General cars and vehicles thread.

[LoooSeR]

Porsche Tapiro, 1970, Italian design.

 

 

 

 

 

[Alex C.]

Alex, you think steam car tech is relevant to modern automobiles, or not? Interested to see what you think.

 

I do not. Having to fill up with fuel and water would be a burden, not to mention the complexity (even with modern production simplification, there are and always have been significant problems with steam relative to conventional internal combustion engines).

We have over a century of R&D into internal combustion engines so we know pretty much what works and what doesn't, and all advances have been very incremental (not unlike the small arms plateau discussion in the Infantry Tools sub-forum) but attempts to veer away from it have always failed. Take for example the Mazda RX7: Rotary engines are very nifty and produce an incredible amount of power relative to their displacement, but they are so notoriously unreliable (with boost) that even Mazda threw in the towel after the RX8. Electric cars even experience a "renaissance" every other decade or so and always fall flat on their face. Thomas Edison himself told Henry Ford not to dick around with electric cars, even though they were around and well known as early as 1900. This Tesla thing is interesting, but what people are now starting to realize is that the claimed mileage is optimal, with no A/C on (which creates a tremendous drain on them). Who knows where it will go.

[LoooSeR]

Platforma-O military vehicles with electric motors in wheels.

 

 

[Sturgeon]

They sound like they are hybrids. Is that so?

[LoooSeR]

More like Maus - diesel/petrol engine is generetor of electricity, which is used to drive wheels via electrical actuator/engine inside of each wheel.

[Alex C.]

More like Maus - diesel/petrol engine is generetor of electricity, which is used to drive wheels via electrical actuator/engine inside of each wheel.

That is how most heavy equipment works. Diesel-electric powertrains are standard in most haul trucks and whatnot above a certain size.

 

I do not however know what the formula is for determining at which point diesel-electric is more efficient than mechanical.

[LoooSeR]

3 door Citroën SM photos.

 

 

 

 

 

And one more...

 

[LoooSeR]

Four-wheel drive passenger car "Columbus" created in 1992 by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro for the German car company BMW:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

Beach car built in 1955, on the chassis Fiat 600 Multipla, as a wedding gift to Italian Princess Ira von Furstenberg, who married Prince Alfonso Hohenlohe (Austrian prince).

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

 

Seeing such equipment on UAZ is making me giggle.

[Sturgeon]

[LoooSeR]

Platforma-O adv material

[Xlucine]

A small photoshoot of the Jaguar Ascot concept car, created in 1977 by Italian car design studio Bertone for the British company Jaguar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

You like Jaaaaaags?

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

[Alex C.]

This made me tear up

 

But... pay attention to the caption at the end

 

 

 

[LostCosmonaut]

Found out about the Gyrobus today: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus

[LoooSeR]

 

[LoooSeR]

2 seater Toyota Proto sport car prototype, created in 1957:

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

Paris, 1935

Can somebody ID car right next to photographer/camera?

[LoooSeR]

The Cadillac Cyclone concept car, created in 1959 by designer Harley Earl (or Homer Simpson)

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

First Soviet mass-produced truck - AMO-F-15:

The first serial-produced AMO-F-15 at the November demonstration

 

   AMO-F-15 is a modified version of the Italian truck FIAT 15 Ter, assembly was conducted at the "Automobile Moscow Society" (later - "Plant named after Likhachev", or ZiL) in 1917-1919. The first AMO-F-15 trucks were assembled at the plant in the period from 1st to 6th November 1924 and were shown to the public during the November demonstrations in Moscow.

   The serial production of the AMO-F-15 started in 1925. Production was stopped in 1931, during production period around 7000 AMO-F-15 were made.

 

A group of workers of the plant with the first production truck

 

 

Rear axle assembly

 

Assembly of one of the first production vehicles

[LoooSeR]

KrAZ in the North of USSR, 1970s.

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

 Alfa Romeo Navajo concept car, 1976.