I think the Michelin Tweel is the same idea?
You call that a “War Wheel”? Now this is a “War Wheel”!
And yes, apparently, it actually was a real vehicle. And it actually got to the prototype stage.
:eek:
That’s exactly what I was thinking of!
A bump (mods, please don’t have a fit), because I’ve just discovered this page, with some rather odd looking cars. Including one that
Ooookay, anyone know why this didn’t catch on? (Besides the fact that it’s most likely a scam and in an ugly car, I mean.)
Any info on this weird engine design? Henry ford sank quite a bit of money in to it; is was a 4-cylinder engine, with the cylinders in the shape of an X. Space efficient, and a very short crankshaft. It was suposed to sit horizontally in the erngine compartment-meaning the crankshat needed a spur gear to connect to the ransmission.
Total hijack, but Monday whilst driving around town I passed an actual operating BMW Isetta going the other way. So cool!
I knew they were small, but great Og, I had no idea just how small they were. The minivan behind it looked like a train engine in comparison.
Fun stuff. Reminds me of the days when Popular Science seemed to have a new wacky engine design on the front cover of every third issue.
I’ve always wondered if an external combustion plane could be made, I’ve even considered starting a GQ on it. thanks!
Brian
Maybe It Will
IIRC, they had problems with the plug wires and/or vibration. Someone mentioned the reason in a thread on radial engines in GQ, IIRC.
Aircraft have had radial engines for years and I’m told that they perform fantastically, so I can only guess why Ford couldn’t get the kinks worked out. Henry Ford did wonders for the automotive industry, but he was a subborn old mule at times. He kept the Model-T around for years longer than it was really a viable product, he also refused to allow people to buy cars on credit as he felt that it would sap the moral character of the nation (Chevy was able to pass Ford in car sales by extending credit to car buyers). When Walter P. Chrysler (yes, that Chrysler) invented a way to make V-6s run as smooth as V-8s, he was so excited about the idea, that he drove the test car to Henry Ford’s place. Ford had no interest in it at all. (The folks at GM, however, did find it interesting and introduced their first models shortly after Chrysler did.) So it might be that there was some element of the design that Ford refused to allow to be changed which prohibited it from working.
Ford, also, for reasons known only to himself, I suppose, hired George Washington Carver to develop plant material into body panels for cars, but never mass produced them. (It was either soy beans or peanut shells that Carver used.) I’ve seen film footage of Henry Ford and GWC beating on the trunk lid of a car with a baseball bat and no damage occuring to the lid. We had to wait until Saturn started building cars in the 90s to see something similar.
You say you want tiny cars? Well here’s a tiny car!
I discovered this one while working as a GM product specialist and somebody called asking what the itty bitty car that ended up parked in the back of the Escalade EXT was–took us a while, but we figured it out!
I wonder if this engine will ever catch on? It looks very cool…
Me too! Cool photos Tuckerfan.
Please tell me this footage is available on video, somewhere.
There were some cars with airplane-style radial engines, including one where the engine was horizontal (that is, the crankshaft is vertical). There were pictures in a semi-recent motor trend or similar magazine.
Brian
Tuckerfan, if you’re not associated with the Lane Motor Museum, you oughta be. They’d love you. I want to go back and see if they’ve renovated the Czech ambulance they acquired a couple of years ago.
That looks like what a Dymaxion car should have looked like.
Tuckerfan, I enjoyed reading your newest additions … I gotta tell you … I like to have fell out when I was looking at the photo of the Dymaxion - parked in front of the Texaco Lubritorium - 
It should be, I saw it on a [del]Hitler[/del] History Channel program about GWC.
Vlad/Igor, I’ve been there once, briefly. I was planning on starting a thread about my trip there, but I got home and found out that my digital camera had screwed up and I didn’t get most of the photos that I wanted. I don’t recall seeing the Czech ambulance you mention, so I’m guessing they’re not done with it. (They did have a bunch of Tatras and a really freakin’ huge amphibious landing craft on display.) Hopefully, I’ll be able to convince a buddy of mine with a good digital camera to go to the place with me and take some pictures of the stuff that’s there.
Oh, and I just found out that the Fascination cars still exist (two of them, at any rate) and happen to be owned by someone who also owns a Tucker! 
A rather nifty steam powered bicycle.
I know that a bicycle with a large front wheel is called a “pennyfarthing,” but I’ve no idea what you call one with a large rear wheel.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Rat Fink riding one of those. 