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Gold/Mining/Energy : Precious and Base Metal Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eva who wrote (21743)	10/5/2003 3:31:23 PM
From: E. Charters	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39344

They actually make 2CV's by building VW's out of thinner body metal, leaving out half the parts, taking out two cylinders from the engine, and ramming the vehicle from the side against a wall with a Cadillac. This gives it that flat sided appearance. P-U-Johs would be good cars if they took the rust promoters out of the steel, and dissolved the wearanium that degrades the moving parts. Yugoslavs would make a good car too if they paid more attention to mechanical engineering principles and kept things like cooling systems simple. I had a Skodawerk auto. It had a long stroke engine that accelerated slowly and was underpowered. The rad was in the front and the engine in the back. If the pipes went between the two, or the electric fan, the whole thing overheated in a trice. It did that on a schedule. Use air scoops put the rad in the back. Break parts did that, as well as occasionally stopping the vehicle. Redesign would have been a good idea. Make the engine shorter stroke and faster, beef the tranny. The car then would have threatened the whole mid car range as well as Toyota, as it was well built otherwise and did not rust. I had a Romanian Jeep that was great. It has steering nuckle design flaw that was basic statics and dynamics boo-boo, as well as as a too-high torque engine. It was too slow speed. Fix those two problems and it would have done in the flip-2-top Suzuki. Car designs should be rational compromise, prosaic and practical, with long lasting features, and avoid complexities that give wear and breakdown problems with moderate age. The worlds best overall design was the Corvair. It was designed by Rolls Royce Engineers. It would have cost 12,000 dollars in its day with an all aluminum body, rack and pinion steering and a racing-style air-cooled engine. At the time, the average car sold for 2500 dollars. Detroit over-compromise left the suspension so compromised that the vehicle was unsafe to corner above 40MPH. It's original design would out-corner a Lotus Elan, Targa or even a VW Beetle, which incidentally was the world's best cornering production street vehicle ever, at 1 G cornering force. The Elan and Targa rated a .90 G force. You have to go to wide-tire super-low Formula one cars, with airfoils, to exceed teh VW's performance. Ever try to follow a VW Beetle around a clover leaf off ramp? You won't keep up and stay on the road in any other vehicle. The 411 VW would not do it (I tried). It rated .85 G's. The degree of abatement of drift is due to tires, suspension, lean, camber, toe in, steering and center of gravity as well as wheel base/wheel spread. Shorter wheel bases are better in corners, as for a given curve they have a longer connected radius formed by the intersection of the axes of the fore and aft wheel centers. Narrow vehicle have less pull on inner wheels trying to carry the outer wheels around so adhesion is better. Radial tires are much better in corners. The Mercedez Benz would follow the Beetle around corners but it tended to slip, so you had to corner to the inside. It's a compromise of slip vs. roll. If they find a way to allow air cooled engines to have a good heater, without the dread VW gas heater, then we are away as they are easier to start, lighter and more efficient. We should work on that. I will then develop an air-cooled Corvair-411-Skoda-Cooper-Yugo and call it the "Corvoda-Yoop 41". (hot-selling name, eh?) It will feature a gas-electric/fuel cell drive with the engine on the roof, and a gas tank in a trailer for personal safety. Emergency brake would be truly emergency -- a 200 pound carbide, sharpened Bruce boat anchor that would have a spring loaded reel and compressed air launch. The static parking break would be two feet under each axle that contacted the pavement, preventing easy forward or backward movement. Body metal would be 1/2 inch titanium and 1/4 inch kevlar in a double wall. Frame would be 5 inch I beam with 1/4 inch titanium web. Bumper would be 4 inches of vulanized butyl rubber backed by 800 pounds per inch 4 foot long springs. EC<:-}