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Ahead of Their Time: 2, 3 & 4 Wheel 'Freaks'

Although the automobile is an invention that has radically changed contemporary societies, the truth is that its evolution has been done in a smooth and gradual way. It may seem daring to say the following, but The truth is that at a conceptual level there are few differences in approach between the quadricycle that Henry Ford created in 1896 and any of the current cars. Four wheels, brakes, chassis, a combustion engine, steering and gearbox.

However, throughout this history there has been no lack of ideas that went beyond the logical future of the industry. Models that tried to mix the utilities of different means of transport, thus generating hybrids between a motorcycle and a car, or between a truck and a boat. Groundbreaking vehicles that, although on paper they are brilliant ... They were not particularly lucky in the market.

They all make up a series of wonderful forgotten oddities, a kind of characters from the film Monsters Parade in which the dream of sailing and driving at the same time goes hand in hand with microcars and two-wheeled devices halfway between a utility vehicle and a rocket ship.

On these dates the Lane Motor Museum has chosen from among its extensive collections the most exotic creatures for its exhibition Eureka! Innovate Ideas that were Ahead of their Time; a whole collection of gadgets ahead of their time or ... Simply so special and specific that they could not find a niche in a market where only the generalist -and therefore profitable- tends to be successful.

THE DREAM OF HYBRIDS

Now that the electric car seems more and more a reality and not a futuristic dream, the word hybrid makes us think of cars where combustion is combined with electricity. However, we are going to use this term in another key: that of hybridizing different means of transport. What if instead of crossing the river on the bridge we could go straight on thanks to the fact that our van also works as a boat? Why not combine all the comfort of a car with the light handling that the two wheels give you?

These questions were already asked some decades ago, emerging from them some of the most striking vehicles in this sample; For example, him 1961 Chevrolet Corphibian. An amphibian based on the Load Side pickup, which in turn was derived from the controversial Chevrolet Covair. This prototype equipped with a 6-cylinder engine, it is capable of delivering 84CV that can end up on asphalt ... Or in water. Depending on whether you are operating it from the cabin -land mode- or from the navigation controls installed in the rear -water mode-.

All a show of engineering made of fiberglass and of which we suppose it has some kind of ingenuity capable of gearing the power of the engine to the wheels or the propeller as needed. Unfortunately there was only one, and although it was devised by Chevrolet engineers under their patronage ... The truth is that the Detroit company did not have to rely too much on the project since a parallel company called Hultem-Holm Company was used for its construction.

Something more successful was the one that had another of the hybrids of this exhibition at the Lane Motor Museum: the Gyro X from 1967. It seems to us a tremendous bizarre characteristic of the time in which North American design was totally impregnated with futurism style "aluminum foil”Of the Space Race, but the truth is that this audacious hybrid between motorcycle and car I started from the reasonable basis that if a car can become as narrow as a motorcycle ... Traffic jams would end!

Mounted on two wheels, the Gyros X he proposed change the daily transport model. There is nothing ... And how? Well, very simple: combining the efficiency and maneuverability of the two wheels with the comfort of the body of a car when it comes to creating interior and cargo space. All this materialized in a aerodynamic bodywork under which the engine of a Mini Cooper S capable of delivering 80CV was hidden, stabilized by a 22-inch hydraulically actuated gyro designed to balance incline. In short, technology from the purest physics to ensure that the Giro X does not overturn even in the tightest corners.

And be careful, because although all this may seem like "space”, The truth is that several vehicles of this style were used in speed races with excellent results. Powered by Triumph or Harley-Davision these torpedoes crossed the Nevada desert more than once, reaching 424! kms / hour. You see, paradoxes of life ... A design designed to solve traffic jams finally used to cross a desert at full speed.

MINICARS AND MACROCARS

Another interesting point of the exhibition is the section dedicated to the company's minicars Martin Airplane Factory -imagine that coming from the world of aeronautics would have given them to create flying cars-. The truth is that the idea behind these little ones is totally logical: in a country devastated after the Great Depression, the most logical car was a small, simple and comfortable one for short-distance mobility.

But the reality is that they barely passed the experimental phase, and that models like the Martin-Martinette 1932 looks pretty good thanks to its engine 4 cylinders capable of delivering 30CV through four gears, all wrapped in a body with clear inspiration in the Bauhaus School. After all ... The Isetta was built to respond to a very similar social situation and it did succeed. But nothing, they stayed in the desire ...

As in the desire to be more popular, the Dymaxion; a kind of three-wheeled microbus that came out of the mind of the ingenious architect and inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller. That man endowed with the typical creative spirit so typical of North American popular culture who sees in technology the redemption of a drifting Humanity. A visionary - eccentric for his time - who between 1932 and 1935 managed to produce several prototypes of this vehicle powered by a Ford V8 where up to 11 people can enter along its almost 6 meters long.

lane motor museum eureka after time
Here in another of the promotional photos of the time in the heart of Washington DC

In short, a futuristic miscarriage that continues to excite design fanatics such as the architect Norman Foster, who embarked on the project to build the fourth unit of the Dymaxion. An artifact in which 2 years of work were invested and that looks from you to you with the aerodynamic passenger planes.

lane motor museum eureka after time
The one exhibited in the exhibition is a replica, but it still impresses. Source: Lane Motor Museum.

As you have seen through these 4 examples exposed in Eureka! Innovate Ideas that were Ahead of their Time, The history of the automobile is full of examples that illustrate the impetus of some dreamers to create totally revolutionary vehicles. Some with luck… And others -like these-, with less. But in any case representative of wanting to go further by giving concrete answers to mobility needs.

Because, despite being so strange ... The truth is that none of these examples is far from a practical sense of the day to day. Not as the eccentric Renault Espace F1, to which these "freaks”From the circus of the Lane Motor Museum could well sing that of "Gooble gooble, one of us, we accept her".

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Written by Miguel Sánchez

Through the news from La Escudería, we will travel the winding roads of Maranello listening to the roar of the Italian V12; We will travel Route66 in search of the power of the great American engines; we will get lost in the narrow English lanes tracking the elegance of their sports cars; We will speed up the braking in the curves of the Monte Carlo Rally and we will even get dusty in a garage while rescuing lost jewels.

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