Pointless & impractical vehicles
- Thread starter PeteXXX
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Reynard
Guru
- Location
- Cambridgeshire, UK
I saw that and was going to post it, but you beat me to it LOL!
Reynard
Guru
- Location
- Cambridgeshire, UK
Back to the debate about gas turbine-powered racing cars, another one (that I didn't know about) popped up on an Oulton Park FB group I'm a member of, as it competed in the 1968 Gold Cup meeting (and the BOAC 500 at Brands).
The US-made Howmet-TX sports prototype. Driven in the UK by quite an interesting character called Hugh Dibley.
But looking that up then led to another discovery...
The equally US-made STP-Paxton USAC (indycar), designed by Ken Wallis, a relative of a certain Barnes "bouncing bomb" Wallis.
So they *are* out there, not just the much better known Lotuses and BRMs.
The US-made Howmet-TX sports prototype. Driven in the UK by quite an interesting character called Hugh Dibley.
But looking that up then led to another discovery...
The equally US-made STP-Paxton USAC (indycar), designed by Ken Wallis, a relative of a certain Barnes "bouncing bomb" Wallis.
So they *are* out there, not just the much better known Lotuses and BRMs.
Jenkins
Legendary Member
- Location
- Felixstowe
Jameshow
Guru
I do therefore believe Skoda's were tanks before Volvo's!🤣
Reynard
Guru
- Location
- Cambridgeshire, UK
Hang on a minute, aren't the forks the wrong way round? 
Seevio
Guru
- Location
- South Glos
Think how much faster he could have gone if only he'd noticed.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Instead of all thst money spent modifying anaerodynamic (for its day) Merdedes they could simply have used a van.
Andy in Germany
Legendary Member
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Hang on a minute, aren't the forks the wrong way round?
Perhaps the Mercedes stopped suddenly.
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
José Meiffret. Set a 204 km/h motor-paced record then, naturally, became a Trappist Monk.
https://veloaficionado.com/blog/trapist-monk-jose-meiffret-the-fastest-cyclist-in-the-world
Edit: Slight mistake above. He became a monk before setting the record. (But after surviving a 124 km/h crash on a concrete velodrome)
Last edited:
EckyH
It wasn't me!
- Location
- Nottuln, North Rhine-Westphalia
No, they are not.Hang on a minute, aren't the forks the wrong way round?
The bike is similar to a bike for motor paced racing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor-paced_racing
The reason for the "wrong way" fork (and the smaller front wheel) is that the stayer can ride closer to the pacer to have more draft.
For the record: The german saying "von der Rolle sein" (literally: "to be off the roller" - meaning "to have lost it") is based on that sport. If the stayer lost the contact to the roller, it is very difficult to get back there.
E.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
Skoda were a longstanding heavy engineering and armaments company. The Belgian forts were destroyed by Skoda and Krupp big howitzers in 1914.
The Krupp one was the famous "Big Bertha" supposedly named after Frau Krupp. The name is often misattributed to the Paris Gun, used for extremely long range shelling of said city
here's a model kit of a 1917 version
Last edited:
Jameshow
Guru
I wonder if vans couldn't get up to the required speed hence the Mercedes sports car!
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
That could well be the case back then. The effect might not be so marked behind a Ford Thames.
