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Weird Cars Thread

nemanja_t

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Tatra T87 was a car ahead of his time by many parameters. WW2 and German ocupation of Czechoslovakia moved the car out of mainstream, but main designer was forced by Nazis to work for then, and many of Tatra design charachteristics could be found in first Beetle, for which development Ferdinand Porsche took all credit.
 

Frank Dernie

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I'm guessing finding a treadmill capable of running at 200mph is quite tricky. :)

Although, what about a rolling road, the sort of thing they use for dyno testing, or does the fact that the whole surface underneath the car isn't moving relative to it mess that up?
Further to this question earlier.
Yes, the belt needs to be flat and the boundary layer on it made perfect before it gets to the car. All 4 wheels need to be rotating. The flow field around stationary wheels is quite different from that around rotating wheels, so measuring a car with the wheels stationary is doing so in a non-representative flow field and is therefore not only wrong but not correctable by applying an offset or correction factor.
It means most road car aero has been done wrong (in terms of drag, lift and radiator flow) for decades.
We did a comparison for a road car client in the early 80s. They had a prototype car and a 1:4 model.
They had wool tufts fitted and had data of photos of the real car, the real car in a conventional full scale tunnel with stationary wheels sitting on the force scale pads and the model on a 1:4 tunnel.
We made model rotating wheels and tested the model in our 1:4 tunnel with moving ground.
The only correlation with the real car was our model tests.
I forget which way round it was now, but on one test the radiator air went through the radiator and exited through the front wheel-arch in the other it exited under the car, hence (one of) the inability(s) to correct the error.
A fixed road tunnel is OK for wind noise from mirrors and dirt build up on window type work but worse than useless for forces because people think it is right when it is not.
As ever having no data is better than having bad data IME.
 
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Ron Texas

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Blumlein 88

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View attachment 77086
Stay clear of the prop.
I've seen one of these. Not this exact one, but one like it. Out on the highway. Doesn't climb steep hills very well. Also the one I saw was using the VW motor. One of the old mechanically fuel injected models. I'm pretty sure it isn't street legal.
 

anmpr1

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The Ford Beatnik 3 How do you like it?
Those George Jetson bubble cover cars were popular with the designers--really futuristic. Dig the fins. Hard to go wrong wish shark fins. Where do you hang the fuzzy dice?

But with the California sun beating down (and for some reason most of them seem to come from California--this one is evidently from the Empire State, but now has California plates), how do you stay cool under all that plexiglass?

Below are some great photos. Guys riding in it wearing Mexican 'Mil Mascaras' luchador masks are a hoot! Memo: I need to get some for my trips to the grocery store.

https://designyoutrust.com/2018/12/...-roofed-custom-ford-is-strange-and-wonderful/
 

Ilkless

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Someone owned one of these in the neighbourhood.

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I am also quite partial to the cars from Ken Okuyama's (Enzo, Quattraporte, NSX designer) coachbuilding firm:

Coachbuilt Elise with new subframes and CF panels:

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Coachbuilt Enzo(!), apparently bought by Floyd Mayweather Jr.:

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Blumlein 88

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Weird Al Yankovic in a weird car from a weird IT song, any complaints?

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A Nash Metropolitan. I've ridden in one a long time ago. Was allowed to drive it off public roads on some paved private paths when I was 10 years old.

A fellow a couple miles from me has a Nash Airflyte. Which unlike the Metropolitan is a huge, huge car. Here is one like his, and they aren't any prettier in person.

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