2-cycle Automobile 1

[SteveWag]

Does any one know of a car manufactured in the USSR in the 50's or maybe the 60's that was made without a transmission, or clutch? The engine stopped when the car stopped and when the accelerator was pushed forward the engine started in the forward direction and when pushed with the heel, started in reverse. I seem to remember this mut a web search turns nothing up.

 

[BrianPetersen]

No idea about that specific application (sounds terrible), but my friend's 2004 Bombardier snowmobile with the SDI (Semi Direct Injection) engine operates like this: The fuel injection and ignition systems are designed to reverse the engine at the touch of a button. It operates the tracks through the usual variable-pulley arrangement, although it's locked in maximum-reduction when operating in reverse (no, you can't do 100 mph backwards).

It's actually a very neat feature on an interesting, economical, and clean-burning engine. Presumably the elimination of a normal reverse gearbox offsets some of the extra cost of the fuel-injection and emission control systems.

 

[Zapster]

Sounds similar to a Harley golf cart

 

[swall]

There was the Trabant. Small two stroke powered car,plastic body, very common in East Germany. Can't attest to the type of transmission, however.

 

[ebola]

trabant had gearbox and clutch.It was also van made in east germany, with two stroke engine.But I know nothing about its transmission.I think it was never been such car as You say - without even clutch or variator.

 

[allblacks]

You could be thinking of a DAF variomatic. It had slipping rubber bands for a gearbox and went as fast froward as it did in reverse. This company was bought out by volvo, who kept this style of drive for a few years back in the seventies.

 

[BrianPetersen]

That would be in the Volvo 340, which was mechanically based on its DAF predecessors (and it continued into the mid 1980's), but this wasn't really "no" gearbox, it was a CVT that operates the same way as snowmobile CVT transmissions do nowadays. The Volvo 340 and its immediate DAF predecessors used 4-stroke engines, but I believe DAF started out with 2-strokes after WWII. I don't know if 2-stroke and belt-CVT ever existed in the same DAF vehicle.

 

[berkshire]

What about the Isetta. that thing was manufactured by BMW and several other companies in a bunch of different countries. It had a two stroke motor and you reversed it by switching the engine off and restarting it in reverse.
It may have had a centrifugal clutch.
B.E.

 

[romke]

i have not heard about the russian car you mention. however, some of the remarks made about other cars are not quite correct:

DAF started out with a small two cylinder four stroke aircooled engine, that was later replaced by a watercooled 4 cylinder four stroke engine made by renault. that engine was later used in the Volvo 340. DAF was never involved with two stroke engines.

Isetta was a small car with only one (front) door powered by a BMW motorcycle engine. There where more very small cars made in Germany at that time, the Heinkel car was one of them - it could seat two people like you can seat two people in a canoe..the engine was also a motorcycle engine. Both vehicles needed to be started again to be able to go backwards - the direction of the rotation of the engine could be simply reversed. Twostroke very small cars where actually quite common in Western Germany in the fifties and also some bigger cars where made with a two stroke engine (DKW, Tempo) and also two stroke diesels in trucks where common (Krupp).

The car you are looking for is problably a VAZ - as far as I know it had a small two cylinder engine and about the size of the later Fiat 126. Whether it had a transmission as you describe it, I don't know.

 

[pauljohn]

Friend of mine had something similar when I was back in the UK many years ago. It was called a Lada.
Terrible car, rattled all the time, 30 minutes to get to 50 (top speed), electrical stuff never worked. BUT it did take some awfull abuse.

 

[rmw]

I always thought the Isetta was Italian. Where did I get that? I remember seeing them as a lad. Cute little buggers. As I remember it (in the USA at least) the VW beetle did them in.

rmw

 

[GregLocock]

rmw - because Isetta is Italian!

They designed the first popular bubblecar, lots of other companies licensed or cloned them. It used a scooter engine. BMW licensed the design and chucked a much better engine in.

That's interesting, they were 4 wheelers. I thought they were 3 wheelers.

Much prefer the Meschersmitt!

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[rmw]

Yes and no. They had 3 wheel positions but the rear wheel position which was in the center of the vehicle had two wheels didn't it?

Now I can't remember everything from last week that I need to do this week, but I think I can remember what an Isetta looked like and I haven't seen one in almost 50 years. Isn't there a medical name for that that rhymes with alltimers?

rmw

 

[patprimmer]

Oldtimers disease, or CRAFT disease as in Can't "Remember A **** Thing"

Regards

eng-tips, by professional engineers for professional engineers
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[patprimmer]

But at least you can hide your own easter eggs

Regards

eng-tips, by professional engineers for professional engineers
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[romke]

Both the Messerschmidt and the BMW Isetta had a much larger trackwidth at the front then at the back, although they also both used two tyres at the back - spaced about somewhere around 50 - 75 cm apart. The Messerschmidt was derived from a kind of towtractor for manoevring aeroplanes used in the Messerschmidt factory during the second world war - when after the war they where no longer allowed to build figtherplanes they commercialised the towtractor to a "car", see

http://www.motoringpicturelibrary.com/docs/hi-mpl340001082c.jpg.

The BMW Iseeta looked somewhat different:

http://www.leblogauto.com/images/bmw_isetta.jpg.

It also seated two people, but then in a transverse arrangement.

 

[SomptingGuy]

These cars are all huge compared with the Peel P50. For those who missed the Top Gear footage, here's a link. I want one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN0LQJLabqA

- Steve

 

[gregservice]

The original post was probably referring to a "Veteranov/Invalidov" - a vehicle made for amputees and others disabled in the Great Patriotic War. One of the earliest and perhaps most famous was the Kievlyanin based on the Wander 98 seized as reparations and made by KMZ. Others were often made in small numbers by many different firms and it is conceivable that one was made as per the original description. The two cylinder VAZ "OKA" was also made by Serpukhov Avtozavod in modified forms for invalids. It had a five speed and reverse FWD arrangement.