AutoPuzzles - The Internet's Museum of Rare Cars!
Puzzles, Games and Name That Car => Solved AutoPuzzles => 2011 => Topic started by: Tom_I on May 30, 2011, 12:08:57 PM
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Can you identify this urban vehicle? For a point, who designed it, and what was unusual about it from a mechanical point of view?
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Experts?
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Open to everyone.
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Electric?
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No, a combustion engine as far as I know.
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From USA?
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No, not from the USA.
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From the Soviet Union?
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No, not from there either.
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European?
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Yes.
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British?
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Yes!
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Design for a Gordon four-wheeler?
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An intriguing thought, but it has nothing to do with Gordon or Vernon Industries.
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Were three-wheelers built by the company this car was designed for?
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This car was not designed for any specific company.
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Designed 1950s?
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Later.
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Time for a helpful hint on this one, I think. ;)
As far as I know, this car existed only as a concept, which was developed over a period of several years. I don't think a full-scale prototype was ever made.
The puzzle photo was scanned from a periodical publication, and I have not been able to find it online.
However, this car is mentioned in at least two articles in a journal which can be read online free of charge. One article has only line drawings, but the other has an artist's impression in similar style to the puzzle photo, which is shown below, but you can see that it looks significantly different. The dimensions and technical descriptions of the two are the same.
In terms of publication date, the puzzle photo is the later of the two, though the one below looks "purer" in style. However, the later one, with proper headlights, a higher waistline and roofline extended backwards to give storage space behind the seats, is clearly a more practical design.
Finding either picture will provide enough information to answer the puzzle question, which is who designed this car, and what was unusual about it from a mechanical point of view?
Good luck!
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This has been languishing for a while, so time for a :bump:
I can see two ways to solve this.
One would be to find the periodical publication I scanned the puzzle picture from. There's a visual hint below.
Online, it can be done if you can guess what the designer called this car. I referred to it as "urban vehicle". That's not the name, obviously, but it is a similar two-word phrase that includes the environment in which the car would be used, and a descriptor of the vehicle itself.
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I'll open the bidding with "City Car"
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to start with the most obvious: "City Car"?
edit: time is running... :-\
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Not "city car" - both words are wrong.
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something like "Commuter"?
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Some kind of "runabout"?
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"Runabout" does not feature in the name.
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Town Runabout
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D'oh!
Urban Transport
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"Town" is correct.
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Town Transport
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Not "transport".
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something like "Commuter"?
Town Commuter?
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Sorry Allemano, I missed your earlier post when we went to the second page.
It's not "commuter".
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The clue pic is showing a Aston Martin DBSC with Touring coachwork, so is it perhaps a "Town Touring"?
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Town Shopper?
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Not "Touring".
Perhaps I didn't make it clear. The picture is a clue to the paper publication where the puzzle photo can be found.
If you are trying to find the name of the vehicle, ignore the picture! ;)
And it's not "shopper" either.
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Coupe?
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Not coupe.
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Compact?
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Not compact, but in a way that's the closest so far.
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Town Mini?
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Not Mini.
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Petite?
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No. The two-word name has been used by quite a few manufacturers in the past, but (significantly) not in the UK.
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so, it's maybe not an English term?
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It is English as regards language. Have another look at my reply #40. ;)
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voiturette?
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No. The second word does not refer to the car's small size.
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Town Wagon?
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No, but as with "compact", you are in the right sort of area.
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Town Sedan?
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Town Limousine?
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Town coach?
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Wendax has it! The designer called this car a Town Sedan.
Now all you have to do is find out who he was. The trouble is that quite a few car makers have used the same name.....
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Designed by Eric Roberts.
If I understand correctly, the unusual feature you were looking for is that it has an unconventional mechanical layout with gearbox, differential and drive assembly at the front and the engine at the rear.
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And we have a winner! Good work! :applause:
Yes, this was the brainchild of a Somerset-based designer called Eric J. Roberts, and you are right in that it had the unusual arrangement of a rear-mounted engine with front-wheel-drive. Also unusual was that the driveshafts were arranged to allow extreme steering lock. I don't know any details of the universal joints, but they were intended to be able to drive at an angle of 90 degrees. This is shown in the diagram below, where you can see that the intention was that the car could turn on an axis mid-way between the rear wheels, giving extreme manoeuvrability.
But it appears to have come to nothing. Here's an excerpt from one of the articles, this one from the journal Design, July 1966.
First, the town cars which exist only as drawings or small models...
...But of all the town cars so far mooted, one of the most interesting is that designed by Eric Roberts, who has been looking at the problem of town cars over the last few years.
Mr Robert's present town car (which he calls a town sedan), has evolved from a version designed three years ago, and contains most of the principles mentioned in this article. The sedan is designed to park in either the conventional manner or nose to tail on to the kerb, has a turning circle of 13ft, can pivot on its rear axle, and is only 7ft 5inches long. It has an unconventional mechanical layout, with gearbox, differential and drive assembly at the front, and the engine at the rear, And seats three people or one person and a lot of luggage. Large windows and a low waist line provide exceptional vision, and the bumpers are designed to absorb impact without damage to the coachwork. Finally, a locker under the bonnet allows luggage to be loaded from the pavement when the car is parked nose-on. But despite the fact that the car has been shown to a number of motor car manufacturers, there seems little chance (at least, at the moment) of its being put into production.
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:sigh:.. completely forgot that source
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That was a tasty puzzle!