Topic

Hopefully not hideous but interesting. The two wheeled Gyro Car did exist,
I can remember reading about these two wheeled gyroscopic cars a few years ago and came across these pictures. Bet some of you know of these 'special' cars.
The Schilovski Gyro Car 1914.

The Gyro was between the front and rear seats.

The car was built in 1914 under license by Wolsey. When its designer returned to Russia the car was buried. It was dug up in 1938 but scrapped in 1948.
Not to be out done the Ford made the Gyron in 1967. It never got to production. Meadows Frisky, Zeta look-a-likes.

Also found this Gyro-x from 1967.

Firstly lets look how gyroscopics work.....most people have spun a wheel and felt the forces has you hold the axle and move it left to right......havent they?
first a single gyro demonstrated by this toy

simple enough so far....now lets see a model of the double gyro...

the next image is of a man called louis brennan...


he was a irishman born in castlebar in 1852
one of his many fantastic creations was this a gyro-monorail






these next images are of the brennan gyro car farnborough 1929





The brennan gyrocar worked on the same principal has his monorail,2 contra rotating gyros were housed under the front seats and spun in a horizontal plane at 3500rpm by 24v electric motors powerd by standard car batteries.This was the greatest speed obtainable with the electric motors available and meant each rotor had to weigh 200ib to generate enough force.The car had a morris oxford engine,mounts and gearbox.....and the sidewheels taken from the tails of light aircraft and were lowerd manually on stopping
brennan also created this a steerable torpedo .....gyroscopic torpedo....this one being a replica


Brennan died at the age of 79 from the effects of being run down by a car in montreux switzerland
louis brennan born 28th january 1852.......died 17th january 1932
This image is brennans model of his monorail carrying his daughter


And another image of the brennan monorail in 1907..


engines were made by the wolesley tool and motor car company.
and last but not least another video....this time of a toy gyroscopic monorail clearly showing how it stands like magic....and i bet those photos in 1907 were taken after some of those guys had run off....

images of brennans aircraft

These have always fascinated me.

Imagine the current drivers trying to muscle one of these round Monaco!!

I find this rover car interesting............its jet1.

Yes an interesting Rover.
Which apparently held the the World Speed Record for a Gas Turbine car, which it achieved in 1952 by doing just over 152 mph.
The engine (a little like our F/TF's) was situated behind the two seats.



Tony

wow those fantastic rover cars and there engines.....check out this vid of a rover gas turbine car..

I did not realise that Electric Cars had been around for so long and had achieved so much in the early years of motoring history.
I came across this electric car which also held an early Land Speed Record.



The first recognised speed record was set at 39 mph by French Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat in an electric car in 1898 while on 29 April 1899 Belgian driver and designer Camille Jenatzy (1868-1913), known as the Red Devil because of his russet beard, became the first man to officially exceed 60 mph when he reached 65.7 mph at Acheres, France and set a World Land Speed Record in his electric car "La Jamais Contente" which also sported novel pneumatic tyres.










Tony

Yes they loved playing around with electricity in the 1800s.....heres some images
that make you realise how these electric cars were brushed under the carpet in favour of the internal combustion engine....ive never given it a second thought to look.............not only today i went on a garage forcourt and saw a sign pointing to a car ............it read im electric.............i walked past not taking any notice....thinking that little car will cost a fortune in batteries ...look at the last image of a lady charging her car........she was probably just going to powder her nose,while she was waiting for the charge

Yes they were incredible came across this other 'trailblazer'



"People were beginning to think of electrical propulsion for land transport. by 1899 the French B.G.S. firm had made an electric car with a range of 60 miles. they also were able to make one with a range of 180 miles. this was with their own batteries which were lead acid type. some early electrics used iron nickel types of which some are still apparently in use. most of the early electrics though had a range of around 25 to 40 miles per charge. about what your modern electric will do. electrics mainly went out of use because of the cost of electricity being higher than the price of gasoline. now that the reverse is true we see more electric vehicles becoming popular. the first picture is of a Baker Electric called the "Torpedo". this is the first motor vehicle as far as is known to use seat belts. it also set a world speed record in 1902 and another unofficial one of 104mph in 1904. not too shabby. next we have a Baker such as the regular citizen might use. this one i think is 1912. third is another Baker of 1904. fourth is a Rauch & Lang from 1916 and finally a Detroit Electric of 1912. electrics are smooth and quiet and emit no harmful and smelly fumes such as gasoline powered vehicles do. perhaps later on i'll post a little on hybrid vehicles as they are not a new idea either but have been around for a long time."

Tony

i drove a electric car for the first time in the 70s............but i crashed it

one electric car i would like to testdrive is a 2000 mgf which was converted to a electic car.......called a..........mgev






information on the ev here
www.evalbum.com/3250