After reading about a project to reconstruct it, here you have what I hope is the first one:
1930's: Dymaxion Car
Designers:
Buckminster Fuller, "maverick thinker, a gentle revolutionist, a loveable genius, an anti-academician, doctor of science, doctor of arts, doctor of design" (according to himself), expelled from Harvard twice and broken entrepreneur at the time (according to me).
W. Starling Burgess, "a Harvard dropout who had become a brilliant aviation engineer, yacht designer and poet, but also a womanizer, alcoholic and morphine addict"
Nannie Dale Biddle, "a wealthy socialite and aviatrix who financed the project until she clashed with Fuller (an occupational hazard for his business partners) and fell for the dashing Burgess, becoming the fourth of his five wives."
Image of car reconstructed from original plans by Crosthwaite & Gardiner for Norman Foster (check Spaceport America, a couple of you might like the very idea of it).
Specs:
30 mpg (8 lt/100 km)
11 passengers
140 kph max. speed
6.1 m length
Ford V8 engine, 85 Hp
Three wheeler with front drive
It (probably) inspired the VW van and it is a precursor of the Aptera. Ill fated, during a demo, the first prototype crashed, killing the driver because the roof, made of light materials, was crushed. Some people argue (sigh) that Chrysler killed the project because investors believed the Dymaxion would hinder sales of other models (yeah, sure).
Now, for those of you interested in mechanical puzzles, can you solve this one?
http://www.crosthwaiteandgardiner.com/c ... ompReq.htm
I transcribe the questions that the people at Crosthwaite & Gardiner has about this car:
1. What's the component next to the ashtray in this picture?
2. What's the pushrod assembly in the same picture?
3. Is that a cigar lighter next to the pushrod assembly?
4. The door handles shown in the next two pictures, what are they from?
I hope somebody will come with another "car of the future" of the past... or some guesses about those questions, that you can deliver to the builders.
.
