Tech & Biz

Last Remaining Dymaxion Car To Be Restored

by Annina Bergman | September 23, 2009 at 01:05 pm

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Three copies of R. Buckmeister Fuller's Dymaxion car were manufactured in the 1930's before production came to an end - and out of these, two have disappeared. The only surviving Dymaxion car is now going to be restored.

Synchronofile, an independent source of all things Bucky, has announced that British company Chrostwite and Gardiner is restoring the one surviving Dymaxion car. The Dymaxion car was a aluminum-bodied vehicle with three wheels. It was shaped like a tear drop to minimize air resistance, andweighed around 500kg (1000lbs). 11 passengers fit into the vehicle, which at best reached speeds of 90mph (140km/h). Due to it's lone back wheel, the car could do a U-turn around its own axis, but was not easy to steer.

Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller (1895-1983) was an inventor, mathematician, author, environmentalist and architect, whose perhaps most famous legacy lies in popularising the geodesic dome.

In his 1988 book The Age of Heretics, author Art Kleiner maintained that the real reason why Chrysler refused to produce the car was because bankers had threatened to recall their loans, feeling that the car would destroy sales for vehicles already in the distribution channels and second-hand cars.

Dymaxion Car #1 was involved in a fatal accident, restored, and later accidentally destroyed in a fire. Dymaxion Car #3 was was bought and sold many times (including being bought and sold by Fuller) and disappeared in the 1950s. It may have been sold as scrap during the US-Korean war. Two of the three Dymaxion Cars are lost forever.

The word Dymaxion is a brand name that Buckminster Fuller used for several of his inventions. It is a portmanteau of the words "dynamic maximum tension"; however it has also been reported that the name is a combination of the words dynamic, maximum, and ion, per the National Automobile Museum.

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Jacob Myers (not verified)

at 22:06 on September 23rd, 2009

I've been waiting to see this headline for years! The Dymaxion Car was truly revolutionary. I believe that if we'd built them back then, we wouldn't be in nearly the mess that we are now (with oil "shortages" and embargoes and wars and such). The past eighty years have truly been a shameful chapter in Earth's history (with a scant few exceptions to the rule). Study history!!!