0:00

Go behind the wheel and under the hood on everything

0:02

automotive with high speed stuff from

0:04

how stuff Works dot com.

0:12

Okay, everybody, welcome back.

0:15

This is our podcast. As you know

0:17

by note, my name is Ben. I write some

0:19

videos for the website how stuff works dot

0:21

com and I'm Scott. I'm the auto

0:23

editor here at hout stuff works dot com.

0:26

Scott Scott, Scott Scotty b. Yeah,

0:28

how are you doing. I'm doing fantastic. Yeah,

0:30

you went to you came to work in the car today.

0:33

Yeah, I did you know. I know

0:35

where you're going to. But I gotta I gotta

0:37

totally interrupt you for something that you didn't even

0:39

know is coming up. What do you I'm interrupting your

0:42

your smooth segue for something that you

0:44

had no idea what was coming. What's coming up? Well, there's

0:46

there's something interesting that I found my notes that I've got

0:48

to I got just Kanye West of Men. I

0:50

know I brought it. I brought up right in the middle of nowhere

0:52

there. But here's the thing we talked

0:55

a little bit is back about the lunar rover. Yes,

0:57

okay, I've been feeling guilty about this ever since because

1:00

after I went back to my desk and sat down. I realized

1:03

that the lunar rover was a suggestion from

1:05

a listener. Yeah, we didn't

1:07

call that out, um, and I forgot

1:09

that it was. Um,

1:12

there's a there's a credit that we need to give to a

1:14

listener. His name is Maurice from

1:16

Avon, Connecticut, and Maurice had

1:18

suggested the lunar rover and we forgot to mention

1:20

that during the podcast. So I'll

1:23

just leave it at that. But sorry about that, Maurice.

1:26

And you know it was unintentional. But I'm glad

1:28

I found it in my notes because I keep my notes forever. And

1:30

we both really enjoyed that episode. Yeah, it was a

1:32

lot of fun. And see, Scott, you give yourself a hard

1:34

time about those notes, but look

1:36

at that they pay off. They save. Now

1:38

I'm gonna let you start up again where you said? Is

1:41

that? Okay? Sorry,

1:43

I command

1:45

you to start up again. Ben, the the

1:48

things you said, Hey

1:50

Scott, you came to car. I came working a carter again,

1:53

kidding with it. Okay, let's do it again. Hey

1:56

Scott, you cann car to words alright,

2:00

strange vehicles?

2:02

I certainly did you did? Yeah, I did that's

2:06

right, normal, normal, But we're gonna talk about

2:08

strange cars. Yes, strange vehicles

2:11

and strange vehicles. You know, that's a good

2:13

point because some of these aren't really cars.

2:16

We've we are soon to have an article

2:18

on the site, which may already be there, I'm not sure, but

2:21

we have a kind of a top five countdown

2:23

of strange vehicles. We can go through that list

2:25

quickly. But then this is kind of the interesting

2:28

thing about these is that you know, he's got

2:30

this, this freelance writer that wrote this article

2:32

for us UM has a great

2:34

list. Sure, but I have my

2:37

own list of strange vehicles. I'm sure you have

2:39

your own list strange vehicles. I'm sure that

2:41

every single listener has their own list of strange

2:43

vehicles. There's a million of them out there,

2:45

and it depends on what you think is strange. So,

2:48

um, you may think that, you know, the new Ford

2:50

Taurus is strange. I think kind

2:53

of weird. Okay, but you know what I'm saying,

2:55

Like, you may think many vans are strange. Um,

2:58

but we're talking about you know, cars that look like

3:00

fish and stuff like that. Yeah, some

3:02

really really strange cars. So you

3:04

want to just go down this list real quickly here with the article

3:07

the article list, and then and then we'll get onto our own personal

3:09

favorites, so

3:12

the the way that this author ranked

3:14

them. We'll go from five down to one

3:17

and again its vehicles. Number

3:19

five came in. This

3:21

is one of my pet peeves flying

3:23

cars, THEA

3:26

Fugia Transition. I don't know if this tide

3:29

has turned Mr Benjamin Heafujia

3:31

Transition. Yes, which is actually

3:34

the probably one of the only serious

3:36

competitors for a flying car. It honestly

3:38

is a working flying car. It

3:41

really is a good idea. No, but

3:43

you'll say, what what? Alright,

3:46

Just just recap for anyone who hasn't listened.

3:49

I was just climbing up on top of my soapbox

3:51

back, Okay, No, no, I you know at

3:53

that time, I Kanye you fantastic.

3:55

No, No, please continue on because you

3:57

know my feelings. Okay, just

4:00

to break it down and and stop me if I

4:02

if I misspeak. Um.

4:05

Originally, when Scott and I covered flying cars,

4:07

as you we call Scott, we had a slight

4:10

difference of opinion. I

4:12

think flying cars are awesome, while

4:14

you may agree with me in theory. You think they're

4:16

a terrible idea and practicality,

4:19

right, because if everybody has one,

4:22

you know, we're adding another dimension for rex

4:24

to occur. Correct, How do what do we do

4:26

if a car breaks down in the air?

4:28

Correct? And I think that's a legitimate

4:30

concern, which is why I did amend

4:32

my position. And I said that flying cars are

4:34

awesome if I'm the only one who has one. We

4:37

agree on that. We agree on that. Yes, so

4:40

number five, flying car, it's

4:43

really cool. It's really cool.

4:46

Alright, Number four, I'll put you down for not so

4:48

cool. Alright, Number four. This is a crazy

4:50

one. This one you got to see a photo of because this one's

4:52

nuts. The cupcake car. You ever heard of the cupcake

4:54

car? No, I haven't. This is this is an interesting

4:56

car. It was. It costs

4:58

twenty five dollars and

5:00

the car looks like a giant cupcake. And

5:02

the crazy thing is you can get well, okay,

5:05

not that that's not crazy enough if you're cupcake.

5:08

It was sold by Neiman Marcus. So

5:10

Neiman Marcus has these and these are electric powered,

5:13

uh cupcake cars. They're they're they've got

5:15

a twenty four volts electric motor. Um

5:17

you can get customized. However, you like to look however you

5:19

want. And we've got a photo on our on our

5:21

website on the on the page for this article.

5:24

Um, and the drivers are all wearing hats that

5:26

match the cupcakes. It's

5:28

absolutely ridiculous. These are ridiculous

5:31

looking cars. They're they're hilarious to look at, though,

5:33

but the cupcake cars are very funny, so like with

5:35

sprinkles on them, the exactly

5:38

exactly and they've got you know whatever

5:40

kind of you know, icing design on top of them.

5:43

They're electric funny stuff. There's that they

5:45

are electric. Yeah, but man,

5:48

yeah, they look extremely top heavy. To check

5:51

it out. Check out the photo. You'll be you'll be impressed,

5:55

obviously. The

5:57

next one, number three

6:00

on our list was catmobiles.

6:03

What's a cat bobile? Now we've heard of the batmobile, right,

6:05

this is catmobiles? And really

6:07

what brings this one about? The Bernie Man

6:10

uh festival? Oh those guys are

6:12

artistic jeus. Yeah, that's right. These

6:14

these cars, these cars that show up

6:16

for Bernie Man Festival, Bernie

6:18

Man event, whatever you call it. Outrageous.

6:21

These are outrageous cars and they're really cool. There's

6:24

a whole site dedicated to the vehicles of Bernie

6:26

Man. This author chose the catmobiles

6:28

to be the stranges because there's some really bizarre

6:30

catmobiles out there. Um,

6:34

interesting, interesting cars. I mean, I've got a picture of one

6:36

of the vehicles here. It looks like a motorcycle

6:39

that looks like a fish the upper

6:41

corner. But that's that's the one from our our site.

6:43

Actually, um, interesting

6:45

cars. You need to go online and check out some of

6:47

the Bernie Man cars. But catmobiles are really

6:50

kind of strange. Yeah. They've also got that

6:52

one that looks like a spider. That's like my favorite.

6:55

Yeah, I've seen that This truck looks like a scorpion.

6:57

They're so heavily modified. Yeah,

7:00

alright, I'm sorry. Well yeah, it's like land speeders

7:02

and all kinds of cool stuff, fish, sharks,

7:05

whatever. There's a pyramid, now here's

7:08

a here's a water car, water car or

7:10

a water car called the Python, which

7:12

you know, I've got a photo of that one too to share with you, Ben

7:14

here, so you know, if you're playing along at home, you

7:16

can look on the water car site and look up

7:18

the Python and um, yeah, there's

7:21

a photo of it on our website on the article again and

7:23

really it's it's kind of a hot ride design. Um.

7:26

The back end to me looks a little bit like a corvette,

7:28

looks a little bit like a truck. Just because of the shape

7:31

of the body. It kind of reminds me of, well,

7:34

yeah, just because the back half

7:36

it does look like a corvette. But then it also

7:39

kind of calls to the pick up nature. The

7:41

cool thing about this is it's got a corvette engine

7:44

and on on the highway, this

7:46

thing can go dred and twenty five miles per hour

7:49

on the On the water, it can

7:51

do um, sixty miles per hour, which

7:53

is really quite fast in the water. I

7:55

mean, that's that's pretty quick. This

7:57

is a cool car. This is a neat a neat thing because

8:00

we've seen these in the past where you know, it's a uh

8:03

trying to fake of the names of the vehicles. Was that Henry

8:06

J. Maybe, Um, there was a water car

8:08

that um, you know the nineteen fifties designed

8:10

that real, real small, very

8:12

tiny motor, little nylon prop.

8:15

Uh. This is nothing like this. Um

8:18

that was slow on on water, on water

8:20

and on land. This is fast either

8:22

either way. It's

8:23

at It definitely

8:25

does yeah, and it's it's got the performance to

8:28

you know, to back it up, I guess the design. So

8:30

the water car Python comes in at number two

8:32

on this list. Are we ready for the drum role?

8:34

We are go ahead number

8:37

one the Dodge Tomahawk and

8:40

the Tomahawk. And we said it's not cars, it's

8:42

vehicles. So this is a motorcycle and

8:44

this is the crazy Dodge

8:46

Tomahawk chopper or not chopper, I shouldn't

8:48

say, but it's a motorcycle. It's got the

8:50

V ten viper engine for

8:53

power, so it's gotta it's

8:55

got a five horsepower engine. Um.

8:58

They did produce this, I mean, and

9:00

they've made about I think it's about a dozen

9:02

or ten or something like that. They've made very limited

9:04

numbers of these, and really they're just simply

9:07

conversation pieces. You can't drive them on the road.

9:10

They're not street legal. No, Harley

9:13

Davidson, that Scott I think at this thing.

9:16

Yeah, it's amazing. If you've never seen the Dodge

9:18

Tomahawk, take a look at it. But I bet

9:20

most of you have because it's just it's so out

9:22

there. The design is crazy. Um, it's got

9:24

four wheels actually, even though it's a motorcycle.

9:27

Um to to each

9:29

in a parallel Yeah, exactly. And they've got you know,

9:31

special special tires that won't just disintegrate

9:33

its speed. But they've

9:36

they've determined and no one has ever been able

9:38

to take this thing up to full top speed

9:40

before. But it's

9:42

got a potential top speed of get this, four

9:45

miles per hour. You can't, it's not

9:48

physically possible to hang onto the thing at that speed

9:51

speed exactly, no one, no one has ever tested

9:53

this thing to that speed before. You just can't.

9:56

You can't have a rider doing that. So, um,

9:59

that's it. I mean that the replica is the one that

10:01

they've been sold. They've also sold somewhere

10:03

north of five dollars um

10:05

to you know, private individuals here

10:08

and there, and just

10:10

kind of an interesting thing to look at. So but

10:12

again, you can't write it on the street. I would be even

10:15

if I had a track at my house or you know,

10:17

on some private lands, I would be

10:19

hesitant that. Well, I wouldn't

10:22

want it to roll over on my leg, That's what I wouldn't,

10:24

ye Because when you look at this, it looks

10:26

it's it's enormous. I mean you're sitting completely

10:28

behind the engine, stretched out over top of

10:30

it, um, and two thirds of it

10:33

is engined exactly exactly

10:35

and turning from what I hear, you're

10:38

not gonna turn on this thing quick at

10:40

all, um, if at all, I think it's

10:42

pretty much a straight line motorcycle and that's

10:44

about it. Just put a suit of armor on and go. That's

10:47

the great idea. But I I'm I'm

10:49

sure it's designed well and everything, but I don't

10:51

know if I would trust this one really. Yeah, that it

10:53

does definitely qualify as a strange vehicle, but definitely.

10:56

I mean it's a car manufacturer making car

10:58

and truck manufacturer make motorcycle

11:01

to begin with, which is strange. But then

11:03

again one it's nat street legal, really has

11:05

no practical purpose. My

11:07

friend, I agree with that article, but

11:10

I think they I think we've

11:12

got a little bit stranger to go, right,

11:14

Yeah, sure that slight mangally at

11:17

English. That's fine with me. You gotta got

11:19

a direction here, yeah, Um,

11:21

all of our all of our things in this episode

11:24

so far are motorized, and we can stick

11:26

with that. But I've got I've got a couple that I

11:28

think we're wild. Um. First, I want to tell

11:30

you about the mclinging V. Eight mono wheel.

11:34

Okay, Uh, did I did snipe one

11:36

of yours? You know what. We'll talk about

11:38

it later, but yes you did. Okay,

11:41

maybe just the kind of thing, but the

11:43

mono wheel. It's so funny because

11:46

anybody's familiar with G. I. Joe's

11:48

or action figures may recall this

11:50

design is one of the few things

11:52

that have actually sort of made

11:54

it into toys before

11:56

they made it into cars. And so this

11:59

thing is picture one gigantic

12:01

wheel like the almost the size

12:03

of Victorian bicycles

12:06

on the front, the front Victorian bicycle, huge

12:08

wheels. Right, the engine and

12:10

the driver sit inside

12:12

the wheel. And uh

12:14

for the McLean V eight it's

12:17

uh powered by V

12:19

eight engine. Um.

12:21

It's been clocked at fifty three miles an hour.

12:24

Although a hundred miles powers theoretically

12:27

possible, it's probably not gonna happen. And

12:29

that's because I don't

12:31

want to spoil a surprise for anybody who

12:33

just bought one. But your monowheel is

12:35

notoriously tough to control.

12:38

Yeah. Have you seen the wreck footage of this thing?

12:40

I have not. Yeah. This guy,

12:42

um, his name is Carrie.

12:45

Uh yeah, Carrie the clean yea he

12:47

built. He built this Va Buick engine

12:50

powered mono wheel or they call it a monocycle.

12:52

And you can actually find a video if you search on YouTube,

12:55

you can find a video that's called McLean

12:58

that's mc ELI a n V

13:01

eight monocycle crash, and

13:03

if you search for that, you'll find a video that's about four

13:05

minutes long. If you want to just get

13:07

through now, it's like a family fund day. They stay out

13:09

in some park where he's testing this thing, right, and

13:12

he's not driving this thing around. He does have a helmet on,

13:14

but it's just one of those like the cap

13:16

type helmets. It's not a full

13:18

face shield exactly.

13:21

Those are just above the ears. Um. But he's

13:23

out riding this thing and he's doing a good job,

13:25

you know, all through the park there

13:27

and people are taping him. It's pretty fun. Um.

13:30

He does a high kind of a high speed pass and

13:33

about the three minute mark, somewhere near

13:35

there, he has a horrific wipeout

13:38

and this thing goes end over end and he's

13:40

tumbling. Of course, the engine is right there, you

13:42

know, right in front of him. It's it's

13:44

bad news. He survives, of course, I mean he's

13:46

he's fine, just you know, minor cuts and bruises.

13:49

Um. And he actually turns

13:51

out he kind of reworked

13:53

the design a little bit to prevent something like that from

13:55

happening again. So he's still at it. Um,

13:58

he's still working on this thing. You know, he still believe is

14:00

in it. I've actually seen this, this vehicle displayed

14:02

in the window and it's road legal. Yeah

14:05

yeah you can. Yeah

14:07

you can, well,

14:10

probably not in the parking deck because

14:12

you know it's kind of low. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

14:14

It's really tall, this thing. Yeah, Um,

14:16

and it looks very difficult

14:18

to ride because you you turn it by leaning, and

14:21

not only that, just to see you have to lean out to one

14:23

side, and I would think that would throw the balance off. Maybe

14:26

you kind of put your midsection in the other

14:28

direction. Maybe. Yeah, there's a there's a

14:31

really critical weight balancing happening.

14:33

It gets weirder than that though, And most

14:36

of these, most of these, just to put it in perspective,

14:38

most of these designs, because there are other designs

14:40

of this. Some are human powered,

14:42

you can pedal them. Others are

14:45

powered by like maybe a small gas engine like you

14:47

find on a lawnmower. And this guy put

14:49

a buick V eight in his and that's why,

14:52

that's why maybe this one is capable of such an

14:54

incredible speed. Yeah, because he was he was

14:56

probably building it. He had the design down

14:58

and he said, you know what, I'm not gonna stop at

15:00

eight and a half yard.

15:02

That's right. And

15:04

they did say that these things are also susceptible

15:06

to gerbiling. Have you ever heard of this?

15:08

No, And you'll understand

15:11

it when I said, it's funny, it sounds It

15:13

sounds funny when I say it, But you're you're

15:15

susceptible. Your risk of gerbiling is

15:17

what it says. Yea, when gerbils

15:20

are running in the wheel and they get it going a little too fast,

15:22

they tend to spin right over top

15:25

with the with the wheel, and that's exactly what

15:27

happens. You can you can do a full three sixty

15:29

inside this thing. Um, And that's that's

15:31

terribly dangerous. If you've got you know, your power planet

15:33

in front of you, you just you've you've overcome

15:35

the force that keeps you, the gravity that keeps at the

15:37

bottom of the wheel. Um. It's

15:40

it's pretty dangerous design. But like

15:42

I said, this Carrie McLean's working on it and he's

15:44

getting it. He's getting it together. That's so

15:47

cool, it's so impressive. I have,

15:49

uh a couple from Honda. Okay,

15:52

or wait, I have one from Honda. All right. Uh

15:55

it's called the Honda u X three. Have

15:57

you heard about this? I'm not. It

15:59

is base sicklearly a unicycle.

16:04

Remember I told you earlier I was gonna try to look

16:06

for unicycle to motorized unicycle

16:09

kind of. Uh. You sit on it and you

16:11

put your hands down like you're sitting on a stool

16:13

and you're holding the stool that you're sitting on, and

16:16

has two foot rest um

16:18

and so it has an omnidirectional

16:20

driving wheel system. Uh. The

16:23

the place where I found the information said

16:25

the one drawback was the UX three makes

16:27

the driver look like an idiot. Um

16:29

because you're sitting on this stool. And it's experimental

16:32

right now. But Honda, you know, Honda has

16:35

uh their fingers in a lot of pies. They really

16:37

want to figure out the next direction of

16:40

of transportation. I don't know if it will

16:42

be this one wheel stool, but I

16:45

have a guess. Yeah. But

16:47

uh, this also it can move forwards

16:49

backwards as a lot of the advantages that

16:52

we see in UM two will vehicles

16:54

like the Segue or something. And so

16:56

the idea is that developing

16:59

it this way makes it pedestrian

17:02

transport and keeps you on the eye level

17:04

with other people walking, so it's easier

17:06

to communicate with people instead of

17:08

looking down on them from a segway,

17:11

which is funny to me because every time I

17:13

see someone segue, you know, I'm not at least

17:16

bit into the day. Now now

17:18

now you Oh, it also

17:21

only weighs twenty two pounds.

17:22

That's that's

17:25

good, very good. All right, I got you mentioned

17:27

the Segway. I've got a segway vehicle

17:29

that that I think needs have nominated here UM,

17:32

the Segway Puma. If you do remember that

17:34

from last spring. I've heard

17:36

of this, but I'm not familiar. This is the

17:38

personal Urban Mobility accessibility

17:41

prototype vehicle that GM and

17:44

UM Segue came out with, and they

17:46

I think it was on the Today Show or something like that,

17:48

you know, in the morning, they had these driving around

17:51

downtown New York. UM it was in

17:53

April two tho nine when they developed this, and

17:56

it's a two passenger electric

17:59

city. It's like a little it's almost like

18:01

a segue that you sit down on it, okay,

18:03

that you sit on top of the wheels facing

18:06

forward, side by side. Yeah,

18:08

it's very small, very small. It's just like you're in a little

18:10

cage. But it is a two wheel bouncing vehicle for

18:13

just like the Segway operating wheels, two wheels.

18:15

You bounced on two wheels. It's electric, of course,

18:18

side by side seating with you know, seatbelts in a

18:20

small windshield. UM has

18:23

a thirty five top speed and about

18:25

a thirty five mile range. So this is the ideal

18:28

UM or the idea behind this is for

18:30

city transportation. UM. You can

18:32

get to and from places within the city, and it's

18:35

you know, parking. I don't even know if you would park

18:37

it really, if you just kind of drag it over the

18:39

curb, I don't, I don't know what you do. It's very

18:41

small. UM. Kind of an

18:43

interesting mix though, between GM and segue.

18:45

I thought no one really expected something like this. This

18:48

was kind of out of the blue, and I

18:50

like seeing this kind of stuff because it shows us, you

18:52

know, I would I would gladly sit through

18:55

ten very weird, non

18:57

feasible design ideas waiting

18:59

for that next one. I really like to hear about

19:01

the sure elements of those ten that make

19:03

it into production. I had seen

19:06

another one that's actually one of my nominees, the Toyota

19:08

I reel I real I

19:11

real us spelled I little

19:13

I dash capital r E

19:15

A l UM. It's sort of

19:17

a it's pitched as a

19:20

personal mobility vehicle and

19:22

it has two driving modes. There's one

19:25

where you're upright, where you're kind of sitting

19:27

in it like an Exos Shelton or something, as

19:29

another where you're laid back, which is to go

19:31

faster. And so this thing it

19:33

has three wheels and they'll sort of

19:36

pivot up to raise you

19:38

up. Um and then which

19:41

not to be weird about it, but it reminded

19:43

me a lot of the scene and the silence

19:46

lambs Hannibal elector tilts

19:48

him up in the straight jacket.

19:52

Yeah, just from the way the person tilts up and

19:54

then, Uh, it's kind of it's kind of

19:56

neat. I actually think it could really be.

19:59

Um. It really has a lot of potential for people

20:01

who are disabled in some way. Okay, let

20:03

me ask you this, how far down is that thing

20:06

lay when you're laying down for the speed

20:08

setting how far? How far? Best? Not prone,

20:10

it's not okay because this is getting

20:12

closer to my ideal vehicle. The

20:16

size, which is slightly

20:19

slightly larger than my own body, is like

20:21

how big? About how big I would

20:23

like my car to be? Yeah,

20:25

you're powerful, it's really Yeah. You

20:28

basically want a speed Yeah, like

20:30

a motorcycle, only more compact. The

20:33

what's funny is I I don't have a lot of info

20:35

in this next one, but they

20:37

Toyota also has this other one that

20:40

is called the eye Foot, which

20:42

is a two footed vehicle. It

20:44

walks, You sit in it and it walks. Okay,

20:46

that's kind of crazy. Yeah, that's it. That's

20:49

yeah. I've got one more, but I'm saving it for the

20:51

end. All right, Well, I got a couple here that I'll just quickly mention.

20:53

Now. One one that I remembered from a

20:56

podcast past was the

20:58

snow Cruiser. Snow Cruiser that

21:01

was an odd vehicle on the on the skis

21:03

with the with the turbine behind.

21:05

This is it had wheels.

21:07

This is the one with the We talked about

21:09

a bunch of them. You're talking, I know which one you're talking about. The high

21:11

speed vehicle, the Trimran type

21:14

thing. Um, this is the one that made

21:17

the journey north and never came

21:19

back. But when it could be still,

21:21

there could be on the bottom of the ocean. We don't know.

21:24

Interesting vehicle. The one that had the well

21:26

in the artist rendition, had the plane on the back

21:29

that was so unstoppable, vehicle

21:31

that was stopped. You should never name

21:33

a vehicle unstoppable. I think

21:35

history has just proven setting yourself up for

21:38

trouble, like the unsinkable ship unstoppable,

21:40

unsinkable. That's right, right, what's

21:42

the uh, let's say you got the snow

21:44

cruiser t Rex, which

21:47

is a three wheel motorcycle car um

21:50

made in Canada, Um Campagna.

21:53

I think it's an air CAMPAIGNA. I'm not sure

21:55

how to pronounce the name of the company that makes it, but um

21:57

it's been described as like two Third's

22:00

motorcycle one third car. I would love that

22:02

thing. By the way, I love three wheel

22:04

cars, and I think you're right. I mean I think that those

22:06

those designs are great. Um.

22:08

Um. There's a lot of three wheel cars even now

22:11

that that manufacturers are making UM

22:13

that that never quite see the lighter day.

22:15

Um. I believe I want to say Pougeau

22:17

made one recently that had really

22:19

cool, cool design. But there's a lot

22:21

of historic three wheel cars as well that we've

22:23

talked about in the past and great design.

22:26

But the t Rex is a motorcycle UM

22:29

powered vehicle that it's got a fiberglass

22:31

body, two passengers, UM

22:34

and zero to sixty times about four point one second,

22:36

So it's a performance vehicle as

22:38

well. And UM, I don't know, I think

22:40

it'd be a blast to drive one of those. I think we should,

22:42

uh, we should talk to our bosses. See if the

22:45

powers that deal let us get one of the budget. You

22:47

always say that we never get any of

22:49

that stuff. We don't know unless

22:52

I did. I did steal a new stapler

22:54

though from the supply room. Oh no, edit

22:57

that part out. Yeah, I didn't know, just they

22:59

steal. I'm I'm borrowing it. Yeah,

23:01

I liberated it. Um let's

23:03

see, there's next on my list here? What

23:07

is going to be the monowheel. That's

23:10

a little awkward. Anyways,

23:12

that was good. That was good, and I'm good. You know, we came up with

23:14

those independently too, so I'm you know we

23:16

didn't. No, we didn't,

23:18

which is good. So that was that was cool

23:21

that you know you had the same idea as I did.

23:23

Um, I guess, but that wasn't my number one pick.

23:26

My number one pick the

23:28

Tango T six. You know about

23:30

the Tango. The Tango is

23:32

that crazy little electric car that looks

23:34

like a deck of cards standing

23:37

up on end. It's super narrow,

23:39

really tall. Um looks like it's going

23:42

to tip over. Um. It's if

23:44

you've never seen a photo of the Tango T six, look

23:46

it up online, check it out. It's

23:49

it's it's uh. It's

23:51

weighted so that it won't tip over. It's

23:53

not. It's not not that it won't ever, It's just that it's

23:56

not really you know, very very

23:58

probable that it will. It's got it's

24:00

an electric power car. It's

24:02

a tandem seating vehicle, so that you know, the driver sits

24:05

in front of the passenger directly

24:07

behind them. And again it's a really odd

24:09

looking vehicle. But this thing is a

24:12

flat out performance car. You would

24:14

you never guess it by looking at It looks like just a

24:16

city commuter, looks like a really crazy

24:18

design, but it has um. It's

24:20

thirty nine inches wide. That will give you an idea of how

24:23

wide this thing is um

24:25

and it has a carbon fiber body. Told

24:28

you it seats to it's an electric car, has

24:30

one it's real world drive only, so it's

24:32

two wheel drive. Has one thousand

24:35

foot pounds of torque in those two wheels.

24:38

So that's an incredible amount of torque for this thing.

24:40

This is this supercar level of torque.

24:43

This is like like Bugatti Veron

24:45

amounts of torque um in this little

24:47

tiny Tango T six hundred.

24:50

It costs eighty five thous dollars

24:52

for this car. Now, the the way

24:54

it's it's weighted, you know, you're gonna say, it looks

24:56

like it's gonna flip over in the wind. The

24:58

battery pack is low, low in the

25:00

frame, so that um, you know, it's

25:03

it's waited so that it's very stable kind of counterbalance

25:05

exactly. It's very very stable, believe

25:08

it or not looking at it. And I've seen the price

25:10

go much higher than this. There's a performance

25:12

version of this that I swear I've seen this, you know, above

25:14

a hundred thousand dollars. UM. I thought

25:17

five was kind of the you know, the beginning

25:19

point for this, but maybe I'm wrong. Um

25:22

again, top speed of a hundred and fifty miles

25:24

per hour zero to sixty and four seconds,

25:26

which is, you know, like I said, supercar

25:28

performance out of this it's an eighty five

25:30

thousand not a car, so be an expensive toy,

25:33

but it just goes to show you that, you know, you don't need

25:36

thousand horsepower and you know, a

25:38

huge V sixteen engine to do that. Man,

25:40

as soon as I win that car host lottery,

25:42

that is, you name the car, if you want it,

25:45

I will go to the table. People. It's

25:47

tempting. I don't know if that's my choice, though that's my

25:50

top strange choice. I just want you to

25:52

think about it. I appreciate that, Okay, so

25:54

we'll come back a couple episodes talking about that.

25:56

Scott, I want to give you my number one. It's

25:58

a little I thought maybe I thought you had the Model

26:00

Wheels your number one? No, no,

26:03

okay, what's my number one?

26:05

Which I saved is by a important

26:08

to pardon me to any Japanese speakers,

26:10

I'm gonna butcher this company named

26:12

Saka Kibara Kakai. I've

26:16

not even a try to spell it. You know there's a lot

26:18

of caves in there. Okay, Sorry, that was funny.

26:20

But I don't know why that was funny, but it was funny because

26:22

probably the quizzical expression is to try to pronounce

26:24

it. They made something called the land

26:27

Walker, and this is my favorite strange vehicle

26:29

at the land Walker. The land Walker

26:31

Empire strikes back almost

26:34

almost similar idea, the land Walker

26:36

exoskeleton. What that

26:39

that would slarized? I didn't cheat pop

26:43

speed one mile per hour. One

26:47

mile per hour, stands over three ms

26:49

in height ways uh

26:51

like pounds, and

26:55

it can't walk on anything but a completely

26:57

smooth surface. It's got a two hundred

27:00

fifty cc engine. Um,

27:02

it's got food foot pedals controlling it,

27:04

um, and it's you know, obviously

27:06

it's mainly used to uh

27:09

promote different products, and it

27:11

does have weaponry right now it

27:13

only fires soft plastic balls. But

27:15

but you can you can get it. I'm sure. I'm

27:18

sure. Once I get this, I can modify. Is

27:20

a ridiculous vehicle. You're right, it's

27:22

right, but you know what, it's only it's

27:24

only a like oh

27:27

my gosh, what four foot pedals

27:29

to operate? You know? Can I tell you something? Yes?

27:32

Of all, I don't even know if you'd call this a superpower

27:35

of all of the the you know, if you

27:37

want to fly, you want to do whatever. I

27:40

would love to have an extra skeleton, dude.

27:42

That's like the coolest thing. Yeah. I think maybe

27:44

there's flaws to it, though, I know, if you crack that

27:46

sucker, you know, that's what you're done. You're

27:48

done. But I think to be able to just

27:51

kind of bail off the top of the building whenever you

27:53

want to and then just get up or just kind of walk

27:55

around it will, you know, bumping into things super

27:57

strange. I'm prone to accidents

27:59

and that this might help me quite a bit. But

28:02

exo skeleton. Anybody mentions exo skeleton,

28:05

my ears perk up. But I was. I was astounded

28:07

when you said that. I knew you would like that. Man.

28:09

I say that now, of course, there

28:11

are some design flaws there. We're we're

28:13

sort of we're not into the heyday of exo

28:16

skeletons yet, but you were already kind

28:18

of talking about it when you were talking about the motorcycle.

28:21

So I think, I think, if we can get

28:23

this thing to go a little bit faster than one

28:25

mile an hour, wagh, a little bit less

28:27

than two thousand pounds um,

28:30

maybe cost a little bit less. Uh

28:33

that you know, we might be well in a way, it takes

28:35

an awful lot of refinement for what

28:37

you're talking about. Right, yeah, but look how

28:39

look how fast we went from pong

28:42

to the PlayStation three? Right,

28:45

I mean that's such an unfair comparison.

28:47

Yeah, that's right, but that's the strangest

28:50

being all right, good. I think we had a pretty good list there,

28:52

we I mean, combined with the article our two

28:54

lists, I know that listeners have got their own strange

28:57

vehicle lists, and we'll probably get a ton of those, which

28:59

is good like that. Love that. So you

29:01

know, if you think of any other vehicles

29:03

that you know you may want to include in your your

29:05

list, to send them into us UM

29:08

and I can always email us, you can,

29:11

I don't know. I'm just contact the same way we can. We've

29:13

got a blog that you can send in

29:15

information to. Why I'm only screaming

29:18

up we no, no, no no, We've got the I was waiting

29:20

for you to see if you mentioned a blog. You guys, Scott's

29:22

blog has so much stuff on it

29:24

of about all kinds of vehicles that you would

29:27

ordinarily see. Thanks for saving me. Then I

29:29

was talking to myself back in the corner. I'm usually

29:31

want to just read the the email at

29:33

the end of the end of Dove me high

29:36

Speed Stuff at how stuff works dot com. That's the

29:38

one.

29:41

For more on this and thousands of other topics

29:43

is how stuff works dot com. Let

29:45

us know what you think, send an email to podcast

29:48

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29:51

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