to 1971 cars with similar engines. The later engines were radically detuned just so they would even RUN with the hideous, un-computerized emissions controls. While the mileage was impacted only slightly based on EPA tests, in practice drivers had to push their poorly running cars to the limit to get them to perform adequately.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
hehehe a canvas roof. Love it.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."