VW abortions, homemade bastards, post em.....

[OldSchoolVW's]

[andk5591]

[Bunglebus]

This one-off car was built in the mid-1960s by a Welshman, the late William Maxwell Evans of Llanfyllin, who wanted to revolutionise car design by providing both front and rear steering; in theory, this would provide more stability than the usual practice of applying all the steering effort through the front wheels.

Convinced that his concept was viable, Maxwell Evans took the drastic step of cutting a nearly-new Volkswagen Beetle in half. He discarded the entire front section but for the bonnet, which would be used as a front mudguard, with a second bonnet meeting the same objective at the rear. This surgery transformed the car into two-seater, with the ex-rear seat accommodating the driver and passenger.

He then added front and rear subframes, each carrying a single wheel, which were articulated to provide front and rear steering. Fitting the rear subframe caused a problem with ground clearance but this was resolved by raising the middle of the car, simply by removing the original VW wheels and fitting a set of taller ones borrowed from a Ford Popular.

To achieve dual steering, the front and rear wheels had to turn in opposite directions, and ingenious engineering went into designing and fitting two diagonal steel rods that connected them to one steering box.

These radical changes threw up a few problems, such as how to apply a front wheel brake. Maxwell Evans came up with a clever solution. The car still had the original brakes on the driven middle wheels, and he realised that these could create enough inertia to automatically apply a brake to the front.

This was achieved by mounting the battery on a pivoted tray so that it slid forward when the car slowed; the battery would press against a plunger attached to a hydraulic brake pipe, which transmitted braking effort to the front wheel.

Cutting the car in two made it difficult to get in or out of without climbing over the sides, so this too was simply addressed by fitting a wooden front bulkhead that hinged forward, leaving a narrow gap.

Maxwell Evans filed a patent that set out the advantage of front and rear steering as "a lessened liability to side-slip due to loss of adhesion when travelling in a curve". His reasoning was perfectly sound, as sharing the steering effort between the front and rear wheels halved the angles adopted by conventional front-wheel steering. Compared to a Beetle, the steering effort was reduced from 30 degrees at the front to 15 degrees front and rear.

Oh and the guy couldn't weld, so the whole thing is bolted together...

_________________

[Bunglebus]

FB_IMG_1751976935685 by RS, on Flickr
_________________

[busdaddy]

[EVfun]

Interesting... I hope he didn't quit his day job.

[finster]

[Shonandb]

[Bunglebus]

FB_IMG_1752262553072 by RS, on Flickr
_________________

[Bunglebus]

FB_IMG_1753472927869 by RS, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1753444671328 by RS, on Flickr
_________________

[finster]

[NJ John]

I’m sorry, your luggage didn’t survive the crash.
_________________
1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[scottyrocks]

Jimmy Durante's bus.
_________________
“If you care for a thing long enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn't it? Mending old things, preserving them, looking after them – on some level there's no rational grounds for it.”
– D. Tartt, 'The Goldfinch'