Favorite Innovative gadgets cars?

[Amphicar BUYER]

OK, it's obvious I like the things that are not considered "normal". Being in Engineering, I love the gadget type cars. The ones that may not be pretty or "cool" but have that certain something that sets them apart. This is not just because they are beautiful, this is because they are unique in some innovative way.

[color:"red"] <span style="font-weight: bold">What is your personal favorite innovative auto and why?</span>

Mine is by far the Amphicar (DUH!), but my 2nd is the Ford Skyliner (not Sunliner) with it's retractable hard top. The Airflow is another car way ahead of it's time.

[Ron Green]

I can't nail it down to one vehicle including the make but I have studied and collected many documented factory oddball accessories (gadgets to some). Many are from the 50's cars with a few on my 55 Pontiac.

How about these factory gadgets: Remington 12v/110v shaver, 45 rpm record player, am radio that you detach from the dash and listen as you to as you walk, ash tray that sucks the butts into a can under the hood, ladies purse holder with an indian head logo on it, magnatray for holding change etc that sticks to the top of a metal dash, autronic eye, tissue dispenser, dash prism for looking at redlights if you have a exterior sunvisor, rain detector that automatically puts the top up and rolls the windows up, hood ornaments that light up (indian head in my case), the wig wag single taillight that moves side to side, etc.

There are hundreds more and you could load up on these via the factory or dealer and probably hundreds more that were made by the aftermarket also. If I had to pick a car it would be the Caddy "rain car", I think it was a 59?

[Guest]

Volkswagen Kubelwagen. Probably inspiration for the Amphicar.

[Guest]

Feldmarschal Erwin Rommel liked 'em too. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Things like Pilot Ray driving lites and the Tucker center headlight that turned with the front wheels...

Packard's "ride control" - adjustable from the front seat (a friends '34 Packard 12 coupe had this....)

Chrysler Corps' "Mirror-matic" self-darkening rear-view mirror, as wellas their "electro-luminescent" intrument clusters in the early '60s...

Rube Goldberg gizmos like:

Hudson's "Electric Hand" gearshift and their later "Drivemaster" semi-auto trans,

Chrysler's semi-automatics,

the Cord 810-812 dashboards with their myriad gauges and controls,

The Owen-Magnetic with its electromagnetic "transmission",

Any steam automobile...

[juddman]

OK, I'm sure to take some flak for this, but am prepared to make my case.

My fave is the 1972 Fiat X1/9.

The reason: It was advanced for it's time without being gimmicky, and in my opinion was a masterful exhibition of excellent chassis dynamics wrapped in a beautiful body with good ergonomics and it was safe in a crash, too. On modern rubber, the X1/9's handling dynamics rivals those of many current sportscars - without a punishing ride. They were run by a transverse SOHC 1290 cc engine with a rubber toothed t-belt - the same configuration of MANY cars a generation later. It was suspended at all 4 corners by MacPherson struts. No big deal now, but a harbinger of things to come. It was built to withstand a 50 mph frontal impact and an 80 mph rollover - no exaggeration. The US gov't was considering instituting really stiff safety standards in the early 70's and Fiat didn't want to lose the US market, so it built this car to meet those standards. The standards were never put into effect, but the car was built like a tiny tank. For a car only weighing about a ton, a little over 12 ft long and under 4 ft high, it's a safe little beast. As long as it hasn't rusted away. The car had fiber optics lighting the faces on the switches. With two trunks, it could carry two people and all their gear for a weekend in comfort. All of this while making liberal use of the 128's parts bin to make a relatively affordable sportster.

Too bad for the crappy russian steel...otherwise, they are really good cars. I've had several and have found them to be robust once sorted. Most folks thought they were crap because they actually had to change the timing belt and if they didn't, valves and pistons would collide in short order. Your average t-belt cost $15 and takes about an hour to change, btw.

Flame suit on...

[Guest]

I have many favorites but the one I admire the most is the Woods Dual Power 1917-18.

People think the Toyota Prius hybrid is a new concept,HA!

Listen to this! Like the Prius the Woods had a small gasoline motor mated to and electric motor/dynamo.

A small lever on the steering column cotrolled it, at low speeds only the electric motor was used.

When you gradually advanced the lever the gasoline motor would start seamlessly and assist the electric motor based upon the road speed desired or the power required for hills and at a certain point would run on the gas motor alone and you could charge the batteries thus while running.

It also featured regenerative braking, or "dynamic braking" as the factory called it. "Utilizing the momentum of the vehicle to operate the electric motor as a dynamo which will supply current to charge the storage batteries while slowing the speed of the vehicle".

I've been searching for one for 15 years, maybe I'll find one someday.

[Guest Skyking]

Ok, as you can see in all my posts, the Nash Metropolitan. Small, unique, cute, fun to drive. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I stll like it.

Gadgets: speed minder on my 62, wonderbar radios with foot control, swivel bucket seats, clock in steering wheel (57 DeSoto).

[Guest imported_PackardV8]

55 and 56 CLASSIC Packard torsion level suspension. 55-56 Packards are the ONLY cars to feature this 4 wheel interactive torsion bar suspension that would automatically level the car upon load variation and road conditions.

The 8th wonder of the world: 55 to present small block chevy V8 engine.

Air conditioning.

[nearchoclatetown]

Euronut, I think your are refering to the Schwimmwagen. BTW, they were four wheel drive on land, too. Good choice!

[Guest]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Feldmarschal Erwin Rommel liked 'em too. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> </div></div>

Have you read his book Bwana? Excellent read. I met his son, former Mayor of Stuttgart, on a trip to the Porsche factory and Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart Germany. A fine and proud German family. The Kubelwagen had the ability to float and the Scwimmwagen (different model) had a propellor. Both were excellent examples of vorspchrung durch technik.

[1937hd45]

I don't think any car had more accessories available than the Model T Ford.

[Ron Green]

The T certainly had there share of accessories through the years but the 55 Pontiac had 62 available for that model year alone and I think Buick and Old's were also close to that number. The Caddy's didn't have as many to choose from as many came standard with the car.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Forgot about Buick's Speed-minder....Mom's '61 Le Sabre had that....

If all cars had one now-a-days, local garages would be swamped with requests to have it disconnected! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Bwana - Have not heard of the "Woods -Dual-Power"... is it at all related to the Owen-Magnetic (which used an Owen-Entz "Transmission" which functions as you described for the Woods) ?

(I am still fascinated by the description of the Owen-Magnetic in my 1918 edition of Dykes!)

As for other neat gadgets (practical, necessary, or not), the Bendix "Startix" is intriguing.

Hill-holder (Stude & Nash, NOT Subaru, thank you!) is also neat...

Olds also had a steering wheel clock - am thinking 1950-ish - don't recall if it was in the center or near the rim, but it was a self-winding affair.

Another neat steering wheel concept was an early '40s Chevrolet (?) accessory:

a "de luxe" steering wheel with an integral "spinner": the lower half of the wheel had a circle whose diameter filled the area between the hub and the outer rim, and in this second circle was a cross-bar which could rotate 360 deg.

So, if you had to do a lot of "wheel winding", you just grabbed the bar and went at it.... <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

Gizmos that we didn't know we needed:

The various vacuum-assisted "power-shifts" on 3-speed manual column shifts in the forties... <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> (let's figure out another way to minimize a vehicle's already marginal acceleration capabilities !)

The Model "T" certainly must take top prize for variety of aftermarket accessories...

[Amphicar BUYER]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Volkswagen Kubelwagen. Probably inspiration for the Amphicar</div></div>

Actually the Amphicar was inspired by a smart assed comment in 1932. Hans Trippel was building his own race cars and they were very forward looking autos, Streamlined bodies. The story is that some other race driver commented "It looks like a fish, can it swim too?" Well, this sparked Hans on a 70+ year long passion. Hans took that car and added a shaft through a stuffing box out the back, sealed up the body and had a friend lower it onto the water. It floated! Over the next 70 years (Hand died in 6/2001) he made many successful amphibians. During WWII he was "volunteered" by Adolph to create an amphibious vehicle (called the SG6 and he designed the Schwimmwagen) for the Germans. Hans ended up doing time after the war, but continued to design and build them. Remember the gull wing doors of the Mercedes? Yes, Hans designed and patented them. He sold that patent for 5,000 DM to help fund a little company with Borgward in Berlin called "Amphicar"

[Guest c.johnson]

Frank,

I agree with you about the steam cars. You know, I have never seen one in operation <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> There are a lot of things you can read about, and imagine how they work. I still have a hard time imagining a steam car - the sounds, smell, feel, and so on - of the thing actually running.

Sure I've seen a few of them in museums, but thats when the beast is asleep. I remember reading about the Doble, the supreme of steam cars. From what I remember, engineering seemed more advanced, and at the same time, more simple. It makes you wonder what could have happened if steam was popular today.

cj

[1937hd45]

Steamcars are wonderful, I'm lucky to know of over 30 within an hours drive of my house.Sure would be fun to run a 20HP Stanley along Route 12 from Hanksville to Zion.

[R W Burgess]

C. Johnson, I've seen Steamers locally and at major meets here in the east coast. You should come to Hershey and be on the show field early on Saturday morning. You will hear all the old cars come running down the hill from the parking lot and their trailers onto the show field. It's a trip, really. Wayne

[R W Burgess]

Gadgets? How about for trucks. The best gadget that was ever made for trucks was the Jacobs Engine Brake. You'd have to experience it's usage to understand the value of this device. It has finally become standard on just about every large truck in North America. It's works so well that I can downshift an 80,000lb load down to 20 miles an hour without ever hitting the brake peddle. It makes speedshifting easy as the "jake Brake" brings the engine revs down quickly as you grap that next gear and blow off those "rice burners". Yeh, I guess I'm one of those cowboy truckdrivers. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Wayne

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Yeah, I love being awakened in the middle of the night (during the warms months when the windows are open) by the sound of "engine brake retarders" on I-81, a mile from my house <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />.....usually the truckers have to hit "the jake" because of merging traffic, or perhaps they were going a little too fast in the first place....

In the big picture, the "jake" has probably saved many lives.... but they're every bit as obnoxious as the muffler cut-out must've been to non-enthusiasts 75 years ago.... <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Not trying to pick a fight Wayne, <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> but sometimes the jake brake is not my personal favorite...

(Neither are "rice boys" and their brappy little roller skates!)

[R W Burgess]

Sorry Frank, but you probably wouldn't like any of my "grocery getters" around my yard either. All of my old Chevrolets either have "flowmasters" or no mufflers at all, just the cat converters. I like small block Chevys, don't need a stereo with their kind of music. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Wayne

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Wayne...how about that little "anti-deer whistle" mounted on your driver's side fender of the green & white Pete you showed me. That's pretty slick. Never heard of one prior.

As for Jacobs Engine Brake...we are a major supplier of the castings on Jake Brakes. Good business for our Belleville, PA Plant. Their engineers are in the top 5 from my experience as far as tight tolerances.

Regards, Peter J. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[R W Burgess]

Pedro, the deer whistle is cool, but from my experience I'd say they're about 50 % effective. Then again at the price you can't beat it. Also, you have to clean the dead bug remains out frequently or they don't work. Wish I could whistle that high. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Wayne

[Guest Randy Berger]

My personal choice, although I dislike it, is 1956 Packard push-button transmission with the "automatic park" feature hooked up. There was a separate relay that energized the wire to put the car in Park automatically whenever you shut the key off. Mine was going through a car wash (back in 1962) and I had left the key on and the tranny in neutral. The kid inside the car wiping the dash, etc. noticed the key was turned on and turned it off. The trans shifted into Park, the front end of the Packard went down, the link that was supposed to break if any car stopped unexpectedly did its job and snapped with a loud bang. The manager shut the line down as I was leaping over the wall and hauling that kid out from behind the wheel.

I disconnected that relay on my car <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

YFAM, Randy Berger

[6219_Rules]

Randy, (what a great name), when that happened was there damage? I mean, when the linkage snapped did you have to tow it? That sounds very familiar to me, like when I first encountered the automatic parking brake release when you shift into drive. Good feature but it scared the heck out of me! I thought I had broken something.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Wayne,

Can't argue too much on the "sweet music" of a SBC, especially if it's a 283 with the ram's horns ! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

On the subject of "pushbutton transmissions", the Packard sounds neat, my personal favorite for concept (if not necessarily reliability) was the "Teletouch" in the '58 Edsel: the push-buttons right in the center of the steering wheel!

Another gimmick that was neat was Chrysler Corporation's "safety-signal" speedometers from 1939 - '48, that showed green from 0-30 MPH, yellow from 30 -50 MPH, and at 50 MPH & above showed "a warning red".

The 1939-40 version had a glowing cat's-eye that went round and changed color; the '41 -'48 had a lucite needle with colored bands on the hub, and a bulb focused on the hub, so that the needle glowed in the appropriate color - "fiber optic"! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

[Guest imported_SKYSTHELIMIT]

I just seen a car on T.V. don't know what it is but I think it was a GM. the entire car was nothing but a huge gadget on wheels. It was a hydrogin electric hybrid with so many computers and lcd t.v. screens it was unreal. one of its coolest gadgets was in the steering. With a push of a button you could put the steering wheel on the left hand side, right hand side or dead center depending on your mood. They said it is going into production but when I haven't a clue. Looks like the car is one big bubble it has so many windows and the largest front windshield I've ever seen. It looked about ten feet high by 6 feet wide. I'd like to see the windshield wipers for that. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

[Guest imported_SKYSTHELIMIT]

Another car I've seen was also just on T.V. and the guys name who built it is Gadget. He fitted a 4x4 car with three what look like cogs where each of the tires were turning it into a strange tank of sorts. This was one of the guys working on a home for Monster House. A show like Monster Garage but they chop up peoples houses. Tim Allens dream job.