How it's made: Panel Beating

One element of the automotive world sometimes not discussed is how cars were made. We've all heard the story of Henry Ford and his assembly line, but that just explains how the parts were all put together, not how the parts were actually fabricated. I'd like to focus specifically on how automobile bodies were made.

In traditional automobile construction, cars were basically built in a similar fashion to carriage, they had a frame with an exterior mounted to it. Like carriage, the bodies of most early automobiles had a wooden skeleton (mounted onto a steel frame) and had metal sheets wrapped around the wood. Mass produced cars were usually made of stamped, steel parts, much like cars are today. But custom bodied cars required a further step.

Because it was too costly to create stamping molds for low output vehicles, companies would instead build wooden bucks that appeared as the skeletal form of the car-to-be and then skilled craftsmen would beat metal panels across the bucks until they took the form of the bucks. This process of panel beating was often done with aluminum metal, since it was easier to work with than steel (and you probably thought Audi had hit on a new idea when it made it's A8 luxury car out of aluminum).

Companies used this metal banging technique for many decades. After coachbuilding died out in the US after WWII, the Europeans continued using wooden bucks for metal shaping well into the 1980's. In fact, most Ferrari's were made over wooden bucks, all the way up to the Ferrari 365 GT4 BB Berlineta of the late 1970's and early 1980's. Today, few designers still use bucks, but some specialized metal crafters, especially motorcycle fabrications, use the age old techniques to create unique bikes.

Images are of a 1929 Auburn 8-100 Cabin Speedster replica from the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, IN.

Alternative Fuel: Hybrids (Part V of V)

I have talked about the fact that hybrids aren't new in the past and cited Rauch and Lang as an example of a vintage hybrid. In reality, the Rauch and Lang was a minor hybrid, really only featuring a magnetic motor system in place of a clutch, rather than a completely separate electrical engine system. Of course, there are even older cars that are really true hybrids featuring separate gas and electric engines designed to work in tandem.

One example is a the Woods Motor Vehicle Company from my hometown of Chicago, IL. Originally a company devoted solely to electric cars, in 1915 Woods debuted the Dual-Power, one of the first true hybrids. Just like a modern hybrid, the Dual Power had a gasoline motor abetted by a battery powered motor. Also like a modern hybrid, the two motors could work alone, or in tandem, and both motors drove the same set of drive wheels. Of especially high note is the fact that the Woods, like a new Toyota Prius, used regenerative braking, the process of using the magnetic resistance of an electric generator to help slow a car down while producing power at the same time.

The Woods Dual Power was a short lived car, only lasting three years, but it represents a true milestone in the development of more fuel efficient cars. While it was very simple by today's standards, it is important to remember that when the Woods was built, there were no computers at all, everything was controlled mechanically.

This concludes my little five part piece of alternative fuels. I hope you all learned a little something and have once again recognized that, while it may seem like it is new, it probably isn't!

Alternative Fuel: Turbines (Part IV of V)

So far, I have covered a few alternative fuels or engine types that are relatively well known (save for coal powered engine) or common power sources for cars. The turbine, however, has never been a mainstream power unit for cars, but that has not stopped people from trying. The turbines I am talking about, however, are not trust producing turbines, but rather turbines that primarily produce rotational power through a shaft drive. In either case, the basic principles by which the engine operates still categorize it under the umbrella of gas turbines.

Turbines are unique in that they are very efficient, have no reciprocating parts (unlike your run-of-the-mill piston engines), can produce lots of torque, and can be made to operate on just about anything that burns with very little adjustment. In the 1950's and 1960's, Chrysler and GM both experimented with turbine powered cars. GM produced a series concept cars known as 'Firebirds' that featured futuristic styling largely rooted in jet aircraft design that it displayed at its Motorama Shows across the country. Chrysler took the turbine concept one step further and actually produced a series of 55 Chrysler Turbine Cars that were lent to the public in a special trial program from 1963-64.

Chrysler's turbine program allowed people to apply for a tenure with one of the Turbine Cars. Applicants were chosen based on their location (and the exposure that location would provide) and various other qualities would expose the cars to people of all sorts. Each family would get the car for a few months and was expected to drive the cars under all sorts of conditions, from long trips to stop and go traffic. They could literally run on anything that burned, and they were tested on all sorts of fuels. People poured everything from vegetable oil to Chanel No. 5 in the tank, and the cars still ran fine.

All the cars were painted bronze and looked exactly alike, covered in sheetmetal produced by Italian coachbuilder Ghia. In total, 203 families got a chance to enjoy one of the 55 cars. The program was eventually ended due to problems with emissions from the turbines. Although they ran very efficiently, they produced high amounts of NOx pollutants. In addition, the US government wanted to collect import duty on the Italian made bodies, and Chrysler opted to crush all by 9 cars rather than pay the tax. Today, 4 of the 9 cars still run and are scattered across the country.

There have been a few recent attempts to bring turbines back to road use, most notably by a company called Marine Turbine Technologies (MTT) that produced a turbine powered motorcycle, which is known as the world's most expensive bike (it costs $150,000). The major roadblocks to turbine use is the fact that turbine run very hot (exhaust gas can be well over 500 degrees Fahrenheit) and are best suited for operation at constant speeds, not the up and down variation required for stop and go traffic. Turbines are once again being considered, however, for use in hybrids. In essence, the turbine in that application would act solely as an electric generator and would only have two speeds, full speed and off, motive power for the vehicle would be provided by the electric engine.

Only time will tell if turbines will come back, but it is still notable that they were used so successfully on the road in the past. For an amazing account of one families experience with a turbine car, as well as a fantastic collection of historical documents and information, check out this site.