Category: Design and Engineering

26^th June 1906, the date of the first Grand Prix, Le Mans. The race was won by Ferenc Szisz in a 12.9 litre Renault (18.3 litre engines were also in the race). The car had its engine up front with its radiator fitted behind the engine, it was prop driven via the rear wheels but without the use of a differential. It had a three-speed gearbox with a leather cone clutch. The car covered 769.9 miles at an average speed of 63 mph but reached 92 mph on the straights. The Renault team used wire wheels during practice, with these the car had no wheel brakes and only engine braking to the rear wheels through the transmission. The life of a rear tyre was short. The cars had to carry both a driver and a mechanic and any repairs on the cars away from the pits were carried out by the driver and mechanic. Spare tyres were carried on the car along with the tools to fit. To fix a puncture on the track, the old tyre would be cut off by knife and a new tyre, with tube pre-inflated at low pressure was forced over the wire rim and then fully inflated, enabling the team to re-join the race. A good driver and mechanic could change a tyre in about 16 minutes. Tyre technology was in its infancy and punctures were often, meaning that a race could be won or lost on tyre changes. The Renault team had a trump card yet to be played.

The Renault Type K race car had a strong technological provenance. Of the eleven car makes taking place in the 1906 Le Mans, it was one of seven to use a shaft drive with U joints, which Renault had pioneered and had used in on all his cars from the 1898 prototype through to the Type K. It was one of six to have a three-speed gearbox, one of five to use a high-tension magneto ignition and one of two to use thermo-syphon cooling. More importantly, at the start of the race the Renault team had changed its wheels. Renault was one of the three teams running “la jante amovible”. In place of the 34×3 inch wire wheels were wooden artillery wheels. The rear wheels only incorporated a 290mm rod driven drum brake, Michelin tyres, and an eight-bolt detachable rim. With these split rim wheels it was possible to replace a tyre in under two minutes. Renault’s last-minute wheel change paid off, on the fourth lap Szisz and his mechanic changed all four wheels in 3 minutes 47 seconds, quick enough to gain a lead advantage that no other car was able to close. At the end of the first day’s racing, circa 6hrs of continuous racing, Szisz car number 3A, had a 26 minute lead. 

All the cars that finished the first day’s racing were then locked in a paddock overnight in the condition that they had finished the race and they were not able to be touched. The race would recommence at staggered times the following day. This meant that Szisz would leave first and set off at 5.45am. His car, car 3A had a flat tire, Szisz drove straight to the pits, where he replaced two wheels, refilled all fluids and lubricated all joints in 11.5 minutes, still setting off 14.5 minutes before the next starter. Szisz maintained his lead throughout the day winning the first Grand Prix. His 105 h.p. side valved Renault had beaten into second place a 135 h.p. o.h.v. Fiat by a margin of 34 minutes. A race won where reliability and sensible driving, conserving tyre wear whenever possible had bettered pure power and performance. The victory bade well with Renault factory orders, the Le Mans Grand Prix race cars were adapted road cars of the day. However, why in this race was a state-of-the-art Grand prix car running on wooden spoke wheels? 

The wheel was invented around 4000 BC, exact dates are unknown. This would have first been a circular wooden disc place upon an axle. The wooden disc most probably a crosscut from a tree. The spoked wooden wheel was invented around 2200 BC, it was lighter and could be used on faster moving vehicles such as chariots. The wooden spoked wheel remained in continuous use through to the 1870’s, a continuous run of over 3600 years, when it was slowly replaced by the tensioned wired spoke wheel. 

The wire wheel was invented by George Cayley in 1808 but further developed and applied to bicycles by William Stanley in 1849. By the late 1800’s the wire wheel was used mainly on bicycles, tricycles and early quadricycles and yet for the 1906 Grand Prix, the Renault Type K ran on 4000-year-old wooden wheel technology. Wire wheels in 1906 were still tied radially, the shortest route from hub to rim, these wheels were not strong enough for heavy race cars driven on poor roads. Radially spoked wheels although strong in compression (they could physically hold the weight of the car) were unable to cope with momentum forces, those of acceleration and braking. When accelerating using the colossal torque of a 12.9 litre engine, the rotation forces from wheel hub to rim would collapse a radially spoked wheel. Transmission braking would have the same affect in reverse. It was not until the invention of the tangential wire wheel, designed in 1907, that a resistance to the acceleration and braking forces could be accommodated. 

In 1907 John Pugh designed a tangential steel spoked wheel for Rudge-Whitworth that could safely be used on cars. These wheels owed their resistance to braking and accelerative stresses due to their two inner rows of tangential spokes. An outer row of radial spokes gave lateral strength against cornering stresses. These wheels were deeply dished so that steering pivot pins might lie as near as possible to the centreline of the tires. Their second feature was that they were easily detachable, being mounted on splined false hubs with knock-off fixings. This made changing a wheel quicker and easier. The pressed steel wheel was later invented by Joseph Sankey in 1908 and was quickly adopted by cost conscious car manufacturers. The Type K Grand Prix car had to use the technology that was available, and this meant reverting to the wooden spoke wheel.

So how far could a wooden spoke G.P. race car wheel be upgraded from a wooden spoke wheel that had graced Persian chariots 4000 years prior? The Renault wooden artillery wheel had a large hub circa 240mm in diameter from which the twelve wooden spokes would radiate. The hub had a steel reinforcing plate bolted to both sides, through the wooden hub, making a steel plated sandwich and spreading torque forces over a wider circumference. Each spoke was then widened at a knuckle through which was bolted a 290 mm drum brake. The wheel and the drum brake were then one unit. The wheel then had a timber outer rim, as a conventional wooden wheel. The word tire comes from attire, as in a dressed wheel. The first tyres were a steel rim surrounding the circumference of the wheel. The steel rim would be preheated and then shrunk fit to the wheel by cooling. This provided a compression around the wheel holding it tightly together. The Renault cars had steel rims but the inner edge of the rim was turned up to support a pneumatic tyre. Around the rim were eight bolt on flanges that held the tyre in place. By undoing and removing these flanges it was possible to change a tyre without removing the wheel (see cross section detail). The technology is extremely crude, but every car related technology was still in its infancy. With early race cars design development focussed firstly on developing power from the engine, suspension, braking, roadholding would all have to wait.

Further to qualify for entry into the 1906 Grand Prix the cars had to have a maximum unladen weight of 1000kg (one metric tonne) but this is extremely misleading as to the actual weight of the car. To this weight all fluids, driver and mechanic, tools and spares would be added. These are the early days of the motorcar and there are design inefficiencies everywhere. A by-product of inefficiency is heat and with an engine as inefficient as a 1906 12.9 litre Renault the by-product is a lot of heat. To cool this heat the radiators were huge. On the earlier Renault Type K of 1903, (the car on which Marcel Renault died during the infamous 1903 Paris-Madrid race) the radiators were fixed along the full length of both outsides of the bonnet. This design inefficiency wrapped the engine in a hot water jacket making engine maintenance near impossible. The radiator was consolidated into a single unit on the 1906 Renault Type K, its sheer volume made its location a difficult problem to resolve. The radiator had an approximate volume of 1200x900x400mm and when full would have a weight of approximately 432 kgs. A radiator of that size has two pragmatic options for its location on a car, transversally mounted in front of, or behind the drivers. If mounted behind the drivers, while cooling a front engine car, its heat tubes would need to run past the driver’s, back to front of the car. Putting this much mass behind the rear axle would drastically affect handling. It was decided to put the radiator behind the engine and in front of the drivers, along the scuttle. This placed the weight central to the car but had its own issues. With the radiator behind the engine, it had almost no through ventilation and the steering column had to pass through the radiator to reach the front wheels, an insane configuration by contemporary engineering standards.

With water in this huge radiator and circulating a 12.9 litre engine, it is easy to see how quickly the car could gain additional weight on top of its unladen entry level weight of 1000kg. A 12.9 litre engine also requires a lot of oil and a car that at best returns 9 mpg requires a lot of fuel for a 700-mile race. Added to this additional weight is that of the driver, the mechanic, tools, jack and three spare wooden wheels (the rims and tyres alone weighed 18kg each). With the tank and the radiator full and the driver and mechanic on board, a 1000 kg entry car would be approaching a two tonne (2000 kg) race car. This would have been a two-tonne car capable of 100 mph, running on a dirt road with no shock absorbers, on wooden spoke wheels, with rod driven drum brakes only fitted to the rear wheels. A driver needed considerably more courage than skill to push these cars to their limits. A car without a differential would also mean that the rear wheels would need to skid round corners, as this is the only way to compensate for the difference in distance between the inner and outer radius of a bend. The huge torque of a 12.9 litre engine, with the car running on a dirt surface, the 3-inch-wide wheels would slip when accelerating or braking. This was to the benefit of the wooden wheel. A wooden wheel racing on a contemporary tarmac surface would better grip on the bends and the sheer force across the timber wheel when cornering would probably break the spokes. The slip on the 1906 Le Mans poor road surfaces made the tyres suffer but saved the wheel.

Car design was still in its early days, but competition was fierce and design development rapid. Design progress was greatly helped at first, by racing and then by mass production. Race car design in 1906 was still very crude but by the mid 1920’s cars such as the Bugatti Type 35 and the Delage 15S8 were racing with refinements recognisable today and still used on many modern cars. Racing forced designers to look at all aspects of car design, brakes, suspension, aerodynamics and to bring these design developments together into a refined whole. Ideas past swiftly from team to team and at each rejuvenation re-invented and improved. The early car designers paved the way for the millions of incremental improvements that have happened since.

Gaston Vinet was a French inventor, automobile and aviation pioneer who ran Maison G. Vinet in Courbevoie, a coachbuilding company founded in 1896. In 1900 he founded Automobiles Vinet in Neuilly-sur-Seine, which manufactured cars until 1904. He introduced the gummed wheel in France in 1893, and patented axles and brakes. His detachable rim was patented in 1905, the patent was bought by Michelin and the wheel was used on the Renault Type K that won of the 1906 GP de l’ACF. A significant win for Ferencz Szisz and Renault, but a win no less on a wooden spoked wheel.

Images

7. Movie clips from the 1906 Grand Prix.

1. 1906 Renault Type-K.

2. The Gatson Vinet / Michelin Split-Rim wheel.

3. Gaston Vinet Split Rim patent.

4. Vinet / Michelin detachable rim.

5. A Persian Chariot wheel 2800 B.C.

6. Marcel Renault in the 1903 race in which he died.

15,007,033 is a big number, even today, but in the 1920’s it was huge, unimaginable, incomparable as it was the number of Model T cars sold between 1908 and 1927. The Model T had a greater influence than any other man-made object on the American way of life, with only the washing machine as a possible comparable, today the personal computer would also need to be considered. The cars made accessible, affordable freedom, access to travel, it opened up the roads and therefor helped urbanise, numerous businesses developed using the Model T as its primary workhorse. As a utility vehicle it was the family car, the doctor’s coupe, the builders flat back, the local fire brigade’s truck, the milk wagon, the police car and the ambulance. The Pullford Company quickly accessorized the Model T, advertising to make it a ‘Practical Tractor’ in less than 30 minutes, to be able to carry out all the work that four horses can pull. The Pullford Company offered plows, harrows, drills, mowers, hay loaders, road graders all as adaptions or add-ons to the trusty Model T. It was everyone’s ultimate utility vehicle. Famously it cost $850 dollars in 1908, its price increase to $950 dollars in 1909 but as the production numbers increased the cost came down and by 1916 a two-seater runabout would cost $345 and a four-seater touring car $360. There was no other car on the market offering as much for so little. The systematic mechanization of mass production inspired numerous copycat industries and lead to the outstanding rise of American economic growth throughout the twentieth century.

With fifteen million happy customers, it would be difficult to argue that it was a poorly designed car, but it did have some very crude details that could have easily been improved during the normal evolution of a car production life. This however was contrary to Henry Ford’s belief and aim as standardization and methods of mass production took priority when it came to design decisions. The Model T’s slow design evolution was compromised by Ford’s obsession with the ideas of inter-changeable of parts. A component from a 1908 machine would fit on a 1927 machine, and new parts could also be retro fitted. This gave the Model T great endurance and adaptability but also eventually its design became dated as other cars makes allowed the increase cost of their cars to fund the increased design development.

The Model T was not the first Ford. Henry Ford built his first experimental quadricycle in 1896 (although sometimes quoted as 1892) but commercial production did not begin until 1901. Ford built thirty cars and then his company collapsed. In 1903 Ford took a new approach and built a sprint car for use in the popular local track events, this was primarily to attract publicity, this approach succeeded and procured backers. The Ford Motor Company was then incorporated with the sum of $28,000 and production began with the Model A 1903-04. The Model A had a two-cylinder engine under the driver’s seat and a chain drive to the rear wheels. It was an expensive car at the time and did not sell well. This was followed by the unsuccessful Ford Model B, this was Ford’s first four cylinder car. Which in turn was upgraded to the Models C & F, all unsuccessful. Bowing to the pressure of his financial backers Ford produced an up market, six cylinder Model K which was equally unsuccessful. Briefly a Model N was developed but this quickly morphed into the Model T. Ford’s primary objective was always to build an affordable quality car that the man of modest means could buy and use on a daily basis. Cars at the time were very much a rich man’s toy or status symbol. In an all or nothing last attempt The Model T was developed and put into production in 1908.

Fifteen million cars sold and a huge commercial success but was the Model T a well-designed car? What was it really like to drive and own? To criticize a design, the needs to be put into context, the context of the times, the available knowledge of technologies and the available material technologies. A design also has a context of use, is it appropriate for its purpose?

The chassis of the Model T is almost web like it is so delicate and fragile. The idea of a rigid chassis complemented with able suspension was not a design concept in the early 1900’s. The chassis consist of two thin parallel and narrowly spaced longitudinal C shaped channels with minimal cross bracing and thin radial rod diagonals to the rear axle. The track of the car was predetermined by necessity to run the cart ruts of the dirt roads. The chassis sat on transverse semi elliptical leaf springs back and front above the two axles. This gave the car a high roll centre, so it would sway or rock from side to side when on bumpy ground. The suspension, the chassis and the car body all flexed to soak up movements encountered when travelling. This would be nothing like a contemporary chassis, but it was fit for purpose, minimal and cheap to produce and could accommodate the poor roads. The flex through the chassis would eventually cause metal fatigue at all stiffening junctions and there were after-market solutions to this but in general the chassis was strong enough and appropriate for its intended use.

Henry Ford came across Vanadium steel at a racetrack on a crashed French race car. He was impressed by its strength, and weight and took a small sample for analysis and upon learning the production process he used this metal on the Model T. Vanadium steel was an advanced alloy of the time and the Model T used Vanadium steel in many places including the chassis. Vanadium steel was lighter and stronger than carbon steel, parts could be made smaller and lighter. This reduction of weight and minimalization of components, ease of assembly, access and repair were key concepts to Ford’s design philosophy. Cost was kept to a minimum by not having certain components. There was no brass, no footplates, no locks on the doors. There was no petrol pump as the tank was stored high under the seat and gravity fed to the carburettor. There was no fuel filter, any sediments fell into a bulb below the tank and could be drained. There was no water pump, water was circulated via convection, this was ok for the many open roads but not great for congested traffic, but most roads were open. There was no oil pump, the crank splashing through oil in the sump provided lubrication, a very primitive solution made worse by a very shallow sump. The gearbox used the same oil as the engine and rotated in a shallow trough of oil, the flywheel with its magneto splashing oil as it rotated. Even by using the two transverse semi elliptical springs, one per axle, saved weight, usually there would be two per axle one in each corner of the car. Running a machine that was missing all these components meant that the Ford Model T needed a lot of manual adjustments and a high level of regular maintenance. 

The engine was a cast iron four-cylinder, in line, longitudinal monobloc. The engine bloc incorporated the pistons with water cooling jackets and crankshaft top mounts. A cog driven camshaft run off the crank opened inverted valves via pushrods. All of this within the cylinder bloc. The cast iron cylinder head was separate and housed only the spark plugs. A copper asbestos casket separated the head from the bloc (a Ford invention). The combustion chambers were L shaped, flat over the piston chamber and extended to overhang the valves. By contemporary standard this provided a very poor combustion chamber configuration, but this was unknown at the time. Ease of fabrication and maintenance drove design decisions. The head and block design, separated by a gasket were state of the art in 1908. Engine block and cylinder heads were often cast as one unit, also a four-cylinder monobloc incorporating water jackets was up to date engineering in 1908. Cylinders would usually be built in pairs and then paired. The aluminium sump was also separate and bolted to the bottom of the engine bloc. The Model T’s sump lacked depth, this would cause bearing problems on all cars and the crank had no counter balance and very long levers, more nodding donkey than motorcar but again this was normal for the period. The camshaft is driven off the crank and these via pushrods operate a side valve head. The engine was 2.9 litres and develop 20hp or just under 7hp per litre a deplorable inefficiency by contemporary standards but adequate for the day where inefficient 6 litre plus engines were the norm as capacity was the easiest way to create power. The crank had three main bearings and the engine had a 1243 firing order (modern car 1342). The engine, like cars of the period had a long stroke, meaning that the crankshaft has a wide radius. This gave good torque but limited the engine to around 1800rpm as the moving components were heavy. The long stroke also made the engine bloc very tall. The low rpm, high torque and light weight of the car gave it 13mpg on unrefined 40 octane fuel, a high mpg for 1908. The compression was only 4.5 to 1 allowing the engine to run on kerosene, alcohol or other poor-quality fuels of the time. The low compression also made starting by hand cranking easier, electric starters were not available as an option for the Model T until 1919 (although invented in 1903).

The whole transmission fits via a bell housing to the engine bloc, this is again contemporary, around this time gearboxes tended to be separate components attached to the engine via shafts. The Model T engine and gear box were tidy and compact unit by the standards of 1908. However, the Transmission is nothing like a contemporary gearbox. It uses elliptical planetary gears that are in constant motion as the engine turns, this drives a gearbox drive that is also in constant motion. The gears are engaged by friction collars, initially made of steel clamped cotton, operated by three pedals. Each pedal tightens a collar around a spinning pulley. The pedal on the left is pushed down and held down to engage a low forward gear, its central position is neutral (it slips), when released, top position, it engages a high forward gear. The pedal in the middle is held down to engage reverse. The pedal on the right is held down to apply a brake to the engine rotation via the transmission. Transmission braking was the norm on the early cars, most had no wheel brakes at all and only later had rear wheel brakes. There was a rear emergency brake, operated by hand and this was rod driven, its primary role was as a parking brake.

There was no battery and no dynamo, there was no high voltage distributer as in modern cars but instead four multi-spark coils firing spark plugs one per cylinder. This provided multiple sparks in the combustion chamber. There were two levers on the steering column one controlled acceleration and the other controlled ignition advance and retard. The Flywheel magneto was a simple way to generate electricity using the rotation of the flywheel as the engine turned. Magnets mounted on the flywheel move past coils mounted behind the engine this generated the electricity that fired the spark plugs. The magneto would be dropped on later post Model T Fords. The Model T was a perfect example of precision engineering of its day. A Rolls-Royce, the obvious symbol of precision and quality, was hand crafted machine with each of its parts a one off, each car bespoke. The Model T factory produced interchangeable identical parts.

“Any colour as long as its black”. The Model T’s were at first produced in many colours, eventually as production numbers increased black was the primary option as black was the fastest air drying paint, the cars stood outside to dry. Every aspect of the Model T’s design was to cut costs and produce a machine at the lowest possible price. Making the car available to a wider cliental, instead of a car only for the rich, was Henry Ford’s social mission and this determined all design decisions. The car was an amazing success and socially revolutionary. It used the best materials, up to date technologies for both car design and manufacturing, all of which were amazing achievements for 1908. Model T sales peaked at 2,011,125 units sold in 2013 and then began their decline. In total 15,007, 033 units were sold through to 1927 and approximately 60,000 still remain. Today, the Ford Model T ranks ninth in all time car sales of one production model but this today is with a global population considerably greater than in 1908. Relative to population the Ford T would still be the number one selling car.

The Model T’s main design failure was that it failed to evolve over its production period. Cars that have long production runs such as the Volkswagen Beetle, selling 21,529,464 units evolved considerable between its 1938-2003 production dates. The Model T not only failed to evolve Ford’s had no other car to offer until the Model T was taken out of production. It was replaced by the Ford Model A, 1828-1932 that sold 4.8m units during it production run. However, by then the other car makers had caught up and competition was fierce. The Great depression first hit in 1929 but by 1931 was in fall momentum, this would affect all aspects of manufacturing as survival was the prime objective for the next decade.

The Model T is a very beautiful car, it is designed as, and is recognisable as a contemporary car. It has the engine in front, shaft drive, rear differential. It has an enclosed passenger compartment, it is operated by a steering wheel, foot pedals and hand controls and yet it is still possible to see its carriage routes. The transition from horse and carriage to horseless carriage was long and complex but the early 1900’s witnessed increased speed of consolidation of design and technological development. The racetrack became the testing ground and manufacturers quickly assimilated all the best ideas into each model. The two World Wars further hastened technological development, with cross-over technologies and skills migrating across the various engineering disciplines of aircraft, weaponry, product design and car manufacture.

The Model T was Henry Ford’s most famous car. However, Henry Ford will always be best remembered for his introduction of Mass Production design and techniques to the industrial world, a system that would be copied by every other volume producer in the following decades. The production line system of high-volume mass production would not be superseded until Toyota’s Lean Design systems on the 1980’s.

Images

• 1. Model T, 1911 Runabout
• 2. Model T, Chassis
• 3. Model T, 1916 Doctors Coupe
• 4. Model T, 1911 Tourer
• 5. Model T, 1915 Town Car
• 6. Model T, 1923 ForDor Sedan
• 7. Model T, 1909 Phaeton

In 600 BC Thales of Miletus, the Greek philosopher, wrote of the attraction of the lodestone to iron and other lodestones. The lodestone, a naturally magnetised piece of mineral magnetite. The navigational properties of the lodestone were known by the Middle Ages and the name lodestone probably dates from this time as its Middle English lodestone means ‘course stone’. The first modern treatise on electricity De Magnete, was published in 1600 by an English scientist William Gilbert. In this text he studied electricity and magnetism. He invented the new Latin word electricus (like amber, from the Greek word electron meaning amber). Amber when rubbed can hold a static charge. The journey from the magnetic properties of the lodestone to beginnings of understanding electricity took 2200 years. The words electric and electricity first appear in print in Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646. The German scientist Otto von Guericke demonstrated properties of electromagnetic repulsion in 1663 and in 1791 Luigi Galvini published his discovery of bioelectromagnetics, demonstrating that electricity was the medium by which neurons passed signals to the muscles.

The Leyden jar, is a glass jar that was able to accumulate and store static charge, a type of primitive battery. It allowed users to discharge electricity when required and was discovered in 1745. Alessandro Volta’s battery or Voltic Pile made of alternating and paired zinc (-) and copper plates (+) separated by felt pads soaked in salt water was published in 1799. The Voltic Pile gave scientists a reliable source of electrical energy and from this date considerable progress was made in the studies of electricity. Rechargeable lead-acid batteries were invented by Gaston Planté in 1859. The basic understanding of the unity of electric and magnetic phenomena including electro-magnetic fields, electromagnetism was made by Hans Christian Ørsted and André-Marie Ampère in 1819. Shortly after in 1821 Michael Faraday invented the electric motor and George Ohm calculated and analysed forces in the electrical circuit. Electricity, magnetism and light were definitively linked and modelled mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.

Faraday’s big contribution came when he discovered mutual induction. Faraday wrapped two insulated coils of wire around an iron ring, by passing a current through one coil he found that a momentary current was induced in the other coil. Faraday further discovered that by moving a magnet through a loop of wire an electric current flowed in that wire. The current also flowed if the loop was moved over a stationary magnet. Faraday’s experiments established that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field, this relationship was determined as a mathematical proof by James Clerk Maxwell and is known as Faraday’s Law. Putting an electric current through a wire creates a magnetic field, putting this electrically created magnetic field inside a magnetic field (between the opposite poles of two magnets) creates a force. This force can be used to create rotation and hence mechanical power. Using these principles Faraday would go on to construct the electric dynamo, the ancestor of modern power generators and the electric motor. An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. An electric generator is mechanically identical to an electric motor, but operates in the reverse direction, converting mechanical energy into electrical energy.

In the early nineteenth century once the principles of electric rotation were understood and a battery storage source had been discovered, electrical engineering progressed rapidly. People such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham-Bell, Ottó Bláthy, Galileo Ferraris (three-phase induction motor), Baron Kelvin, established laws and invented uses for electricity. People such as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse helped turn electricity into an essential resource for modern life. 

Over one hundred years ago electric cars were the most numerous vehicles in the world. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century they out sold every other type of car. Electric taxis could be found in London, Paris, and New York. Electric cars were also the fastest in the world holding the land speed records through to the 1900’s. By 1912 many houses in the US cities had electricity and were therefore able to charge the cars at home and so the popularity of electric city cars increased. 

In the US in the early 1900’s 40% of cars on the road were steam cars, 38% were electric and 22% were petrol run. This may seem a strange mix today but car design was in its infancy and undergoing rapid transition. This transition was not only for the means to power propulsion but also cultural, away from the horse and carriage as an established typological norm. The most easily adapted transition technology was that of steam as it already had been well tested to power factory machinery and locomotives. Steam was noisy, heavy and ungainly, with the need to carry coal to stoke a boiler of considerable size. A steam car needed approximately an hour to prepare as the water in the boiler needed to be at steam before one could leave. The very early versions from the late 1800’s, were a strange hybrid of carriage, locomotive and what would become later recognisable as a car. Early steam cars were not at all user friendly and nor were petrol cars. The first petrol cars were noisy and temperamental. They had to be started by hand crank, had a crash gearbox, they had a series of knobs switches and dials that controlled ignition, advance and retard, fuel mix, often also hand pumped, in addition to the controls for acceleration, brakes & steering. They were complex machines to use, very smoky, smelly, dripping oil everywhere from total loss lubrication systems.

Early electric cars were popular for exactly the opposite reason, they were very user friendly and also used an existing and established transfer technology. Electricity had been used to propel rail carts in mines, as clean air in a mine was a necessity. Electricity was now quite common in the factory and companies such as Edison’s and Westinghouse’s had begun to connect houses to city grids. Electric cars required no gearbox, a simple lever pushed forwards or backwards controlled momentum. One could learn to drive an electric car within an hour. They started and stopped immediately, they were clean and could be charged at home. Their limited range was inconsequential as they were city cars designed for the short commute to and from near destinations. The energy density of the batteries was always their weakness. There were also cultural reasons why the electric car was a popular substitution for the horse drawn carriage. The concept of car as a utility did not exist. The people that could afford cars could afford servants. The carriage was a suspended interior room, softly sprung, sumptuously lined and protected from the elements. People sat on padded seats face to face, windows were curtained and ceilings were high, you stood up to get in and a tall hat did not need to be removed. Large windows accessed the view but equally allowed one to be viewed. Drivers and footmen sat outside exposed to the elements. The electric car was the best cultural replacement for the carriage and the society that were carriage drawn. It did not necessarily require a driver but the carriage component and its etiquette were kept whole and intact. The early electric cars were like the early electric lifts, both were rooms in which one moved from location to location, one vertically the other horizontally. These rooms had seats, often revolving seats, mirrors, flowers in hung vases and delicate lighting. One could wear hats, bustles and large voluminous dresses, one could wear a cape and carry a cane. These moving rooms were social spaces in which one could converse on the way to the theatre or to and from the newly fashionable multi-levelled department stores that had recently opened.

In America the early cars were called Brass Era cars 1896-1915 due to their ornate use of brass for details, lights and grills. Once again this is a cultural transfer of ornament onto engineering, a beautifying of the mechanically austere. This cultural transfer often has little to do with the car per se, as it is a transfer from the language of architecture and the interior. This interpretation of what a machine should be varies from our present day ideal of aesthetic convention. This is due to the altered perspective at the outset of the car destined typology, utility versus a social mobile room. As speed and distance began to take precedence, the utility aspect of the car developed over that of the mobile room. The speed, power and independence offered by the car as a utility replaced that of the leisurely, social discourse offered by the carriage. It is interesting that at the same time the movie house replaced the theatre, one a popular convenience and the other a social performance. The movie house as a building type diverged away from the theatre as it shed all of its ancillary social spaces. The anti-rooms where discourse, performance and the rituals of societies business people and voyeurs were entertained. The cinema stripped of these social spaces became streamlined, a foyer and a viewing room. As time became commoditised everything became more functional, functional used as a synonym for time efficient. Streamlining as a stylistic expression of time saving efficiency would spread in the coming decade through all aspects of the applied arts. Streamlining was quickly applied to cars and in the process the cultural language of design, with all its ritualistic and semantic overtones, were stripped away and replaced with the time saving language of functionalism. In this the technological advance overtakes cultural advance and in so doing shifts and realigns cultural agendas and values. It is impossible for us to look at the car anew with the values and from the perspective of the Edwardians. As we now transition from the internal combustion engine cars of our époque to the electric cars of the future, at first step, will be to simply replace the power plant. The car will be recognisable as a car. It will have a front and a back, a bonnet and a boot, some may even carry grills and transmission tunnels decades after either have need or use.

The very early 1900’s was the Golden Age of the electric car where sales peaked in 1910. This coincided with what in the US called the Brass cars and in the UK were called Edwardian cars. Brass, Edwardian and Electric were together all scheduled soon to be the past. Within fifteen years of 1910, electric cars had all but vanished from the streets and were replaced by cars powered by the internal combustion engine. So why from these three types of power source, steam, electric and petrol, did the petrol car from such a poor start soon dominate the roads. Firstly, reliable transport, both domestic and commercial, was beneficial to all markets and increased market capture through distance distribution. Transport was a growth industry fuelled by its ability to assist other industries. The fundamentals of logistic necessity put pressure on the fledgling transport industry to run with what was presently viable. There was no time to wait for battery technology to catch up and investment funds were quickly redirected towards the combustion engine powered motor car and its procurement. Secondly, huge reservoirs of underground oil had been discovered around the globe. It was estimated that these reserves were so large that they would last at least 3000 years. Oil, unlike coal, could be pumped and piped, making its distribution infrastructure easier to establish. Oil had greater energy density than anything else available and from the outset had multiple uses, it was a fuel, a lubricant and a preservative. Later with further research and advances in chemistry, oil proved to be incredible versatile and the basis for many varied industries to come. None of this was missed by the world of finance and the culture of capitalism. Thirdly, as roads improved it was possible to travel ever greater distances. A requirement of distance was range and speed, steam and the electric battery simply could not compete. Fourthly, Charles Kettering’s invention of the electric starter motor of 1911 greatly helped the petrol car as there was no longer a need to hand crank the engine to start it. A hand cranked engine not only required considerable strength it was also a dangerous activity, responsible for many injuries, even deaths when hand cranks took the full force of engine kick-backs. Fifthly, the final nail in the coffin of the electric car began in earnest in 1908 when Henry Ford streamlined mass production and with this managed to reduce the cost of and ease of, through standardisation, the assembly and repair process of the petrol-powered cars. 

The association of carriage to personal identity had little importance. The grand horse drawn carriage may be recognised as part of a wealthy estate but not as an item owned by an individual. The carriage was a shared mode of transport. The driver, footman and stable hands may have considered the carriage as their own, as although they didn’t own the carriage, they would have known considerably more about it and the team of horses that pulled it than the owner. The carriage was part of the estate shared by the family members that lived on the estate. The early Edwardian cars, including the electric car continued this relationship, with the car as a shared facility and not a status item. As the car became streamlined, with its design bias now being functional, its previous cultural role gave way to its new technological role, the carriage became the chariot. The car became a masculine fetish object of the successful representing speed, power and daring. By the 1930’s the car had become the status symbol for everyone who wanted to be anyone, consider the celebrity cars of this period and images of Clark Gable standing alongside oversized Duesenbergs. 

Post wars, the cars of the 50’s and 60’s were the youthful symbol of independence, films of the early 70’s such as Two-Lane Black Top (71), American Graffiti (73) and Vanishing Point (71) highlight the cars role in society. The car had become an essential expression of male virility, of status, of fashion and of tribal association. It became a means of escape, an expression of one’s values, it was the only confinement in which young couples could respectfully be seen alone. The car quickly became the ménage of all these things, a tin enclosure of adrenalin, courtship and competition, complete with Lucky Strikes and furry dice. By the 1970’s and 80’s a car was a necessity due to the suburban sprawl that now surrounded all cities, a pre-requisite for all youth as it gave independence and access to the now time organised week at work and the new weekend world of clubbing.

As service sector jobs replaced industrial jobs cities became re-urbanised, with many from suburbia moving back to the city centres. Today’s flat dwelling urban youth have no place for car ownership, cars are hired and shared. Cities have deliberately become car unfriendly, speed bumps, bottle necks, restricted roads, congestion charges, parking permits and fines all make car ownership very difficult. Modern apartments no-longer provide parking spaces in ratio with accommodation units or site density. Public transport is the norm, the cars iconic value and representative value has been diminished. Of necessity, society has become more social, flat sharing, co-working, cab sharing and car-pooling are the new norms, even small-scale transport, scooters and bikes, are hired by the hour. Ownership of any of these items is far less important. Greater urban density has created a new urban social class, flats, often beyond one’s financial means are now rented, kitchens, TV rooms, gyms, pools and a concierge service are included within the service charge. The new living room may be a private club or a local bar, people eat out, shower at their gyms and live within the social infrastructure of the city. A flat may serve only the functions of safe storage and sleep. 

In the 18^th century, one would probably work in the same industry as one’s father, continuing generations of cobblers, farmers and farriers. One’s time followed the seasons or immediate market needs. A farmer’s day changed in length Winter to Summer, a cobbler or farrier waited upon the next client to arrive, each job bespoke. The worker was a crafts person, he had total knowledge of the full process of making, from raw material to finished product. Quiet periods were one’s own time. The crafts person had control over the quality of his product and the application of his time. Industry mechanised and commoditised time as consistent and regular. It organised our weeks and weekends and the main purpose of our labour became profit not product. One goes to work to produce goods that may have no known immediate market and in that we serve the machine. The machine may produce shoes of which one’s contribution may be to only to push the button to make the heel. One need not know how to make a whole shoe, or how much it costs to make a shoe, or where the materials come from, or where it will be sold, these jobs are all done by other people. Industry collectivised our knowledge, time and production. The pooling of knowledge could be alienating as one no longer had an overview but industry improved living standards and created known quantities of leisure time. Leisure time itself became commoditised but still forms the networks for social grouping. 

Leisure time will soon increase along with population increases and further automation. Within this new found leisure time new social groups will emerge and develop. Our changing relationship to ownership and product status is all part of this transition. The electric car during this transition will at first imitate the combustion engine car that it replaces but as more automation, increased connectivity and car sharing become the norm our cultural associations with the car will transform its form and purpose. The Edwardians saw the early cars as communal mobile rooms. The twenty-first century may revisit this approach to transport design or it may well invent the as yet un-invented as new technologies open up new cultural opportunities.

Images

1. Baker Electric 1910 – Aristocrats Ad

2. Baker Electric – Social Prestige Ad

3. Anderson Detroit Electric – Ad

4. Baker Electric – Society Woman Ad

5. Detroit Electric – 1912 Ad

6. Rauch & Lung Electric – Worm Drive Ad

7. Baker Electric – Will Live Ad

The 1960’s were a time when the two super powers, the USA and the USSR, went globally head to head, with the Cold War battle grounds of the Middle East, Cuba, China and Vietnam. The Cold War had already begun post World Wars and as early as 1951-53 Iran became the pawn in a battle of power. Iran sat on huge reserves of oil and was unable to realise these without outside help. It was also strategically located in the heart of the Middle East, a gateway to Asia. Following the lessons learnt from the two World Wars, oil was the new black gold and no country could do without it. Britain, America and the Soviet Union all at first tried for control of this region, once known as Persia, but this soon became a two horse race as the Soviet and the US each saw Iran as a crucial stepping-stone on the road to world domination. The Soviets were wanting to expand south and move into the Middle East spreading the Communist word and the US wanted to contain Soviet power. A head to head developed, fought over a small and poor country, in the land of that country.

The Middle East had become the new frontier, a bulwark to stop Soviet expansion. This was both a battle of ideologies, Communist versus Democratic Capitalism, as well as a control of economic and energy infrastructure. The Baghdad Pact of 1955 was indirectly a means of US control over an area of strategic and economic importance. On a global stage the US had stepped in to adjudicate where historically the British Empire had once set the law. Military bases, spy stations and communications networks, both Soviet and American, sprung up across the Middle East and North Asia. The Cold War between the new two world Super Powers was well underway. But Superpower conflict was not only centred on the Middle East and Oil, global strategic positions also came to a head, with further Soviet and US conflicts erupting in Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. Every Super Power conflict quickly became a propaganda exercise of opposed world ideologies. When the Cold War reached a stale mate The Space Race became the arena for one-upmanship. By the early 1960’s, the two Super Power’s were each taking pot shots at the moon just to prove that they could hit it, sending their latest missiles at the ball in the sky to keep score of their so-called impact landings. Several of the rockets missed their lunar target and flew forever onwards into space; they are probably still travelling.

In 1900 the US was still a wild frontier and the British Empire still had considerable standing on the world stage but by the 1950’s, Europe, the Old World leaders, had been crippled by The Wars and the ensuing dept. The UK went from governing the world’s largest empire to begging the IMF for a loan in one generation, a mere fifty years. Britain had lost its global political seat and the US would now take its place as a new world superpower with its role in international politics. Oil was the new gold and control of energy was the basis of infrastructure for any new world power. As the US flexes it’s political muscles, it’s car industry introduces the muscle car. Sheer brute force, the fastest in a straight line across the shortest route, expedient, efficient, conclusive, a total political beast. Here the industrial lion that once represented The British Empire is devoured in one great petrol guzzling bite. In the US there is a new confidence, a new wealth and a growing middle class. For this market the US motor industry builds the Pontiac GTO, the first muscle car, a symbol of the US’s new place in the world, representative of it’s control and abuse over oil, a symbol of it’s newfound wealth. Size is everything, big houses, big fridges and big cars, a world of excess, what better way to express the dominance of the new world over the old.

The 1967 Pontiac GTO has always been a favourite car. Not just because it’s a beautiful flat slab of 60’s American culture, but also as an icon of an era, symbolic of a rapidly changing world, the expression of the countries growing confidence. It’s a sports car that wants to be a saloon, that wants to grow up, at the same time it’s a saloon that wants to be a sports car. The Pontiac Motor Division made the first generation Pontiac GTO’s from 1964 to 1967. Personal preference may dictate the best first generation car but it is hard to beat the 1967 360 bhp 400 cubic inch V8. The car was optioned with a 3 speed Turbo Hydramatic TH-400 automatic transmission equipped with a Hurst performance dual gate shifter, called the ‘his and her’ shifter allowing either automatic or manual selection through the gears. Although it could be argued that the ’66 car was slightly better looking due to the front grill and rear lights, the ’67 was the car to have. There were three models, the Sport Coupe, the Hardtop and the Convertible. The Hardtop car without ‘b pillars’ was preferred. Rally 2 wheels allowed for the fitting of the recently introduced all round disc brakes and the ’67 cars had a whole load of other safety equipment fitted as standard, padded dash, energy absorbing steering wheel, shoulder seat belts and dual reservoir brakes as examples.

During 1963 a ban on auto racing advertising had shifted Pontiac Motors marketing focus onto the youth orientated street performance market. The name GTO was used in reference only to the 1960’s ‘Gran Tourismo Omologato’ cars that were officially certified for racing, but the Pontiac GTO was never built to race and it soon picked up the nickname as the ‘Goat’. The car was straight line fast with a 0-60 time of around 6 seconds and a standing quarter time just under 15 seconds with the car passing through the gates at 98mph.

Bigger and Better was not only to be seen throughout the propaganda of The Cold Wars between the US and the USSR it was also to be seen on the US highway between the rival US motor companies. Other US Muscle Car icons of this time should include:

1970 Dodge Charger RT 440 Magnum Six Pack.

1970 Dodge Challenger RT 440 Magnum Six Pack.

1970 Plymouth Barracuda 440 Six Pack

1968 Ford Mustang 428 ci, GT500 Shelby Cobra, Twin four Choke Holleys.

Muscle cars dominated youth culture from the mid 1960’s through to the early 1970’s. With the event of the 1973 oil crisis came speed restrictions and pollution controls, the reign of the US Muscle Car was over.

There were 65,176 1967 hardtop cars made so they are not rare but as an iconic reference of American motor memorabilia its hard to beat a 1967 Pontiac Goat Triple Black, 400 ci, Four Pack, Hurst Shifter, Mean.

The Surrogate Twin

In 1934 Adolf Hitler asked Ferdinand Porsche to design a peoples car. The car had to be economical to run, cheap to build, seat two adults and three children, easily maintained, air cooled, and was to be sold for 990 Reichsmarks (ten months average salary). The Volkswagen ‘Beetle’ Type 1 was the conclusion and it was to become the most successful mass manufactured car ever. Production ran from 1938-2003 in which over 21.5 million were made all using the same platform. Hitler introduced the car as the Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagen (KDF-Strength Through Joy Car); Kraft-durch-Freude being the official leisure organisation of Nazi Germany but it would soon become the KDF car for everyone. The car was produced in small numbers until post World Wars, when the bombed out Volkswagen factory was saved by the English army. In 1949 Heinz Nordhoff was appointed director and production increased dramatically. The car was particularly successful in the 1960’s as the post War baby boom took off and it is synonymous with the hippy and beach boy music culture of the period. Cost, efficiency and ease of maintenance all aided to the cars longevity and endurance but the versatility of its platform base not only kept the cars forever on the road but often gave them a second life; a life incognito.

The VW Beetle platform proved so popular and versatile that it soon became the basis for several replica cars. Many small companies set up business using the VW Type 1 platform for their products e.g. Chesil, Karmen, Nova, Puma, Meyers-Manx, R.A.T. between them producing replicas such as Porsche Speedster, Piper P2, McLaren M6GT, Beach Buggy, Ferrari Dino, Bugatti T35. The flat platform with the bolt on body, although popular, was not the direction that the car industry would take as it developed ever more sophisticated monocoque designs. The monocoque with its bolt on sub-frames provides a level of passenger safety unobtainable with the early flat platform designs. The modern mass produced car body is made from a lightweight sophisticated origami of folded steel, pattern cut and welded into a strong protective carapace exoskeleton; a beautiful object in itself. Contemporary car design would seem to have changed direction once again and the flat ‘skateboard’ platform has returned with the development of the electric car.

The electric car is a battery deck with wheels; its components and assembly resemble that of a simple electric toy car. Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi share an electric car platform, others will follow suit. Open source platforms have already appeared although most of these are crude and little better than the Beetle Type 1 chassis of 1938. The battery has determined the design of the electric car skateboard platform. Batteries are heavy, still have relatively low energy density and are therefore required in considerable numbers. The desire for as low a centre of gravity as possible, easy access for complete battery swaps, electric motor maintenance and quick recharging also contribute to the flat platform design. If electric cars continue along this design path to its logical conclusion, even when battery energy density is greatly increased, all platforms will be very similar if not identical and interchangeable. The electric car platform would consist of a battery deck with whole interchangeable battery packs accessible from below, four small electric motors, one per wheel, set inboard with floating drive shafts, inboard brakes and four wheel steering. With this combination and computer controlled independent wheel speeds, direction and steering, the platform would be at its most versatile. Only a unique or unforeseeable battery innovation or alternative fuel source would disrupt this outcome. Computer controlled wheel speed, direction and steering would allow the car to turn 360 degrees on the spot by reversing opposite wheel direction. Four wheel steering would allow side drift parking as well as performance options at speed. Vans, cars and cabs would all share the same platform, whether autonomous or manual.

So will the electric car become a milestone within the continued evolution of the petrol car or will it become a completely new product. The autonomous vehicle with a greatly simplified, computer-controlled interface, will affect transport evolution both on the road and in the air (see text 191016 – A.I.viation). Is the destiny of the electric car to be a range of accommodation shells set upon a utilitarian shared platform? Possibly for example in the form of – the dispenser, the bedroom, the boardroom, the short commute, the prestige, or will other design dynamics influence development direction. The indeterminate criterion of present electric vehicle design is hinged around range. This is both the weakness of the electric car and yet the greatest potential for informing future designs. In the ideal, everyone has two cars, a city car and a rarely used distance car, though this is obviously impractical. These issues change from country to country and are dependent on other infrastructure developments. Dense European cities have different needs to sprawling LA suburbs. Improved public transport would negate the need for a city car just as shared car-pooling of long-range cars negates the need for a Grand Tourer. To resolve both issues with one product is a probable interesting design challenge. The small compact city car that morphs to a Grand Tourer is not necessarily science fiction. A compact car that extends its wheelbase to increase stability at speed is not a new concept. Buckminster Fullers D-45 of 1942 would be an early example and other designs have followed. The cars shell remains the same and the wheelbase extends to increase luggage and battery storage space. The second battery unit could well be the home storage battery interchangeable with the cars.

Either development of the electric car, the platform with a range of bodies, sleep pods and the like, or the extendable transformer car creates a new product type. The electric car has already greatly reduced the number of components and moving parts compared to its carbon fuelled alternative. This simplification of the base platform combined with increases in software sophistication, including autonomous driving, shifts the emphasis and purpose of this product. The car may no longer be solely a utility for transportation but instead a multi purpose extension of the home complete with shared IT and energy storage facilities. It was noted in the text of 290716- Electric 1 that the horse and carriage was never intended to be an owned utility but instead a shared resource hired when required and the contemporary electric car may well revert to this role. It should also be noted from the same text, that just as the first petrol cars adopted the typology of the horse and carriage, vis-à-vis, with driver sitting outside and on top, the electric car adopts the form of the petrol car. The petrol car was a new product and not a horse and carriage and the electric vehicle is again a new product.

Images from left to right. 1-2 VW Beetle, 3 Tesla, 4 Tesla & Nova, 5 Tesla & Disco 6 Tesla & Sleep Pod, 7 Tesla & Carriage.

The Surrogate Twin

Collage, from the French coller ‘to glue’, the art of assemblage of different forms combined to create a new whole. Known examples of collage date back to 200BC but this use is mainly as assemblage or Bricolage. Collage as an art form is a twentieth century invention and a by-product of mass production and industrialisation, especially with regard to the printed or photographic image. Juxtaposition is a key element in modernist collage, references and signifiers often used to add conceptual depth to the composition of cubist and surrealist works. By the 1960’s photomontage had replaced many modernist ideas of collage and the photomontage space often occupied compositions with real perspective. In art collaged products are assembled to create something new. In car design this sometimes also happens.

The 1960’s was a strange time for car manufacturing. The US the automotive industry had grown on the back of the US oil industry and general Post War US dominance. Asian car makers were still in their early development stage. European car makers lacked the financial backing post war to re-tool their factories or spend lavish sums on R&D. As the US built muscle cars, the Asians built imitations and the Europeans were on make do and mend. Out of this unusual mix came a new type of inventive entrepreneur, that of the component car builder, building cars using off the shelf parts supplied by other manufacturers. TVR, Lotus, De Tomaso and ISO are four makes that immediately come to mind. De Tomaso (Mangusta and Pantera) and ISO (Grifo and Rivolta) had Italian bodies over US mechanics; these cars were aesthetically enticing but crude. Early TVR’s (Grantura, Griffith and Vixen) still had a hand made kit car feel. The master of component car production, despite continued poor build quality, was Lotus.

Colin Chapman (1928-1982) began modifying cars to use in competitions as early as 1948. This began with the Lotus 1, a modified Austin 7, and concluded with the Lotus 6. The early experiments gained public interest and with the production of the Lotus 6, (1952-57) Chapman was able to fabricate and supply kits for sale out of which Lotus Engineering was born. These early cars had a tubular space frame chassis and an aluminium body. The kits used parts from the Ford Prefect and were mainly used by privateers and enthusiasts for hill climbs and competitions. In 1958 Lotus cars produced the Elite for public sale as a factory built complete car (although this was also available as a kit). The car was innovative with the use of its load bearing glass fibre monocoque, had independent suspension all round and was low drag coefficient. The monocoque was advanced, but beyond the material technology available at that time it incorporated a bonded steel structure at the front to support the engine and bonded steel reinforcement in the body to support the doors. All bonding to, and junctions with the monocoque were never fully resolved. The car was expensive to produce, fragile and sold in low numbers (approximately 1000). 

The Lotus Elan and Elan +2 (1962-75) was the design of Ron Hickman (of Workmate fame). The Elan was the beginning of commercial success for the company and a master class in component design. Putting a purpose built body over inherited mechanical components is fairly straightforward. Creating a pure seamless aesthetic whole whilst incorporating windscreens, bumpers, lights, door handles etc. from the parts bins of others is far more difficult. The Elan design was beautiful, the engineering ideas revolutionary and as an example of applied design collage one of the most successful to date. The Elan was a collage of economic necessity. 

Key to the Elan concept was the 18SWG steel backbone deep box section chassis with Chapman suspension struts. It was strong, economical to produce and light at 75kg. This chassis would be used on the Elan, Elan+2, Elite and reversed to be use on the Europa. Further downstream the chassis would evolve for use in the Esprit. The chassis of the MG R-Type of 1935 may have inspired the Elan chassis but this was an all new revolutionary platform. The chassis has a V at either end where the opening of the V at the front houses the engine and at the rear the trans axle (Vice versa in the Europa). The car is light and nimble with a very good power to weight ratio (685kg /128bhp), the handling phenomenal with excellent cornering and braking ability and steady directional stability at speed.

Onto this backbone chassis would sit the Lotus GRP monocoque and a whole menagerie of components from Triumph, Ford, Alfa Romeo, MG, Wolseley, Hillman and others. The monocoque was fabricated in seven pieces and bonded together as one whole. The design of the monocoque is the outcome of various inputs including ergonomics, aesthetics, aerodynamics, structure, brand identity and styling. GRP is little more than a stiff glue, held solid in space, holding a three dimensional form that supports this collage of assorted parts. In the 1960’s art world high collage was the photomontage works of Richard Hamilton. In the design world of three-dimensional applied collage the Lotus Elan is hard to beat.

So was the Elan a good design? The answer has to be yes and no. It’s innovation, power to weight ratio and interior and exterior styling were all ahead of their time. Lotus’ work in Formula One influenced the design of the road cars. The biggest design fault was that the Elan chassis offered no side impact protection. The Elan build quality faults were in part a condition of the economically challenged 1970’s. It was a difficult time to start a company that sold motorcars. 

Lotus Elan and Elan +2 

Some of the parts that make up the Elan Collage

Alfa Romeo rear lights

Austin 1100 door handles

Ford Anglia front bumper +2

Ford Capri Front windscreen 

Ford Capri door window glass

Ford Capri brightwork

Ford Consul Corsair or & Austin Maxi transmission

Ford Consul Classic rear differential with a Lotus designed aluminium housing

Ford Kent 116-E four cylinder cast iron engine block with a five bearing crank

Hillman Imp drive shafts 

Lotus Harry Murray designed aluminium twin cam, two valves per cylinder, head

MGB interior door handles

Sunbeam Alpine filler cap

Triumph Heralds steering rack

Triumph Vitesse front suspension

Triumph Spitfire modified radiator

Triumph discs

Vauxhall Victor rear lamps (early models)

Wolseley Hornet modified, cut in half, rear bumper for the +2

Images left to right – 1 Picasso Bull, 2 Elan collage, 3-7 Lotus Elan.

The Surrogate Twin