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Everything Old is New Again

Bmw_isettaHas anyone ever really thought about a radical approach to cars, I mean something really different. Now that gasoline is $3 is it time to re think all that? As I have mentioned before, BMW brought out the Isetta at left in the 1950s. The radical styling and design would never be allowed today, the entire front of the vehicle opened to allow entry and exit.

Smart_carBut if one puts doors on an Isetta above then one has the Smart Car pictured at left.  It is coming to America courtesy of Roger Penske and we shall see how well it does.

British_miniAnother popular small car now is the Mini, actually being produced by BMW who brought us the Isetta.  Look closely at the one on the left.  Notice anything?  This is not the current Mini but the original!  Notice how small it really is in comparison to the man standing next to it or the Jag XKJ behind it.  This is a 1950s design that was radical and innovative at the time. In fact, it was designed in Britain and established the baseline for what is the economy car today. Which is to say all the mechanicals are in the front, engine, transmission, driveline. The engine was turned sideways to save space and be parallel to the driven axle.  This leaves the rest of the vehcile for maximum space for passengers and gear. The wheels are pushed to the far four corners of the vehicle, again to maximize space.  And the wheels are small, these are only twelve inches in diameter, so they do not intrude on passenger space.  The result is an amazing amount of space in a tidy size. These were popular for racing and handling events known as auto crossing.  The roofs were painted white on the race cars so it was easier for the pit crews to spot their cars on the track. This proved popular and was copied for the passenger cars, and is still a feature of the modern mini.

The moral of the story?  First it is interesting that BMW, now a maker of luxury cars, was saved by producing an ultra economy car in the post war 1950s using motorcycle engines.  Now BMW purchased the rights to the British Mini and has popularized it again.  And now the Isetta is re born as the Smart Car, actually designed by Mercedes.  Funny how two luxury car makers ended up in the economy category.  There is a cycle at work here of going from economy to extravagance represented by 5,000 pound empty pickup trucks all over Dallas Texas.  Now we appear headed back, to the future or the past, goes around comes around as they say.

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2 responses to “Everything Old is New Again”

  1. Jordan McClary Avatar
    Jordan McClary

    You Dr. Elam, this just makes me think, these guys were ahead of their time. They knew what was inevitable and built something around those ideas. I wonder if they will actually profit from their ideas some…. what??? 40 years ago??… Here is another whats old is new. You might remember GM made a Cadillac called the 4 6 8. The idea behind this car was to cancel cylinders to save on fuel in bigger cars while at cruising speeds, but yet still have that almighty power of a V8. Needless to say it wasn’t very successful. However, You might notice that this technology has made its way back in to several trucks. Most notably Chrysler vehicles. It is called multi-displacement technology. This is the supposed reason why trucks in the last 5 years have all of a sudden picked up an additional 5 mpg on both Hwy, and City. You would think the hard times that the dealers are having with these behemoths, that they might tout this technology just a little more to lure more customers in. But hey, what do I know, Im just a graduate student… right???
    Jordan

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  2. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Yes I do remember. Actually the Cadillac 4 6 8 of that era did not work very well which was the case for a lot of GM designs of that era, such as the disastrous GM modified 6.2 diesel engine which proved that no you cannot make a diesel out of a gasoline engine, the 4 6 8 Caddy engine, the Pontiac OHC 6 which burned valves, oh well. Actually the reports I read in various car mags indicatedd that those engines only made about .5 mpg difference. The reason of course, and you would think any engineer would understand this, is that energy equals mass times velocity. If you want so much mass, say a 5,000 pickup to go a certain velocity say 60 mph, it takes the sane amount of energy whether you have one or sixteen cylinders working or some combination working and not working. Well duh, I suspect that direct fuel injection which has supplanted multi point fuel injection which supplanted throttle body fuel injection has had more to do with ‘claimed’ fuel economy improvement. Interesting piece on tv last night about where the elasticity of gasoline demand starts having an effect. We are to $3 now, I suspect that the public is beginning to realize that we are finally in an era of permanently higher gas prices, and that driving around in an empty 5,000 pound pickup makes no sense.
    You will recall I doubted the strategy of Toyota pursuing the Tundra, I still think I am right there, they have yet to hit there monthly sales goal which is also the case for GM Dodge Ford, another subtle yet effective strike at America by the Mid East.

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