Weird And Wonderful Car Concepts

Send This Page To A Friend
Fade To White
A Brief History of the Automobile


 
Count Alphonse Constanti
Count Alphonse Constanti


British Quasar Cube Car
The length of the "Cube Car" was no more than the width of a conventional vehicle - making it possible to park nose-in to the kerb. Called the "Quasar", it was six feet long, six feet wide and six feet high. It could turn in half the circle of an ordinary car.

The Walking Vehicle



At the turn of last century there were plenty of weird and wonderful designs, and one such contraption was the 1900 Humber which featured rear wheel steering. Around the same time a group of British engineers concluded that the new fangled motor car would never succeed because the conservative aristocracy were impregnated with centuries of horse-lore. These engineers devised a car with four legs and no wheels. A complicated cranking mechanism enabled it to stomp around like a clockwork soldier. During trials, it reached a speed of 4 mph. Due to technical difficulties, this design never marched off the production line. Not much of a surprise really.

Lawson's Gyrocar



Another very old idea was the gyroscopic controlled car. Lawson's 1900 gyrocar was probably the first to use the age-old principle that a spinning top would remain vertical. Applied to a motor car, this meant if a large body of metal revolved quickly enough, the car would always remain upright, even when resting on two wheels. Lawson's vehicle was really a dog-cart towed by a single wheel above which sat an engine with a horizontal flywheel large enough to give the desired effect.

The Duck



The 1913 Duck was a very strange design, it featuring rear wheel steering which was just right for back seat drivers. Its controls and steering wheel were located behind the front seat. In 1897 a Frenchman, Joseph Mills, built a car consisting of a large wooden body, shaped like a cart horse, with a single road wheel for traction. The belly of the animal housed a combined electric and petrol engine which was as quiet as the designer could make it.

The advantages were the vehicle could be tethered to an existing carriage without changing its appearance; the power unit was completely shielded from dust and any simpleton could control the vehicle, since steering was done through a pair of reins. Then an American, Uriah Smith, thought up an improvement. His vehicle looked like a car, apart from an over-sized mascot looking out front. This was a horse's head, specially designed to beguile its kin. Mr Smith pointed out the head also provided an ideal place for spare fuel tanks.

In 1912 an American, James Scripps Booth, built an improved model which still exists. Called the Bi-Autogo, it was a monster, some 4500 lb of solid metal suspended between a wheelbase of 11 ft 7 in. The steering column and front wheel supports were inclined at an angle, thus making steering tricky to say the least. The power unit was one of the first V8 engines ever designed and, like the driver, sat in the middle of the vehicle. The Bi-Autogo looked good for 100 mph but it never reached anything like that speed, as it was almost impossible to steer.

The Wolseley Gyrocar



An even more ambitious gyrocar was built by Wolseley in England in 1913. The story, as told by the makers, says that early in 1913 a bearded Russian calling himself Count Peter Schilowsky arrived at the factory with a sheath of blue-prints under his arm. He said his estates in Russia were divided by lanes so narrow even the horses had trouble getting through. He planned to overcome the problem with a special vehicle. The car turned out to be a two-wheeled, four-seater carriage. Its four cylinder engine drove the back wheel as well as a massive gyroscope placed under the front seat. The gyroscope was controlled by two pendulums so that when the vehicle leaned to one side, the pendulums set the gyro whirring. The car then quickly righted itself.

The vehicle was very long and thin, with a pair of wheels which could be lowered on either side in case the engine stalled and when parking. The Count told an impressive story and asked Wolseley to build the car and left some money as a deposit. Within eight months the car firm had completed the order and the vehicle was ready for test. The Russian took the wheel, the three chief engineers climbed aboard and a group of workmen stood by in case of emergencies. The count started the engine and the vehicle wobbled forward. Then he changed gear and the vehicle shot backwards. After a little experimentation, he successfully drove the length of the factory, ignoring the erratic motion which turned one of the engineers green. Unfortunately, the engine stalled on a corner and the vehicle toppled over. Workmen rushed to the scene but the automatic side wheel held the car up.

When it eventually ventured onto the roads passers-by stared as the gyro car apparently defied the laws of gravity. When, for example, a passenger stepped onto the running board, the gyroscope buzzed into action and the car rose instead of lowering under the weight. And, on the sharpest of corners, the vehicle remained upright instead of leaning into the curve like a motorcycle. After the tests, the car returned to the factory for modification. The Count diplomatically withdrew and was never seen at Wolseley again. The company was left with the huge car on its hands. It waited a decent interval in case the Count came back, then buried it in the factory grounds. In 1936 someone remembered and it was then put on display in the company's main showroom.

Believing there could be a future in two wheeled cars for high speed expressway travel, Ford engineers called in the advice of scientists normally engaged in the field of inertia guidance systems for missiles. They built an experimental gyrocar, with a delta shaped body some 209 inches in length, 44 inches high and 86 inches wide. Such a car, the engineers claimed, could be accurately controlled by a gyro spinning at 20,000 rpm and made to bank precisely the correct amount when going into tight bends, allowing very fast cornering. But there were never any plans yet to produce this vehicle.

In 1911 an American banker named Reeves built a car with eight wheels. He hoped the vehicle would ride serenely over rough roads. When it was finished, a group of local enthusiasts helped Mr Reeves put the prototype through its tests. They found the suspension handled potholes superbly but the car was almost impossible to steer because of the effort needed to turn the four front wheels. Mr Reeves returned home and built a six-wheeled version to give lighter steering but then found no customers.

Only slightly more successful with six wheels was Morris Motors. Back in the early 1930s, it built a six wheeler at the request of the Maharaja of Bhopal who wanted it for hunting expeditions. Apparently this open tourer was a success, so Morris offered a sedan version for general sale. The advertisements said it was "specifically designed to meet a demand for speed coupled with cross country performance". The "demand" proved to be almost non-existent. Many years later Morris made its Mini Minor concept world famous but it was by no means the first in the field.

The Lilliput



n 1905 an even smaller car, the Lilliput, built in Germany, featured front-wheel-drive. The French followed with a diminutive conventional car called Le Zebre; soon afterwards the Bebe Peugeot appeared. Now the search for the ideal city car has moved in another direction.

Quasar Cube Car



Another unusual city vehicle of recent years was the Quasar "cube car" which stunned pedestrians when tested on the streets of London. Unlike any other vehicle ever built, it was shaped like a cube - 6 ft long, 6 ft wide and 6 ft high. With room for six adults and their luggage, the Quasar could turn in 18 feet - roughly half the circle of a typical medium sized sedan. To combine safety with mobility, the body was largely made from specially toughened glass, allowing the driver to see in all directions. To park, you could go nose-in to the kerb. Then the driver and their passengers could alight from a door in the front or through one of the side sliding doors. The designer figured the car could be parked legally this way. It could nose into a gap no wider than 6 1/2 feet, with its rear bumper projecting into the road slightly further than the sides of an average car.

The Italian Urbania



A different approach to city parking problems was taken by the designers of the Italian Urbania. This tiny machine could take one passenger and their luggage. Less than 6 ft long and 4 ft wide, it weighed a mere 575 lb. Its cab could revolve around the chassis to face any direction the driver chose with obvious advantages.

The 1910 FDW



An American firm was one of the first to come up with a true city car. tried to solve the problem another way. The 1910 FDW had four wheel steering and four wheel drive. The advantages unfortunately were outweighed by several hundred pounds of excess machinery and the idea failed to attract buyers.

Perhaps the strangest idea of deriving power is the use of large spinning top. The first such vehicle was driven in 1904 and in 1953 a fleet of 70 passenger Oerlikon buses built in Switzerland used the same principle, running successfully for 16 years in Europe and Africa. In the early 1970s the US Government spent $190,000 to find out if this old idea can be harnessed to space age technology. The man given the task is Doctor David Rabenhorst, a professor at the John Hopkins University of Applied Physics Laboratory. "We've proved the principle," he said, "Now we're anxious to get on with the hardware."

The "hardware" was a 200 lb flywheel, driven by an exterior electric power point until it reached 60,000 rpm. At this speed the "engine" was considered fully wound up. The flywheel spun in a vacuum held by virtually frictionless bearings, so it kept turning for a considerable time. As it spun, the flywheel drove an electric generator, via a magnetic coupling with the electricity being used to power the road wheels. Calculations showed the spinning flywheel storedenough energy to drive a car at speeds up to 70 mph and for a distance of 110 miles. It could then be "wound up" again by plugging into a power point for 20 minutes.

he advantages were obvious. The vehicle would be completely pollution-free, with operating costs lower than existing designs. However, the drawbacks were formidable. In a collision, the spinning flywheel might go awry, unleashing its energy in a destructive and dangerous manner. Impatient motorists might not relish the idea of waiting 20 minutes while the motor "wound up". We don’t know what become of the technology, but are unaware of any spinning top vehicles used for mass transportation today.

The Diamond Car



Logically, a vehicle should have a wheel at each corner. But a few designers did not think so. They favoured placing the wheels in diamond formation - that is, a wheel in the front, a wheel at the rear and one at each side. The 1901 Sunbeam was the first vehicle to explore this idea but as late as 1959 one was built. Professor Miroslev Nestorovic, head of vehicle design at Belgrave University, built and demonstrated a "diamond" car. The professor cited many advantages, including a chassis which permitted a true elliptical shape. He proved this by designing a wind cheating body that allowed the prototype to reach 55 mph, powered by an ancient 250 cc motor cycle engine. More important, the diamond formation kept all four wheels firmly on the ground.

A further demonstrable advantage was the 23 feet turning circle achieved by a simple linkage coupling the front and rear wheels, so that both steered. True four wheel independent suspension was provided by the use of two long springs each dampened by a pair of telescopic shock absorbers. Pininfarina, the famous Italian design and coachwork firm, later borrowed this idea for their Project X experimental car. It drew praise from automobile experts the world over.

Count Alphonse Constantini



Another city car invention can be attributed to Count Alphonse Constantini. In 1906 he built and demonstrated a pair of motorised roller skates, claiming that an experienced user could cruise at 40 mph. However, after testing a pair, an English journal asked its readers: "Suppose for one reason or another, one of the engines should stop - what would happen?" The answer, one thinks, is that the user would keep going around and around, just like the modern motorist looking for a parking spot!
Wolseley 2-Wheeler Gyroscope
The Wolseley 2-Wheeler Gyroscope was one of the weirdest "cars" the company ever made. The two-wheeled monster was held upright by a gyroscope. It was originally built for a Russian Count who wanted to cruise his estates where the lanes were too narrow for a normal car. He never took delivery.

1959 Belgrave Diamond Car
The "Diamond Chassis" car at least had 4 wheels. This prototype was built at Belgrave University in 1959, and featured the front and rear wheels being coupled together so that it could turn in only 23 feet. The idea was also claimed to ensure all 4 wheels remained planted on the ground whether accelerating, braking or cornering.
US Army 4-Legged Car
This 4-Legged "contraption" made it to prototype stage, as a possible vehicle for the US Army. It could manoeuvre in tight spaces, and lift heavy weights with its feet. We believe the idea was scrapped in the early 1970s.

Also see:
The History of The Automobile
The History of Australian Motoring - Looking Back On Forty Years of Motoring by W. H. Lober
The Sports Car
Great British Pre-War Sports Car
Founding Fathers Of The Automotive Industry
The Automotive Industry, Pre World War 1
The Automotive Industry, Between The Wars
The Automotive Industry, Post War
Latest Classic Car Classifieds


Sell Your Car or Parts Browse the Classifieds It's Absolutely Free! - Find Out More