"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv)
04/16/2020 at 17:46 • Filed to: oddimotive
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"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv)
04/16/2020 at 17:46 • Filed to: oddimotive | 7
| 6 |
This is a drivable two-wheeled car built by Alfred ‘Pete’ Schlatter in 1977. It was inspired by the “Foomobile”, a fictional two-wheeled car from a comic series called “Smokey Stover”, which ran from 1935 to 1975.
The wheels of the real two-wheeled car are driven by independent hydraulic motors, powered by a small engine. It doesn’t use a gyroscope of any sort to balance, and it doesn’t have any fancy computerized balancing systems either. The way it does stay up is actually pretty clever. Schlatter said that he had his eureka moment when he noticed how radial tires depress slightly under load. He figured he could hide some internal wheels within the contact patch of the tire to prevent the car from falling over without making the tires look any different. This little diagram shows exactly how the system works, and it’s pretty darn cool if you ask me.
This brilliant solution stumped many people in the media, even after Schlatter let them drive the car around a bit! He later said he would create plans so you could build one yourself, although I haven’t figured out where you would find those plans today if they exist.
The top speed of this little novelty car may have only been 5 mph, but it’s still a cool bit of engineering, and I imagine it’s probably a hoot to drive around in.
Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 17:55 |
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If you find the plans please post. I feel like we need an Oppo race with a bunch of these on a short course.
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Jim Spanfeller
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
04/16/2020 at 17:59 |
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Well, it appears that the car has its own Facebook page, so I’ll check that out later and see if I can find something. It’d be totally epic if we could race these things.
Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 19:35 |
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The only problem with this design is that the contact patch still isnt all that massive.
It’s so rad though I dont care that it doesnt do more than 5 mph
Goggles Pizzano
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 19:57 |
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#f armisitelock
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Jim Spanfeller
> Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
04/16/2020 at 20:48 |
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Yeah, the low speed is kinda necessary when you have such a tiny wheelbase. But it would be too much fun to matter. “L ook M a, two wheels!”
CobraJoe
> Jim Spanfeller
04/17/2020 at 11:45 |
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I saw a similar vehicle in a parade once, but it was just a solid axle from a car with a seat and a small engine on it. I’m sure it had a similar setup in the tires, but it was still insane to see axle driving itself down the road.