DYMAXION CAR:
The Fast & The Curious!
By: Mike Marino
Heavy metal minimalist, and godfather of the geodesic dome home, Buckminster Fuller, created the dymaxion dynasty of dynamics designed to elevate the human condition. A sheet metal galaxy of wild inventions that went boldly where no inventor had gone before.
These included alternative housing modules and one of the more curious creations, the Dymaxion Car. Looking more like a three-wheeled suppository, than a mode of transportation, it was fast, and it was curious. In 1933 the first Dymaxion originally envisioned in the late Roaring Twenties, rolled out of the engineering womb in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Taking a page from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", the mechanical Dymaxion monster that had an aluminum body and a classy chassis of aircraft steel had been constructed with component parts hot off the mass production lines of Detroit, including a rear mounted Ford V-8 engine to provide drive power, the rear axle of a Ford Roadster was also used, and it was not only inverted, but mounted in the rear. The single rear wheel acted as a steering rudder to guide the gas efficient galleon through the asphalt oceans of the concrete world. With a fuel efficiency of between 25 and 30 mpg, and top speeds of up to 120 mph it would have made Captain Jack Sparrow proud to pilot her in his quest for the elusive Black Pearl.
Twice the length of the standard Motor City marvels it was intoxicatingly exotic, with flare and style, but also erratic in handling at the same time, which gave it a certain Anthony Perkins "Psycho" personality. Bucky's half-ton 20 foot long behemoth was a bulky beast by any standard, and well before Ralph Nader rode into town on his pint sized Pinto, the Dymaxion proved it was unsafe at any speed. It was aerodynamic and efficient to the extreme, trying to blast into commercial orbit, but during the prototypes demo run, it collided like an automotive asteroid. The dinosaurs were blasted into extinction by just such a juxtapositon of events, and the Dymaxion looked like it too would go the way of the dino dynasty.
The first prototype cashed in, crashed out and rolled over on a demo run killing the driver. Fuller felt the accident was caused by another vehicle following too close to the Dymaxion, and similar to the events that led to Lady Di's death by being chased by the paparazzi. It was never determined satisfactorily what did indeed cause the accident, but it was enough for the investors well to run dry and maroon the project on a deserted desert isle, at least for awhile.
There were three automotive Dymaxion amigos, produced and two of those remain in the boneyard of automotive history. The first one, built in 1933, was destroyed in a fire in 1943, while rumour has it the third one, built in 1934, was used as scrap metal to help draw the 38th Parallel line in the sand during the Korean Conflict. The second Dymaxion, also built in 1933, and looks to be the precursor of the psychedelic Sixties V-Dub Van, complete with flat window panels on the front in place of the earlier rounded glass, survives and can be seen today in "The Biggest Little City in the World, Reno, Nevada at the Harrahs National Automobile Museum. According to a spokesperson a the museum, the Dymaxion has been in the private Harrah collection and then donated to the automobile museum for the public to enjoy. The car will be on loan to the Henry Ford Museum later this year for a special display that will also include Bucky Fullers Dymaxion House which the museum acquired and refurbished.
The Dymaxion did provide the soul and inspiration for the development of current green machines, as the quest for the holy grail of Frankensteinian hybrid fuel efficiency continues. The Dymaxion Beat Goes On! It's Alive!!
Classic Cars, Rock n' Roll, Elvis, Drivein Movies & Route 66! Kerouac, The Beats, Haight Ashbury, Easy Rider & Vietnam!
The Roadhead Chronicles goes from the Cold War Fifties Pop Culture of classic cars and rock n' roll to the spaced out Spare Change Sixties of Vietnam and Hells Angels. Not the usual look at the era, instead It's written by someone who lived it and spent a life of being on the road from his beach bum days in Honolulu to the glitz and dangers of the Sunset Strip in LA, and his purple hazed and double dazed days in North Beach and the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. The Roadhead Chronicles also looks at the history of Route 66, Roadside Neon Culture and old diners and dives!
Mike Marino writes in an offbeat and irreverant style with a beat and a cadence that is all his own. His writing style has been compared to John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck and Terry Southern and one reviewer likened him to Frederick Lewis Allen on acid! Readers and critics call the book "wickedly wonderful", "delightfully weird" and "automotively sexy."!!
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