How This Two-Wheeled Car Uses A Disk To Balance
The Lane Motor Museum is the home to some whacky cars. One of the craziest is the Gyro-X that balances on two wheels through the use of a gyroscope.
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#Cars #Vehicle #BusinessInsider
Following is a transcript of the video:
This is the Lane Motor Museum, home of the one and only Gyro-X. The Gyro-X is a two-wheeled prototype vehicle. Developed in the 1960s, it was proposed as a solution for the future of transportation. The car balances on two wheels through the use of a gyroscope under its hood. A gyroscope is a device consisting of a rapidly spinning wheel or disk mounted so that its axis can turn freely in all directions. As the axis turns the wheel remains stationary. Gyroscopes can be used for measuring and maintaining orientation.
Jeff Lane: So the car was developed in 1966 and 1967 by two very famous people, Tom Summers and Alex Tremulis.
Alex Tremulis was a car designer well known for his work as Ford’s styling director. Thomas Summers was a gyroscope expert who had integrated the technology into missile navigation systems during World War II.
Jeff Lane: They both lived in the LA area and they became kind of friends. And they were always interested in developing a gyroscopically balanced car. So in '66 and '67 they got about three quarters of a million dollars together from investors to develop this car.
The duo believed the Gyro-X could solve many of the issues presented by cars at the time.
Jeff Lane: The car would be safer because it would be more stable. It wouldn't skid. It wouldn't slide. The car would also be more aerodynamic than a typical car of that era. Also it would be half the width of a normal car at that time and so you could put twice as many cars on existing roads.
Unfortunately the Gyro-X was deemed unstable, a result of its complex engineering that was still years away from being perfected. Tremulis and Summers’ company Gyro Transport Systems would go bankrupt around 1970 before the vehicle ever reached production.
Jeff Lane: So the way the gyro works is it's hydraulically driven off of the motor. So the motor sits right behind the front seat traversely. It's a mini-motor. There's a hydraulic pump that's on the engine. Then there is a hydraulic pump inside the sphere of the gyro. So when the motor runs it produces hydraulic pressure that spins the gyro up. It's a 17-inch flywheel. It weighs about 230 pounds. It spins inside of this sphere.
When Jeff acquired the car, it was a shell of its former self. It was even missing its gyroscope, so a third wheel had been added to balance it out.
Jeff Lane: We bought the car in 2011. A lot of the car was changed or just literally gone. So the car really needed a lot of work to be restored to what it was in 1967. It took six years. We knew from the beginning the most challenging part of doing the restoration would be building a gyro. We finally found a company from Italy that builds gyroscopes to stabilize large yachts from rocking when they're on the ocean. I would say we've gotten it to work as well as it ever did. So we've decided we're not going to drive it on public roads and we're not going to drive it over 30 mph because we've figured out that to make the car go highway speeds you have to redesign the whole car. And because this is such a historic car we don't want to destroy it and make it a car that it's not. We're trying to keep it close to what it was originally in 1967.
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How This Two-Wheeled Car Uses A Disk To Balance
Motorcycle: Am i a joke to you?
I was thinking the same.
Wheelchairs: am I a joke to you?
@@iyunganam3885 wheelchairs have 4 wheels though
@@andrew_gaming6349 Shit, I forgot
@@iyunganam3885 i just imagined a 2 wheeled wheelchair i am dying of laughter
Next on GrandTour: JEREMY CLARKSON FLIPS A GYRO-X
tokekkk oh my god
when the Clarkson's old show did the Ecocycle, he was passenger only, probably for that exact reason.
and his little friend crashes it into a wall and gets hurt...what was that little guys name, sparky i think
Jeremy was too bored rolling reliant, he now rolls this instead
1:01 😂
Speed bump has joined the chat
Why do you think that a speed bump would do anything to its stability?
its gonna lose its stablility
@@verdevanvederan7204 Nah, did you see them pushing on the side of the car while the gyro spun? It might wobble over the bump but should keep on rollin
@@nickmotsarsky4382 it would bottom out
@@nickmotsarsky4382 Mostly in the form of damaged suspension/bottoming out. A typical gyroscope stabilizes not only side-to-side movement, but also forward/rear and general inertial movement.
Now the police won't know that your drunk because it's soo wobbly. *just blame it on the car*
I know that proper grammar is tough, but "you're".
G-Gyroscopic f-failure oc-occifer- off-officccer !
Nick Motsarsky lol I’m Spanish and probably I have got an English worse than yours or somebody else but I never, NEVER used your when referring to you are.
@@AlejandroS-mh5gmThat sentence makes my brain hurt "I have got an English" don't type English if u can't use it correctly.
WW2 Hitler's financial advisor: We're mining way too many useless ores! Hitler: So mine less. Grammar Nazi storms in Grammar Nazi: MINE FEWER! Hitler: Yes?
Business Insider: *"How this two wheeled-car uses a disk to balance"* Rowan Atkinson: *"Hold my beer"*
@KoivuTheHab I bet the chicks love you when you do that!
@KoivuTheHab that explains it
@KoivuTheHab Na all good I meant it in a good way =)
When ur corvette gets crushed on two sides
That's exactly what it looks like too.
This looks like something from Fallout.
So does your ideology.
Sneg Mann you don’t know how to use that term stop using it
Because Ancap isn't an ideology? You must be eating it by the spoonful.
@@thelonewanderer420 Ancap is an ideology, and according to Mr. Sneg Mann you apparently have the ability to consume it using a spoon.
Brandon Velde yeah I know what ancap is just I don’t t know how it applies here
I've thought about this before. The main problem to me with 2 and 3 wheeled cars is not the instability but the fact that wheels in the middle either means that your car has to be really high or be longer to avoid taking space from the inside of the car.
Goofy aah car 💀
The 1960s seemed more futuristic than the now
I was there It was...
They had hope for the future
They were certainly more ambitious and open to new ideas. Sadly we are now living in an era where the predominate emotion is fear. New ideas are suspect.
In fact they were.
1:00 that Package tho
*Insert lol here*
kzhead.info/sun/oLByiNx_qWicjI0/bejne.html
Damn
🤣🤣😂😂
stop
A Two wheel mode of transportation why does that sound familiar
Bikes?
Helicopters ?
Wheel chairs
mono wheel
Submarines
How does a car look futuristic and vintage at the same time
It looks like a 1950's design of the future. Like the sci-fi from back then. Stuff looks vintage and futuristic. Kinda like star trek
Acerbic Geoff yeah, great explanation
it's retro-futurism baybe
If the car was accepted and used till now, it would be another Mr. Bean's enemy beside that blue three-wheeled car
reliant robin is the name (model) of the 3 wheeler
@@Ryansanders80 Sorry, not Robin but Reliant Regal Van
😒 You incorrectly explained the gyroscope used in the vehicle. If the gyroscope is allowed to move along any axis it wouldn't keep the car upright. The gyro has to be fixed in place in order to transfer its gyroscopic energy to the frame of the vehicle to hold it upright.
That's what I thought too, but it turns out they don't fix it like a wheel. If you do, then the counter-torque acts about the vertical axis. This will help stabilise the car but it's not the best way to do it. What they actually do is allow the gyroscope to move in three directions like in the video, except that the outer ring is fixed like a wheel (and spins in the same direction as the wheels). This makes the counter-torque a lot stronger and restricts it to the same direction as the car's tipping direction. This video gives a better explanation: kzhead.info/sun/frJ9oNd6o6qLfJE/bejne.html
It is mounted in a single horizontal gimbal with its axis at right angles to the forward direction of the car and rotates in the direction of the car.
You forgot to explain *how* the disk helped the car to balance. A diagram showing how the gyro is mounted inside the car would have helped a lot. If the gyroscope is mounted as the diagram at 0:33 suggests, it would not help the car balance at all, because the gyroscope is free to move in all directions, independent of the car.
My thoughts too
Exactly!
Get a $2 gyroscope toy from your local toy store and play with one - it will all make sense👏
The problem is that the word "gyroscope" isn't exactly accurate here. It's more of a reaction wheel.
Mr. Bean about to smash that car aswell
The blue three wheelled car?
Mohammed Voneza W I think the car owner painted it to disguise himself. But the mighty Mr. Bean will not be fooled 😂
@@tapsu7269 Poor guy, he even had to sacrifie one of his Wheel 🤣
The sixties were a wild time. I'm in 2018 but this vehicle still looks futuristic... 6 decades later!
They were doing something in addition to the flywheel to help eliminate the wobble. The stock footage shows very stable cornering was achieved somehow. Really interesting idea. I'm wondering what a crash test involving that flywheel would have looked like..
If it's built well, the flywheel would be just as secure and behave like engines mounted in most cars.
A message to the people in the video: Great to see you preserve a piece of history as close to original as possible. However, don't let the dream die by preserving what's left; rather build on top of what's left and take it a step further. Make it a complete car - just how it was intended to be.
A few new vehicles use the same technology and are more complete. with both gyroscopic and electronic control
it would be fairly useless for it can only transport one person, seems not to have any kind of trunk and probably need more fuel than a motorcycle... the idea is interesting nonetheless
@@tobbleboii5988 Most people drive to work and back alone. So aside from family trips or grocery store runs, it would do fine.
@@tobbleboii5988 I think that most cars on the road in any city at a given time have only 1 person in them. That's the train of thought. They could definitely add in a shotgun passenger seat behind the driver seat. More fuel than a bike, less fuel than a car. You're completely enclosed in case of rain, etc. Sure they never got it to balance right but imagine how hard that must have been in the 60s when computers were the size of a house.
@@0xsergy youre right, i did not think of the rain cover advantage...
1960s: 59 years later and we will have the best technology in the world 2019: Let’s make wireless earbuds and electrical trash cans
1960 + 66 = 2026 ???
@@ijulesy changed
팬케이팝 2013 Mac pro?
@@nap8187 They were planning to release a 2019 Mac Pro, so again I changed it to 59 years later, which should be 2019.
We do have the best technology today. 3D printers and so on, allow us to cheaply and quickly produce and prototype parts. Thus allowing anyone to repair old technology and new! So now someone can have an easier time replicating this car and improving it for freeway speeds.
I want to see someone drift with that thing
Ken Block wants to know your location
*roll
Æ86 likes
Eurobeat intensifies
*_DE JA-_* **deafening sound of scraping metal*
One minor point: the engine is not a "mini-motor". It is a Mini motor, from a BMC Mini-Cooper - a 1275cc transverse straight four, with the transmission in the oil pan.
I remember reading about the Gyro-X back in the 60’s. I always wondered what happened to it. Now I know. Thank you, Mr. Lane.
Lane Motor Museum is in Nashville TN; Murfreesboro Road. It’s a really cool museum.
Forget the reliant robin
Nobergall Nokernak wasn't that a three wheeler?
@@serbianspaceforce6873 It was
1967:We will have flying cars in 2018 2018: MEMES
“I can’t make it to work today, my gyroscope broke down in my car”
the headlight looks like its from a '60's corvette and the taillights are from a corvair!
It's actually designed in the '60's... -_-
Add this car to Forza Horizon 4, please.
Yeeessss
I wonder how it would perform in GRID.
@@user2C47 asphalt 9 lol
I was just gonna ask when this was coming to fh4
imagine trying to drift that thing
I wanna see this thing do a really sharp turn and use those safety wheels
You need two counter rotating gyros to make this truly stable. Look up gyro trains for how it could be done. With just one gyro, it would have stability problems when turning in one direction.
The weight of the gyro completely defeats the purpose of not having a third wheel
I think you are right. 500 pounds of extra weight, presumably 30% of curb weight, increases rolling resistance by an equal amount. two skinny motorcycle wheels in the back 3 ft apart should be plenty for stability, could even make a leaning suspension for better cornering.
No, because another purpose for gyro is to reduce friction, 4 wheels produce more friction with the road than 2. Look this new concept: kzhead.info/sun/eciBn5Rpr4uKiok/bejne.html
have to assume much of the engine hp goes to run the hydraulics to run the gyro.
part you the purpose of the car was how skinny it was. with the 2 wheels added outside of the body it becomes at least 2 to 3 feet wider.
@@AngelLestat2 But you are losing engine power to run the Gyro
I'll bet these two phrases never occurred to anyone at the same time upon seeing this vehicle: "straight as an arrow" and "handles like a boat".
this is sooo cool, I wonder if anyone is going to make something like that now, there was one electric but I think it failed
Eco-cycle, but they don't have Gyros...still available but based on inline 4 BMW bike engine that is no longer in production. Do love the (what appear to be) Corvair tail lights.
3:10 So this car is using a pizza as gyroscope?
pizza dough
Well it's spherical... More like a ball of gelato or a giotto then :)
Great job ...learned a new thing today
very impressive restoration!! Most restorationas are about finding certain "normal " parts like pistons, head leghts etc...BUT A GYROSCOPE ...in which automotive store or yunkyard will you find that????
God damn talk about bulge at 1:01 Seems like he’s balancing with his own 3rd leg.
holy jesus christ haha, good eye
Why... Why did you notice that and then make me look? Just Why? Lmao
gahdamn youre not kidding...
Somebody made a modern version of this... It's called Lit Motors
Jade Xion I was looking for this in the comments!
Except they didn’t. Make it, that is. They *drew* it. They’ve never made so much as a working prototype. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lit_Motors
Thank you
I've always been fascinated by gyroscopes and to see it like this is bizarre
such an amazing engineering application. perhaps monotracer could apply gyro
This was made in the 60s, I bet they thought we would have far surpassed them technology wise by now.
Mechanically, we definitely haven't😂
They thought we would have flying cars by now...
Dude, you just wrote that on the internet, after watching a movie on a tv that fits in your pocket.
@@Munkenba Ofcourse what we are using is a pocket computer, pocket theatre, pocket TV...But like the first reply to this Comment, we didn't advance mechanically...Communication, Entertainment and Computation industry advanced highly, but mechanical advancement and aerodynamic advancement didn't grew at that pace....
@@dannybenhur6123 i guess you're just going to ignore the many satellites above you're head, the electric vehicles going as far and fast as the conventional, and the mega structures and giant vehicles used to shape the earth and build them the car is pretty cool ngl (but id worry about the gyroscope lifespan) i'd rather have a motorcycle though, that doesn't have lead in its fuel
Alex Termulis also helped Preston Thomas Tucker make the 48 Tucker Sedan.
I have thinked like a normal car in winter time and its cold you drive to work and when you stop the heater starts in your car without electricity but its powered with gyroscope or something like spinning wheel with weights?
They were really thinking outside the box on this one. It's a really ingenious design long before Segway, hover board scooters, and drones for there wasn't the high speed computer circuitry then for real time stability. It's perfected so much so now that a one wheel car would actually dependably work just like those one wheel scooters.
Actually drones are older than this. We’ve had some form of controlled vehicle for many decades granted they weren’t as sophisticated as the ones with cameras but the technology and knowledge was there. www.iwm.org.uk/history/a-brief-history-of-drones
When factor in things like RC planes, electric or battery powered model trains, or RC boats we’ve had some of drone for quite a long time.
It looks amazing
Well done lads
1:01 he packing some meat
Im surprised they didnt use an electric motor for the gyro instead of hydraulics. Easier design and the motor itself becomes part of the spinning weight.
Didn't the guy at 0:40 also create the Oasis?
It's actually got training wheels! Like stabilisers on a small child's first bicycle!
Brennon's gyrocar, Gyro-X and Lit Motors C-1. They always failed to catch on. I'm not sure why that is.
amazing work.
I think this would be interesting to work on and see if I could expand on this and make the car more efficient. I do have experience working with gyroscopes and 10 years of hydraulic systems for Submarines. I have never seen these cars before.....EDIT: looking the vehicle up it might have to be a custom build.
Hey, I see those two support rods(or struts) coming out the sides of the midsection of this car. These look like safety rods in case this car tips over, and it looks like roll-over city. These rods don't even retract. So many safety issues here. If the gyro is not revved up full, the car will roll over during a sharp turn. Ever been to the Nethercutt Museum of Classic Automobiles here in CA
That is so cool what a fantastic idea, Lit motors are still struggling to get theirs working by the looks of things.
A gyrocar Replika with the AMG 2 l Turbo and 400 hp. Would it be faster than a Kawasaki h2r ?
My grandma needs this lol
this car seems to need more G force holding it in place it bobbles to long..reciprocating its motion i think it needs a heavier larger gyro to snap it back in place better.
Brilliant.
I think of Gyro-X Race that would be awesome
“Right behind the front seat” Right behind THE seat!
are you drunk? "I SWEAR ITS THE CAR!!!"
Am i the only one that thought of that blue 3 wheeled car in Mr bean when i saw this video ?
Ah, the Reliant Robin
I want one.
Two doors to chose for leaving when police approaches. Looks perfect to me.
Two very famous people and I haven't heard for them neither for the car but a cool concept.
Alex Tremulis was very well known in the car world as an innovative designer, he may have drawn the first flying saucer during WW2, he definitely designed the Tucker car and did a lot of advanced design work for Ford in the fifties and sixties, among other things.
I believe you've got the mechanics of the gyroscopic balance wrong. The gyro is not gimbaled, it's more of a reaction wheel. If it were on a gimbal, the gyro would remain in place while the vehicle fell over.
Lit Motors modern day reincarnation
Can we get Doug Demuro one of these??
Congrats. You discovered the gyroscope.
could you use the gyro to start the engine?
well, who designed it and when explains why I immediately thought of the avanti
Kind of reminds me of the later Ecomobile that came out in the early 90s.
Right out of the 60's
What company in Italy produces the gyros, please?
I wanna bring this back damn it...
I wonder what will happen if it hits a pot hole
@crackrocks75 seams legit
Reliant Robin: Look! I only have three wheels! Gyro X: Hold my beer.
A video from the Lane Motor Museum does not seem complete without Jason Drives.
1:51 now imagine car sharing with the guy from accounts you have spoken to twice
It looks so fun to drive
What is the boxy yellow vehicle behind him in the garage, that says "Summers Gyrocar Co. / Van Nuys, Calif."? I can't find it on their website. ( www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars )
If they are worried about destroying it why don't they build a new one?
Stupid hippies.
@@KandiKlover They're talking about that individual car, not making another one. Nobody mentioned making a reproduction, they might be doing that too.
@@KandiKlover . Is that what you say about anybody who has different ideas?
This is technically a bicycle with a steering wheel and a comfy seat
I still love cars on 4 wheels they look more better in that and can perform drifts much better
Not a bad idea though I think the third wheel addition makes it a better. Definitely not a bad idea for individuals in the city or towns where it’s crowded. It would certainly save on parking space. Though it has no room hauling groceries or cargo.
1960:Everything we do is the Future 2018:I don't think so
Look at my Gyro-Car ! MAMMA MIA ! But seriously, the car is AMAZING !!
LMM is here in Nashville and I would tell anyone to go. At time = 3:11, check out that beast in the background. You've got to see it in person to believe it.
So put a pedal driven gyroscope on a bicycle, and you can pretty much stand still upright, while sitting on the cycle. :) for example a spinning disc inside each wheel, should do it.
Wasn’t aware of any other Gyrocar apart from the wolseley gyrocar of I think 1914
Good hot rod base
I can already see Jeremy Clarkson rolling that thing.
they need 2 angular gryos slanted that can point toward or away from eachother?
They just need the one.
Awesome 👏
Cool car!
Got a car ad for this video 🚗
Congrats.
Looks like a plane without wings...but cool