The Carcycle...A Semi-Final Solution
The Carcycle...A Semi-Final Solution
Envision This Hypothetical Alternative To A Four-Wheeled Future . . . And Its Prognosis.
STAN MOTT
IN ORDER TO prevent the "Doomsday Traffic Jam" wherein the elephantine and air-polluting automobile finally clots the world's highways, pollutes the air and forces man to freak and start chewing throats, thus ending, perhaps, civilization as we know it, we'd like to present as a public service a "Semi-Final Solution"—the CARCYCLE.
The Carcycle, very simply, is a new and revolutionary kind of vehicle. It is constructed basically of the best components of both the car and the motorcycle. It would have a large, comfy body and two wheels (as opposed to the cyclecar of yesteryear with its spindly body and four wheels which was, as we all know, due to this queer mechanical combination, a total flop). The Carcycle, with its basically sound design, would have one singular purpose: to replace the
automobile. This article proposes modestly how and why it might do this . . . and what might happen as a result.
To begin with, the Carcycle was designed with four basic premises in mind :
1. The automobile is jamming highways and polluting air.
2. Statistically, the average number of people who ride in the American automobile is 1.2.
3. It is not necessary to transport 1.2 people in a 4500-lb., 80 in. wide, 21 -ft. long, 350-hp machine.
4. Yet, regardless of the degree to which everyone hates traffic jams and polluted air, the average American motorist has this irrational god-worship for his car. He loves its stylish lines, its comfortable ride.
its fast getaway, and will not replace it with anything he feels that offers less. Like a small car, which is, again as we all know, a reasonable solution to the traffic and air pollution.
Therefore, one solution lies in offering the average American motorist a vehicle which makes him feel that he's getting all the big car qualities, while in fact he's getting a much smaller vehicle. We believe the Carcycle might well be that machine. Here's why:
Diagram 1 shows that the Carcycle in profile possesses exactly the same overall height, length and wheelbase as that of any luxurious Detroit automobile. This means that it can be handsomely styled, and will have excellent riding qualities, without the "bucking effect" suffered in cars with short wheel bases. The diagram also shows that the Carcycle carries much more than 1.2 people: 0.8 more to be exact, or, two whole and complete people.
Diagram 2, though, shows the secret of the Carcycle's design: it is only 26 in. wide. But this width is only a small concession to styling, when you consider the fact that three (3) Carcycles can be driven and parked (with care) in the same space as that of one (1) automobile! In addition, a bit of simple arithmetic will tell you that three Carcycles will transport six people in three different directions simultaneously; that is, two more people transported in three times the directions as that provided by one standard four-passenger car. All of which means that the Carcycle could go a long way in beating the space problem of overcrowded highways.
Now that you're aware that the Carcycle is but one third the size an ordinary automobile, you've probably already realized that with weight of, say, 1200 lb., it would require an engine no larger than 1200 to 1500cc for equal, or better, performance. More important, engines of this size would allow the Carcycle to go a long way in cutting down air pollution.
How far the Carcycle will go in accomplishing these goals depends much upon how its basic design is executed. Diagrams 3, 4 and 5 show the essentials. The engine, rear, works either an automatic or four-speed manual transmission (the latter to be used in either sports or "Pony Carcycles" with driver-rider operating motorcycle-type hand clutch and foot gearchange).
The drive to the rear wheel could be either BMW-type, employing differential, or for greater efficiency, chain, as shown. The rear suspension is double leading arm, and the front suspension, heavy motorcycle tubular, with a configuration not unlike that of Peter Fonda's chopper in "Easy Rider." Steering would be integral with front suspension and would have an excellent turning ratio of one to one.
Brakes are hub-type disc, with emergency working off the rear drive. The fuel tank is stationed over the engine compartment adjacent (optional) air-conditioning and power units. Luggage compartment over the front wheel and the spare tire is situated in front of both. Headlights are dual as are all the parking lights, turn indicators and tai I lights.
Inside the passenger compartment we would find all the appointments which one would expect in a comfy vehicle 26 in. wide. Form-fitting bucket seats, sturdy shoulder harnesses, luxurious vinyl upholstery, stylish instrument panel, arm rests, cigar lighters, ash trays, roll-up windows (power optional), and all the other little necessities and extras that make life comfortable and convenient. What might strike the eye, though, upon viewing this interior are the chrome risers instead of a steering wheel in front of the driver-rider's seat (Frisco pegs optional), and the neatly styled container behind which houses the "Special Sprint-Loaded Safety Device," or "SSSD" (diagram 6).
The "SSSD" is but one of the three unique safety features employed in the Carcycle. The others, a hefty kickstand to keep the machine upright while parked (diagram 7), small door panels through which the occupants may pass feet to ground to keep the machine upright while at stop signs (diagram 8), and a first aid kit for cuts and bruises (diagram 8-A) make the Carcycle safe. But the SSSD probably improves safety most of all—automatically.
How it works is simplicity itself. If, for some reason, the Carcycle does happen to tip over (diagram 9), passengers need only sit tight. When the machine reaches an angle of, say,75 degrees at speeds of less than 10 mph, a pendulum releases on the falling side a heavy rubber-padded spring (diagram 10) which shoots out, contacts the pavement forcefully and flips the Carcycle to an upright and safe position (diagram 11). The driver-rider then need only pull a convenient lever to recock the dangling spring, give his passenger a playful wink in
the rearview mirror as if the fall were a little joke, a show of masculinity perhaps, and drive off as if nothing had happened.
Now that you're familiar with the Carcycle, you may be asking yourself, "Well, when are they going to start producing them?"
In answer, all we can say is that when economics dictate that Carcycles must be produced. As of the moment, and oddly enough, automobile manufacturers, the most likely candidates to build them.
don't feel the need. Only when they do feel that need, meaning, when they're hit hard enough in the pocketbook as a result of sales dropping off due to highways being filled to capacity—and no government in the world can possibly build enough roads to keep up with the number of cars now being produced—will they act. And when they do finally act, it will be purely on the basis of (forget traffic and air problems) economics.
The manufacturers would probably look at it this way: if it is possible to produce an entirely new and acceptable product which
obsoletes the old and has a potential of three times the sales of units costing but 1/3 as much to produce, and could be sold for no less than half the price of the old, and at the same moment allow them to get in some marvelous PR on how the industry is saving the environment, their conclusion could well be, "By golly, that's good business!"
And if that's their conclusion, we'd soon see Carcycles on the road. And we'd also see advertising campaigns the likes of which we've never seen before. We'd hear about those "Yawning Space(s] In [Our]
Garages Crying Out for Two More Carcycles" (you can get them in). We'd hear about "Why Be An Old Three-Car Family When You Can Be A Man Of The Times With Nine" (three-car garage, nine Carcycles). We'd hear plenty more. But the point is, who could resist such a campaign7 Obviously very few people.
And if any skeptic dare utter blasphemous questions like "How do you drive the damn things? They look lethal as hell!" he'd be branded on the forehead as a heretic against God and nation, clean air and clean living. Besides, once it ail go+ going, the Carcycle lobby could encourage the government to use all that surplus money in HEW to open "Carcycle Driver-Rider Training Schools" so everybody, from the tiniest tot in the ghettos to missy ma'm in the suburbs, could be force-taught how to drive-ride CARCYCLES.
And if it ever gets that far, Carcycles will have certainly become a new way of life, permeating every phase of it as the automobile does today. Instead of cars, we'd probably have things like buscycles, baby-buggiecycles, limocycles, estatewagoncycles, tankcycies (man, when they go over!), hare&houndcycles, econocycles, taxicycles,
truckcycles, woodycycles, dragcarcycles, Isle-Of-Man-Carcycles . . . and couldn't you just see them 200 mph in the corners with their left legs out in their indycarcycles!
It would be a whole new world! And a better one. And as we all drove off happily into the future (diagram 12), we'd be doing it on open highways and we'd be breathing clean air! It would be, perhaps, as if the dream of the future had finally come true. For a while . . .
. . . Until the world filled up with Carcycles and the air became so polluted we couldn't breathe without gas masks and the "Doomsday Traffic Jam" loomed nearer than ever.
That's why the Carcycle is only a "Semi-Final Solution." That's why then and only then would we be ready for the "Final Solution." Which is? You need ask? With everybody trained to ride two-wheeled vehicles? And still another supremely efficient vehicle already long available since your grandpa was a teenager?
MOTORCYCLES, MAN, MOTORCYCLES! P
