1967 Gyro-X Car To Be Restored

Zothecula writes "Back in 1967, California-based Gyro Transport Systems built a prototype vehicle known as the Gyro-X. The automobile had just two wheels, one in front and one in the back and, as the car's name implies, it utilized a built-in gyroscope to remain upright when not moving. Although its developers hoped to take the Gyro-X into production, the company went bankrupt, and the one-and-only specimen of the car became an orphan. For much of the past 40-plus years, that car has passed from owner to owner, its condition deteriorating along the way. Now, it's about to be restored to its former (weird) glory."

Comments

Re:It just don't make no sense

[drinkypoo]

A FWD car having a blowout in the outside front tire in the middle of a curve at speed will have little that can be reasonably done to keep the car in its own lane under control.

Well now, that's just patently untrue. The stability control system which is now mandatory in new vehicles, and about goddamned time too*, can use all of the other wheels to keep the car under control even if it's running into the barrier at the time. And frankly, if you're driving the car properly, you'll have room for the system to do its thing. When taking a corner, you should only be near the outside of the turn at the start and end of the turn, where your lateral Gs are at a minimum. If you've placed yourself into a situation where you cannot do this, you are not driving defensively, and you are clearly at fault. To be fair, I am sometimes in those situations, but I don't pretend that I didn't put myself into those situations. If you're not prepared to deal with heightened consequences, you don't drive in the fast lane.

It's also fair to mention that some manufacturers' implementations of ASC are going to blow big hairy syphilitic donkeys. I'm not going to name names, and anyway I don't really care because I'm not likely to have a vehicle with any of that fancy stuff any time soon. I have a long way to go before I even get to the point where I'm retrofitting ABS into my W126 300SD, which is on my roadmap... but way out into the future on the other side of a paint job.

* If you're smarter than the car, you should be smart enough to disable driving assistance systems including ABS, TC, and ASC.