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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).
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
According to the Wikipedia article, the Dymaxion car had 30 MPG and could transport 11 passengers with only three wheels. Suck on that, Detroit.
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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.
They're undoubtedly trying to fix it with original parts. It's counted as original parts if it's the same part, even if it comes from a rusty hulk in someone's barn. The unit shown can be restored with sandblasting, polishing, painting, and replating. So they're probably looking for a missing part for the other side of the vehicle. I doubt that this vehicle would have had ordinary lights on it. So if it's not a custom part, maybe it's an aftermarket accessory. I don't have any 1932 automotive catalogs, and their availability would be limited due to questionable copyright status.
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.
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 reason you haven't seen anything so innovative in 70 years is that the last 70 years have had constant steady progress.
Not to rain on that parade, but in the mid-1930s we had V-8 engines for cars, which could accommodate no more than 6 passengers comfortably and got well under 30 MPG. Airplanes one the other hand had rotary engines a la the Armstrong-Siddeley or Pratt & Whitney, carrying up to 14 passengers and with flight range capabilities of up to 745 miles.
Today we have 4 cylinder engines in cars that can barely accommodate four adults comfortably, let alone six, with a few models sporting MPG ratings in the 40+ range, but with fleet averages still far below that. Contrast that with aircraft, which have enjoyed brutes like this one for decades, and whose carrying capacities have increased geometrically since the 1930's and whose range can extend to the thousands of miles.
Anti-lock brakes, power steering, GPS in-dash navigation, and all the other bells and whistles are all well and good. But aside from computer controls and fuel injection (another technology from the last century), we are still being driven by the same engine Henry Ford used, in little metal (though now increasingly plastic) compartments not radically different from those used in 1930.
If the same attention to innovation and invention had been nurtured in the automotive industry as it was in the aircraft industry who knows what we'd be "driving" now.
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.