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Schlörwagen
The ''Schlörwagen'' (nicknamed "Göttingen Egg" or "Pillbug") was a prototype aerodynamic rear-engine passenger vehicle developed by Karl Schlör (1911–1997) and presented to the public at the 1939 Berlin Auto Show. It never went into production, and the sole prototype has not survived. Design history Schlör, an engineer for Krauss Maffei of Munich, proposed an ultra-low drag coefficient body as early as 1936. Under Schlör's supervision at the AVA (an aerodynamic testing institute in Göttingen) a model was built. Subsequent wind tunnel tests yielded an extraordinarily low drag coefficient of 0.113. For a functioning model, a Mercedes-Benz 170H chassis, one of their few rear-engine designs, was used. The aluminum body was built by the Ludewig Brothers of Essen. Subsequent tests of the motorized model showed a slightly higher but still impressive drag coefficient of 0.186. The Schlörwagen was built on a modified chassis of the Mercedes 170 H. The wheelbase was 2.60 m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dymaxion Car
The Dymaxion car was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and featured prominently at Chicago's 1933/1934 World's Fair. Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Starling Burgess – using donated money as well as a family inheritance – to explore not an automobile per se, but the 'ground-taxiing phase' of a vehicle that might one day be designed to fly, land and drive – an "Omni-Medium Transport". Fuller associated the word ''Dymaxion'' with much of his work, a portmanteau of the words ''dynamic'', ''maximum'', and ''tension'', to summarize his goal to do more with less. The Dymaxion's aerodynamic bodywork was designed for increased fuel efficiency and top speed, and its platform featured a lightweight hinged chassis, rear-mounted V8 engine, front-wheel drive (a rare ''RF'' layout), and three wheels. With steering via its third wheel at the rear (capable of 90° steering lock), the vehicle co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stout Scarab
The Stout Scarab is a streamlined 1930–1940s American car, designed by William Bushnell Stout and manufactured by Stout Engineering Laboratories and later by Stout Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan. The Stout Scarab is credited by some as the world's first production minivan, and a 1946 experimental prototype of the Scarab became the world's first car with a fiberglass bodyshell and air suspension. Background William B. Stout was a motorcar and aviation engineer and journalist. While president of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Stout met Buckminster Fuller at a major New York auto show and wrote an article on the Dymaxion Car for the society's newsletter. Contemporary production cars commonly had a separate chassis and body with a long hood. The engine compartment and engine were behind the front axle and ahead of the passenger compartment. The front-mounted engine typically drove the rear axle through a drive shaft underneath the floor of the vehicle. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurel Persu
Aurel Persu (26 December 1890 – 5 May 1977) was a Romanian engineer and pioneer car designer, the first to place the wheels inside the body of the car as part of his attempt to reach the perfect aerodynamic shape for automobiles.Aurel Persu Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks He came to the conclusion that the perfectly aerodynamic automobile must have the shape of a falling Drop (liquid), water drop, taking it one step further toward that shape than Rumpler Tropfenwagen, the car Austrian Edmund Rumpler had presented in Berlin in 1921. Patented aerodynamic design Persu, a specialist in airplanes aerodynamics and dynamics, implemented his idea in 1922–1923 in Berlin, building an automobile with an incredibly low autom ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rumpler Tropfenwagen
The Rumpler Tropfenwagen ("Rumpler drop car", named after its raindrop shape) was a car developed by Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler. The Tropfenwagen Aerodynamics Rumpler, born in Vienna, was known as a designer of aircraft when at the 1921 Berlin car show he introduced the Tropfenwagen. It was to be the first ''streamlined'' production car, before the Chrysler Airflow and Tatra T77. The Rumpler was already wind tunnel optimized at the Aerodynamics Research Institute in Göttingen and had a Automobile drag coefficient, drag coefficient of only 0.28, a value that astonished later engineers when they tested the Tropfenwagen in the 1970s. This would be competitive even today. For comparison: the top ten most aerodynamic production cars in 2014/2015 were in the range 0.26 down to 0.19. The Fiat 508, Fiat ''Balilla'' of the mid-1930s, by contrast, was rated at 0.60. To enable the car's aerodynamic shape, the Tropfenwagen also featured the world's first (single plane) curved windows in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercedes-Benz 130
From 1931 to 1939, Daimler-Benz AG produced three cars (Mercedes-Benz 130, 150 and 170 H) with rear engine as well as a few prototypes. Production numbers remained low for each of these models, especially compared with the production of conventional front-engine Mercedes-Benz cars. Development and prototypes (W17/W25D) At the beginning of the 1930s, inspired by modern streamlined shapes, there were attempts to move car engines from the forward compartment to the rear of the car. Such a move allows a reduction in the volume of the front compartment. At the same time, the voluminous rear provides a lot of space above and behind the rear axle. Moreover, when engines are rear mounted, the drive shaft is eliminated. The most famous such development was with the 1930s Tatra 77, 87, and 97 under the leadership of Hans Ledwinka. In 1930, Daimler-Benz entrusted Hans Nibel with the development of a small rear-engined car, starting from the same principles. In 1931, working with Max Wagne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concept Cars
A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not be produced. General Motors designer Harley Earl is generally credited with inventing the concept car, and did much to popularize it through its traveling Motorama shows of the 1950s. Concept cars never go into production directly. In modern times, all would have to undergo many changes before the design is finalized for the sake of practicality, safety, regulatory compliance, and cost. A "production-intent" prototype, as opposed to a concept vehicle, serves this purpose. Design Concept cars are often radical in engine or design. Some use non-traditional, exotic, or expensive materials, ranging from paper to carbon fiber to refined alloys. Others have unique layouts, such as gullwing doors, three or five (or more) wheels, or spec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automobiles
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billion cars in use worldwide. The French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first steam-powered road vehicle in 1769, while the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed and constructed the first internal combustion-powered automobile in 1808. The modern car—a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use—was invented in 1886, when the German inventor Carl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Commercial cars became widely available during the 20th century. The 1901 Oldsmobile Curved Dash and the 1908 Ford Model T, both American cars, are widely considered the first mass-produced and mass-affordable cars, respectively. Cars were rapidly adopted in the US, where they replaced horse-drawn carriages. In Europe and other pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
