10 Scariest Cars

[Jim H]

One step too close and one might lose something. The Old Motor.

Great photo and unique vehicle.

 

[AriLea]

This will probably be surprising, since the car is such an Icon with lots of interesting innovations..
But unfortunately here are it's issues;

1) High center of gravity (CG or cg) on a 3 wheel platform. Low roll-over threshold.
2) Rear engine - FWD drive, with the CG moved too far back, unless fully occupied. Both bad for rollover on 3 (or 4) wheels and also for the VW dilemma. That is, the center of pressure was forward of the cg. The parable there is, "An airplane can not fly backwards for very long."
3) Rear steering - a) (from Wiki) counterintuitive to operate, especially in crosswind situations
b) Rear steering is not used, almost never. There is a reason, issues with OverSteering / Understeering and unpredictable related events. Always very 'twitchy' at speed.
4) Although the aerodynamics are very good for drag. Note: A nice aerodynamic form does produce some buffeting under changing air and wind conditions. The parable to say is, "When you have a lot to lose, you notice it." Or if you like, "flying bricks are much more predictable than birds."
5) It has a high nose which sometimes creates downforce and sometimes lift, depending on the ground clearance, cross winds and turbulence. That can affect other dynamic issues such as line of steering, over/under steering, rollover etc.

Conclusion) The combination of steering unpredictability, aerodynamic buffeting, high and rearward cg, produces a cantankerous machine to drive as the speed moves upward. In the day, 50mph was considered especially fast. But about that time highway infrastructures were fast developing into major freeway systems. The expectation is that such an aerodynamic body would be expected to go fast. Today an 'Urban Vehicle' is considered limited to below 45mph in some states, with lower engineering requirements. There is a reason, lower dynamic effects, avoiding crossing safety thresholds. The Dymaxion would best be used that way, but no such rule set existed in the day. It's very fortunate the car was not produced in this configuration, for those years.

But, the vehicle is an icon of innovation. It had an inestimable positive influence on automotive design aspirations.

 

[goofyone]

.....

This reminds me that I need to get up to Nashville and visit the Lane Motor Museum again as they recently added a replica Dymaxion to their collection and I have yet to see one in person. The Lane Museum is always fun to visit anyhow as they have quite a collection of rare, unique, and/or prototype vehicles as well as many foreign vehicles not seen often in this country.

http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/103-audio-video/639-1933-dymaxion-replica-on-display-feb-26
https://roadtrippers.com/stories/dymaxion-car


Last year I just happened across an actual page from the an official copy of the Dymaxion patent. This document, signed by Buckminster Fuller himself, was displayed as part of the 'Dream Cars' exhibit at Atlanta's High Museum of Art in 2014.

Last year I posted a number of photos I took of the various beautiful and unique vehicles which were included in the 'Dream Cars' exhibit.

http://www.elioowners.com/threads/dream-cars-high-museum-of-art-in-atlanta-ga.3396

 

[RKing]

Graet thread, I learn something new and interesting from this group every day!

 

[Coss]

I knew of the Pinto have fire problems but I did not realize the Fiero had them. Found an article on it.
Car Buzz.
I knew the first ones had reliability problems. The newer didn't but sales were down because of the reputation of the first ones. I thought the Fiero was a nice design.

The really scary part was; the great big center console between the seats is where they had the gas tank located. The fire would start and run right up that tunnel to the gas tank. The people that had fires happen only had seconds before the whole interior was in flames.

They were fun little cars to drive; the GT with the V6 was fast! But don't try to turn a corner in the rain at speed they suffered extreme under steer and try to run you off to whatever was on the corner.

 

[RKing]

And the understeer only lasted till you lifted off the gas

Yes I had a first year Fiero, when the suspension got a little tired it got worse, way worse!

 

[AriLea]

This 'crowd pleaser' probably qualifies.. Also who's driving that? lol

 

[AriLea]

The really scary part was; the great big center console between the seats is where they had the gas tank located. The fire would start and run right up that tunnel to the gas tank. The people that had fires happen only had seconds before the whole interior was in flames. They were fun little cars to drive; the GT with the V6 was fast! But don't try to turn a corner in the rain at speed they suffered extreme under steer and try to run you off to whatever was on the corner.

Speaking of fire, my brother's TR7 (exactly as below), was ammmm, an attempt by GB to reduce the US population of young men.
You had to replace the timing belt before half the recommended miles, or suffer all bent valves. He got hit 3 times by that.
Also it caught fire three times. The third totaled it and was a god send according to my brother, for the insurance replacement.

I drove it once, and I hit the gas truly well heading slightly down hill. It went all over the road before I could react. Toooo much weight up front.

The partial but easy fix to that would have been moving the battery 8ft from the front to the back. ( bigger battery, thicker cables, rusted trunk :-) )

Horrid, rusting, chipping painted parts. Washington state has salted winter roads, maybe GB does not.

 

[Ekh]

This will probably be surprising, since the car is such an Icon with lots of interesting innovations..
But unfortunately here are it's issues;

1) High center of gravity (CG or cg) on a 3 wheel platform. Low roll-over threshold.
2) Rear engine - FWD drive, with the CG moved too far back, unless fully occupied. Both bad for rollover on 3 (or 4) wheels and also for the VW dilemma. That is, the center of pressure was forward of the cg. The parable there is, "An airplane can not fly backwards for very long."
3) Rear steering - a) (from Wiki) counterintuitive to operate, especially in crosswind situations
b) Rear steering is not used, almost never. There is a reason, issues with OverSteering / Understeering and unpredictable related events. Always very 'twitchy' at speed.
4) Although the aerodynamics are very good for drag. Note: A nice aerodynamic form does produce some buffeting under changing air and wind conditions. The parable to say is, "When you have a lot to lose, you notice it." Or if you like, "flying bricks are much more predictable than birds."
5) It has a high nose which sometimes creates downforce and sometimes lift, depending on the ground clearance, cross winds and turbulence. That can affect other dynamic issues such as line of steering, over/under steering, rollover etc.

Conclusion) The combination of steering unpredictability, aerodynamic buffeting, high and rearward cg, produces a cantankerous machine to drive as the speed moves upward. In the day, 50mph was considered especially fast. But about that time highway infrastructures were fast developing into major freeway systems. The expectation is that such an aerodynamic body would be expected to go fast. Today an 'Urban Vehicle' is considered limited to below 45mph in some states, with lower engineering requirements. There is a reason, lower dynamic effects, avoiding crossing safety thresholds. The Dymaxion would best be used that way, but no such rule set existed in the day. It's very fortunate the car was not produced in this configuration, for those years.

But, the vehicle is an icon of innovation. It had an inestimable positive influence on automotive design aspirations.

View attachment 5261

My family was close friends with Bucky Fuller .. and my dad got to drive the Dymaxion. He hated it, said it steered like a boat, not a car. (I only met him once, though -- fuller, not my dad.)