Cars
They Warn the Car Behind
From the Washington Post - May 2, 1915. So whatever happened to the idea of electric gongs supplementing turn signals.? Seems like it could actually be useful.
Posted By: Alex - Wed May 22, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Cars, 1910s
Irish Car: The Shamrock
Why there is no Irish car industry today. From Wikipedia.
Shortly after production began, however, design flaws became apparent. Although the car was big and heavy, it used a relatively small Austin A55 1.5 litre engine, which limited performance. The A55 also provided the transmission and suspension. Another problem was that the rear wheels were shrouded by body panels and a rear wheel could not be removed (for puncture repair for example) without dropping its axle..... Production of up to 10,000 cars a year was talked about but as few as ten complete cars were produced during the six months before production ceased. After the factory closed, the unused parts were dumped into the local lake, Lough Muckno.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 16, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Regionalism, Success & Failure, 1950s, 1960s, Europe, Cars
Wild at the Wheel
The filmmakers seem to have hired an Iron Butterfly cover band to do the soundtrack, which makes all the dangerous risk-taking seem alluring..
Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 20, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Accidents, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Death, PSA’s, 1970s, Cars
Fritz von Opel
Fritz von Opel was one of those early-20th-century rocket-besotted guys who pioneered this exotic means of propulsion. Just look at his rocket car go in the film clip above! (Narration in German, but not necessary to comprehension.)
But von Opel's innocent excitement had its darker side. I give you the 1929 newspaper article below. Specifically, the enlarged sentence.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 29, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, War, Space Travel, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, Europe, Cars
Early Solar-Powered Car
A 1912 Baker Electric car that was retrofitted with a solar panel by Charles Escoffery for the International Rectifier Corp. back in 1960. The panel cost $20,000. (I don't know what that would be in present-day money, but it wouldn't be cheap.) With the panel, the Baker could run at 20 mph for three hours. International Rectifier hoped to soon be churning out "noiseless, smogless" solar cars for $5000 each. It's 53 years later now, and we're still waiting. Source: Newsweek (Mar 7, 1960) & M3GA.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 16, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, 1960s, Cars
Mercedes Benz Commercials
Maybe it's just me, but I find these commercials remarkably creepy, inauthentic, unappealing, ineffective and misguided, given my perceptions anyhow of who buys a Mercedes.
What do you all think?
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 08, 2012 -
Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Humor, Stereotypes and Cliches, Europe, Cars
SUV Lightning Strike in Russia
In the good old days, a lightning strike would be bad news, but your vehicle might still run.I'm guessing the computer gets fried and the poor schlep behind the wheel gets to sit and think what to do next.
The strike is bright from the outside, so I'm just wondering what the immediate thoughts of the driver were.
Posted By: gdanea - Sat Sep 29, 2012 -
Comments (12)
Category: Cars
World’s Smallest Car
This car won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records -- less than 18 inches tall!!If this car was in the US, a roll-bar would be mandatory, kind of defeating the shortest car attempt!!
Posted By: gdanea - Fri Sep 28, 2012 -
Comments (4)
Category: Cars
Do Giants Live Amongst Us?
As I pondered this ad, which ran in Time magazine (May 1983), I realized that here on WU we've slowly been accumulating evidence that a race of giants lives amongst us, whose existence is occasionally revealed to the world in advertisements. Consider, for the sake of comparison, these two other ads that Paul and I have previously posted:
Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 28, 2012 -
Comments (11)
Category: Advertising, Giant People in Ads, Cars
1960 Plymouth XNR Concept
Why aren't the streets of 2012 filled with such vehicles?
This one-of-a-kind car sold recently for nearly one million dollars. More info here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 01, 2012 -
Comments (4)
Category: 1960s, Cars, Yesterday’s Tomorrows
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |