Strange ways of doing it.

[barrett]

Transverse horizontal coil springs in tension, water cooled horizontally opposed four cylinder boxer slung way out ahead of the front wheels, cast aluminium bulkhead and punt. Because French

[doobietoo]

 

Not only inboard front disc brakes but inboard front discs with added handbrake action.... as if changing the pads was'nt difficult enough. Alfa mechanics were known for calling them the Alfasod....

[mouseflakes]

SaaB 99 / Dolomite / Stag: gear-driven waterpump. P4065895.jpg

 

With a bit more effort they could have integrated the water pump into the distributor cap for even worse results.

 

I gave up on a Saab 99 after many attempts at replacing one of those. No end of hassle. The engine's canted over and the inlet manifold wraps over the top of the pump, so the manifold has to come off to get to it. Requires a special puller to get it out. And every time it went back together it still ended up leaking water. Eventually I made it watertight and a week later the heater matrix sprung a leak. I hated that car.

[Junkman]

Back when VAG engineers made proper cars and were allowed to indulge a passion for weird engineering.

We see your decadent American Root's blower.

We shall build our own eccentric scroll supercharger, and call it the G-Lader.

 

Which was patented on 03-10-1905 by Frenchman Léon Creux.

How VAG engineered is that?

[Junkman]

The French again.

 

 

What a daft, pointless, and complex answer to a question nobody asked.

[Taff]

 

Need I say more?

 

I looked at buying one of these, as a dole money cruiser a few years ago. At the time, everything I owned had a couple coils removed, because Taff. The reason I didn't buy and spring butcher the Rover was down to no-one knowing if the spring rate reacted in the same way when mounted like that.

 

I've just re-read that and it makes no sense even to me. What I mean is, I knew that a PA Cresta, Granada, Anglia etc would come down 1 inch ride height per coil. No-one was sure if the P6 reacted the same way.

[J-Rod]

Megola, no gears, no clutch, no starter.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.cockerell.de/

 

 

 

That is awesome.  Never seen one used like that before - sounds just like a Sopwith Camel! 

[cros]

The inside of a spoked front wheel is such a convenient place to put a multi cylinder engine that I'm wondering why everyone doesn't do it.

[J-Rod]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but if that's a rotary engine, it'll need to keep spinning to run, so I can't work out how the hell you'd slow down or stop if it's placed where it is without stalling the engine.. unless there's some form or clutch on it? 

[cros]

50's Fords were furnished with a vaccuum powered wiper system which would grind to a halt when you floored the throttle to overtake. In order to maintain some kind of automotive cosmic balance Vauxhall drove theirs from the engine camshaft ensuring that if you changed down they would go like fuck.

[Junkman]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but if that's a rotary engine, it'll need to keep spinning to run, so I can't work out how the hell you'd slow down or stop if it's placed where it is without stalling the engine.. unless there's some form or clutch on it? 

 

That's not a rotary engine. It's a radial engine.

[J-Rod]

Looks like the Megola has a rotary though - unless they've got their terms confused?  

[Junkman]

What I mean is, I knew that a PA Cresta, Granada, Anglia etc would come down 1 inch ride height per coil. No-one was sure if the P6 reacted the same way.

 

Cutting the front springs of a P6 translates to a greater amount of lowering than on 'normal' cars. But what's worse is that the lower it sits, the more negative the camber and you can't adjust it, at least not to that degree. The idea was, that when the car leans into a corner, the outboard front wheel takes on a more negative camber relative to the vehicle, thus being still perpendicular to the road surface.

[cros]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but if that's a rotary engine, it'll need to keep spinning to run, so I can't work out how the hell you'd slow down or stop if it's placed where it is without stalling the engine.. unless there's some form or clutch on it?

 

Most early bikes had direct drive with no clutch. You were expected to paddle off with the decompressor open and the softly tuned engine would come to life after you closed it. In this regard the megola was probably easier than a 1 litre V twin, but still tricky on today's urban roads.

[J-Rod]

Ahh that explains it. I would hate to have to drive it through any town centre today though, like you said! 

[pshome]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but if that's a rotary engine, it'll need to keep spinning to run, so I can't work out how the hell you'd slow down or stop if it's placed where it is without stalling the engine.. unless there's some form or clutch on it? 

 

Very reason why the commercial success was somehow limited.... apparently 2000 were build. 

They were popular racing machines though, reaching 100km/h which was very fast at the time.

 

In 1938, a new model was designed and presented at the Berlin car show. This one had 3 cylinders, a clutch, a two speed gear box and a brake (the old model had no front brake), all in the front wheel! There were plans to integrate an electric starter as well. A special carb was designed with no float valve to overcome problems with the previous version with the carbuaration on bumpy roads.

 

It was a piece of art, both from the technology and the looks. Because of the war, it never went into production.

 

 

After the war, the US Army got hold of one of the protypes and took it to the US to further study the technology but considered it to be to complicated for any practical use. It ended up with the wife of a soldier who was part of the operation and was sold to a collector who presented it at a bike meeting in Pennsylvania. Photos of the bike at that meeting exist. It was then sold on and its not known where it is today.

 

Dismantled front wheel:

 

 

 

 

This was not a rotary engine (Felix Wankel was 12 years when the first Megola was built) but rather 3 seperate two stroke engines combined into the wheel.

Total weight of the front wheel was only about 50kg.

 

 

Source and further reading : http://www.cockerell.de/08%20Killinger%20und%20Freund.htm .

[J-Rod]

Bloody hell, that's a fantastic piece of engineering. I wonder how it handled though, with all that weight inside one wheel? 

[pshome]

Bloody hell, that's a fantastic piece of engineering. I wonder how it handled though, with all that weight inside one wheel? 

 

From what i read, it handled very well and had a good overall weight balance. The front drive pulled it well through soft or sandy surfaces and it was popular to drive it freehand.

[pshome]

The inventor of the Megola also invented an "8 cylinder" diesel engine where 4 of the cylinders actually worked as compressors for the fuel mix, no need of an injection pump.

 

 

I wonder why this brilliant and simple design never made it into production?

[Taff]

Cutting the front springs of a P6 translates to a greater amount of lowering than on 'normal' cars. But what's worse is that the lower it sits, the more negative the camber and you can't adjust it, at least not to that degree. The idea was, that when the car leans into a corner, the outboard front wheel takes on a more negative camber relative to the vehicle, thus being still perpendicular to the road surface.

That makes sense. At the time, I remember looking at it and thinking that my usual hot spanner approach to modified suspension probably wasn't going to work quite as well as usual. We played safe and bought a Mk3 Zeph, easy to slam

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Junkman]

I wonder why this brilliant and simple design never made it into production?

 

Because it was brilliant and simple?

[twosmoke300]

I don't reckon the designer of that in wheel engine had ever even heard of the term " unsprung weight "

[dollywobbler]

The French again.

 

 

What a daft, pointless, and complex answer to a question nobody asked.

 

Naturally, I entirely disagree with you. All cars should have fully self-levelling suspension and spring/damper units that can be changed like oil filters. Oh, and that system also provides PAS and super-efficient brakes? What's not to love?

[dollywobbler]

How do you get Land Rover rivalling suspension travel without intruding on passenger space? Citroen came up trumps with this.

 

Have horizontal springs beneath the floor. Sorted! Huge flexibility, no intrusion inside. Consider how enormous the suspension turrets on a coil-sprung Land Rover and you can see how good a move it was. Here's what the inside of a can looks like.

 

Obviously, there are downsides to having massively soft, long-travel suspension like enormous fun in bends and the necessity of headlamp levelling - standard on 2CVs since 1948.

[Junkman]

Naturally, I entirely disagree with you. All cars should have fully self-levelling suspension and spring/damper units that can be changed like oil filters. Oh, and that system also provides PAS and super-efficient brakes? What's not to love?

 

Green puddles on the drive and being seasick as soon as the heap is in motion, which thankfully isn't too frequently.

[dollywobbler]

Green puddles on the drive and being seasick as soon as the heap is in motion, which thankfully isn't too frequently.

 

To be honest, most hydro-Cits I've owned have been better at leaving black puddles. Those XUDs are often not very oil-tight...

[Sigmund Fraud]

 

Four valves per cylinder not enough for your MotoGP engine, sir ? No problem, we'll make your pistons oval so we can fit eight !

 

Power outputs were good (the road-going NR made 125HP from 750cc in 1992 !), but reliability wasn't. Honda persisted for a while but eventually gave up and returned to good, old two-strokes !

[Rusty Pelican]

Taliking of strange , Ilmor are developing a 5 stroke engine , i kid you not 

 

[twosmoke300]

didn't the older Honda moto gp bikes have v5 engines with differing size pistons?

The smaller fifth piston acted as a power producing balance shaft .

When asked why they made it the designers said " because we are Honda and we can "

 

* could all be lies

[cros]

The Fell Locomotive, 4 main engines with two more 150bhp AEC units to drive the superchargers. With high boost pressure just one main engine was used to start the train from rest, the other three being introduced sequentially as speed increases to avoid the use of hydraulic or electric traction drive.

 

http://www.paxmanhistory.org.uk/paxfell.htm