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Surely this was Batman 1966's alternate car-build? (it's the 1962 Ford Seattle-ite XXI) (media.piefed.social)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/cassettefuturism@lemmy.world
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If I understand correctly, the original Batmobile was in fact based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. Kind of wild, as the first Batman TV series launched 11yrs later!

Sorry for the lack of info / pics, but Spectrum basically crippled my internet on Monday, and I'm still trying to figure what the hell's going on.

In any case, here's more pics of this memorable automobile:
https://www.google.com/search?q=1962+Ford+Seattle-ite+XXI&udm=2

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[–] 5 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

I think front dual was a bit of a thing back then but mostly on something like buses, where you needed the weight capacity for the engine, and maybe for better traction.

Modern buses have used pusher engines for a long time, which I think is why we see dual rear axles on them.

Plus tire tech has changed so dramatically even since the 80's that we no longer need more wheels to have sufficient traction for turning.

But this is a lot of supposition on my part. There's probably quite a bit of "cool factor" in this show car.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    I think front dual was a bit of a thing back then but mostly on something like buses, where you needed the weight capacity for the engine, and maybe for better traction.

    So how does that work for turning? Is there some kind of linkage to compensate? Like in a pinzgauer?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    I honestly don't know, it would be interesting to see the different solutions each effort produced.

    For a bus I don't think anything special would be required, as the speeds are low you could just accept there will be tire scrubbing. I suspect turn radius is increased, but it's not like buses turn great anyway (could also decrease turn radius because of increased traction).

    I think the racing world experimented with multi-wheel front in the 60's or 70's, and that tells me it was about traction for steering (tire tech back then was awful compared to today). I'm sure suspension engineers worked to ensure turn angle between lead and second wheel were optimized (and each axle probably had unique camber and caster control curves).

    Check out the 60's bus in Magical Mystery Tour and how hard they turn that thing (skip to about the 2 minute mark). I think even a modern pusher would scrub a lot more and lean less than what that extra axle upfront enables (plus being front engine)..

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    The Tyrell F1 effort was killed because the private contractor to develop the small front tires for Goodyear was bought off by Ferrari claiming to have a similar car in development. Agnelli and Ferrari were infamous for this in the 70s.

    A few years ago, Avon make bespoke tires for the car proving the concept was sound. But the rules to ban 6 wheels came in when the four small wheels were put on the back to increase airflow for down force.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    Interesting.

    I'm not following the "four small wheels on the back" - was that another multi-wheel effort in the 70's?

    My knowledge of F1 is nonexistent - I only remembered seeing those 6 wheelers at one point, but I really don't know anything about them.

    Well, guess another rabbit hole is in my future.

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