Weird automotive engineering solutions

[Leonidae]

Okay, this is how it goes: if you know some car that has peculiar or odd design feature ( a production car preferably ), post a picture and information about it, and your own opinion why it is odd, awkward or such.

I'll start with..

Ford RS200's drivetrain. You might wonder why I do think that it is so odd.. let me show you a picture.

See what has happened there?

From autozine.org

The car achieved a front-rear balance close to 50:50, thanks to a very special drivetrain layout developed by FF Developments, which was renowned for the 4WD Cooper F1 car and Jensen FF in the 1960s. Power from the engine was channeled forward to the 5-speed transmission, which was mounted near the front axle to improve balance, then transferred to a center differential which offered 3 choices of front-to-rear torque split – 37:63, 50:50 or pure rear drive – to suit different surfaces. The center differential divided the power to 2 paths, one sent to the front differential, another ran backward to the rear differential. All three differentials employed viscous coupling lock to anti-slip.

What were they thinking?! Although, similar solution is now applied into Nissan GT-R.. in a bit more intelligent guise, but same layout reversed.

 

[a112]

Renault 4 layout is epic.

Gearbox mounted in front of the engine,and also THIS

My father told me he once did bodywork on crashed renault 4 back in the 70's without knowing this fact,he made the right side identical as left and the car didn't drove straight.

 

[Wolfe]

@Leonidae: Well, the alternatives to that driveshaft/transmission layout are RWD or a really heavy tail. Considering the RS200 was already a deathmobile that helped end the series in which it raced, even with 50/50 weight balance and 4WD, adding Porsche 911 syndrome to the mix would probably not have been very pretty.

---------------------------

The military Hummer has a unique axle setup some people may not be aware of:

The differentials sit above the centers of the wheels, and power is transmitted via geared hubs that allow extra space beneath the vehicle, for improved obstacle clearance in offroading.

You can see the differentials are "missing" in this photo:

 

[Philly]

I had always thought that a sis stroke engine was pretty cool.

Basically, after the exhaust phase, air is let into the cylinder, and because the engine is hot, it expands, which basically makes for another power stroke. So you get an extra power stroke, and cooling the engine is easier because the extra stroke helps with cooling also. It's pretty cool, although still something that is a long ways off, if it ever happens.

 

[Duke]

GM had an odd-but-good design feature that someone there completely failed to understand, and later made into an odd-and-bad design feature.

In the '50s and '60s, each GM car came with 2 keys - a round one and a square(ish) one. The squarish one would unlock the doors and start the car. The round one would unlock the trunk and the glove compartment. This was so you could lock your valuables and luggage in the trunk and glovebox, then give the square one to a valet parker. He would be able to unlock the cabin and drive the car, but not open the trunk or glove box. Perfect.

Somewhere in the late '70s/early '80s, though, they lost the plot somehow. They began to make the square key only work the ignition, while the round one opened all the locks. So on a day-to-day basis, not only did you need both keys just to get in and drive, but there was no longer a way to secure the storage compartments when the car was valet parked.

No wonder they are bankrupt.

 

[YSSMAN]

Sticking with the GM thought for a moment, their clever engineers suck automatic light switches/sensors on pretty much all of their vehicles in the past 10 or more years. Its convenient, mainly because not only does it become a safety feature (lights on when necessary), but it also makes you not really have to worry about whether your lights are on or not.

As far as I know, GM is the only company doing it in the majority of their vehicles. I've never understood why this hasn't caught on.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I was also thinking about the longitudinal layout that VW has used in the Passat forever and ever, despite being FWD, but I've yet to figure out if that is a completely weird design choice or not.

 

[Barracuda]

I've said this before but plenty of older Plymouths including mine have reverse threads for the wheels on the driver's side. Nothing special or crazy, just an interesting fact.

In the '50s and '60s, each GM car came with 2 keys - a round one and a square(ish) one. The squarish one would unlock the doors and start the car. The round one would unlock the trunk and the glove compartment. This was so you could lock your valuables and luggage in the trunk and glovebox, then give the square one to a valet parker. He would be able to unlock the cabin and drive the car, but not open the trunk or glove box. Perfect.

My car has the same thing actually. A pentastar key for the door and ignition, and a round key for the trunk and glove box.

 

[Tornado]

Somewhere in the late '70s/early '80s, though, they lost the plot somehow. They began to make the square key only work the ignition, while the round one opened all the locks. So on a day-to-day basis, not only did you need both keys just to get in and drive, but there was no longer a way to secure the storage compartments when the car was valet parked.

My dad's '89 K1500 had this. Even more absurd because the round key only opened two things. He ended up swapping the locks with a new set when he swapped the transmission for a 700R4.

 

[Keef]

As far as I know, GM is the only company doing it in the majority of their vehicles. I've never understood why this hasn't caught on.

I don't want it to catch on. There's a reason about 80 percent of GM cars you've ever seen have a daytime running light out. They always go out.

 

[YSSMAN]

Didn't Honda try doing it in the '80s and early '90s? Seems like Ford did it for a while too...

 

[Keef]

Ford has automatic headlights but not daytime running lights. Running lights really are a pretty good idea, they just need to figure out how to keep the bulbs alive longer. And I can't recall any Honda with daytime running or automatic lights.

 

[a112]

I was also thinking about the longitudinal layout that VW has used in the Passat forever and ever, despite being FWD, but I've yet to figure out if that is a completely weird design choice or not.

I heard somewhere that Audi used that layout so the engine could dive under the chassis if crash occurs.

 

[Greycap]

In the '50s and '60s, each GM car came with 2 keys - a round one and a square(ish) one. The squarish one would unlock the doors and start the car. The round one would unlock the trunk and the glove compartment. This was so you could lock your valuables and luggage in the trunk and glovebox, then give the square one to a valet parker. He would be able to unlock the cabin and drive the car, but not open the trunk or glove box. Perfect.

One more into this category - my Volvo 240 - but with quite an epic fail this time. Sure, the idea itself is great and probably works perfectly on the sedans but it's somewhat humorous in this case seeing that my car is an estate and there's direct access to the back over the rear seat.

 

[Tornado]

The Passat used to be based on whatever A4 platform Audi didn't want to use anymore.

 

[Diego440]

The Passat used to be based on whatever A4 platform Audi didn't want to use anymore.

as is the new Seat Exeo

 

[High-Test]

I've always been a fan of the Mercedes-Benz monowiper. That thing is sweet.

What isn't sweet is that the lugnuts of a Mercedes are actually the studs themselves. When one changes a tire, it's a pain in the ass to hold the wheel up to a studless hub and try to get the bolt into its threads.

The Chevrolet Trailblazer was designed by monkeys suffering from parkinson's given pads of paper and a 128 color crayon box. Granted, it was a step up from the squirrels that designed the blazer it replaced.

It has a handbrake. WHY!? It's a truck. It needs a foot operated parking brake at most.

 

[ND4SPD]

I've always been a fan of the Mercedes-Benz monowiper. That thing is sweet.

What isn't sweet is that the lugnuts of a Mercedes are actually the studs themselves. When one changes a tire, it's a pain in the ass to hold the wheel up to a studless hub and try to get the bolt into its threads.

The Chevrolet Trailblazer was designed by monkeys suffering from parkinson's given pads of paper and a 128 color crayon box. Granted, it was a step up from the squirrels that designed the blazer it replaced.

It has a handbrake. WHY!? It's a truck. It needs a foot operated parking brake at most.

Bah the trailblazer gets a handbrake and my Interceptor gets a foot operated one....

 

[TVC]

Porsche 911. There is no other supercar in production with the same setup.

Some 993's have two windshield wipers close to the middle of the car. I don't really get the point.

911's have the ignition on the left but I know some other cars do also.

 

[Famine]

Considering the RS200 was already a deathmobile that helped end the series in which it raced, even with 50/50 weight balance and 4WD, adding Porsche 911 syndrome to the mix would probably not have been very pretty.

Whoah whoah whoah, hold up there a second...

The RS200 was generally acknowledged to be the least brown-trousered of the Group B cars to drive. The format as a whole killed the format - the cars were just too fast in a straight line, so that if anything at all went wrong in the braking area (as is typical of rallying), the crash was just that bit faster. And with 80s impact protection knowledge. The Group B cars were so amazingly disastrous to drive that the car arguably the best amongst them claimed the life of one of the best rally drivers who ever lived.


Let's not forget that, while today's rally cars are objectively faster over the same stages, a factory-prepped WRC car can just about match any supercar you can think of to 60mph (and then drop back quite markedly), a factory-prepped RS200 could easily beat a Bugatti Veyron to 150mph. On gravel*.

I had always thought that a six stroke engine was pretty cool.

Basically, after the exhaust phase, air is let into the cylinder, and because the engine is hot, it expands, which basically makes for another power stroke. So you get an extra power stroke, and cooling the engine is easier because the extra stroke helps with cooling also. It's pretty cool, although still something that is a long ways off, if it ever happens.

There is already a five-stroke engine, of course, in the shape of Mazda's 2.3 litre Miller Cycle engine - currently the only non-Otto-cycle petrol piston engine to reach a production vehicle (though Subaru have a concept car which is a Boxer 4 Miller cycle hybrid...).

*The RS200 is on gravel. Not the Veyron. That'd be stupid.

 

[Jim Prower]

GM had an odd-but-good design feature that someone there completely failed to understand, and later made into an odd-and-bad design feature.

In the '50s and '60s, each GM car came with 2 keys - a round one and a square(ish) one. The squarish one would unlock the doors and start the car. The round one would unlock the trunk and the glove compartment. This was so you could lock your valuables and luggage in the trunk and glovebox, then give the square one to a valet parker. He would be able to unlock the cabin and drive the car, but not open the trunk or glove box. Perfect.

Somewhere in the late '70s/early '80s, though, they lost the plot somehow. They began to make the square key only work the ignition, while the round one opened all the locks. So on a day-to-day basis, not only did you need both keys just to get in and drive, but there was no longer a way to secure the storage compartments when the car was valet parked.

No wonder they are bankrupt.

It's this way on my (Toyota-built) Nova (though ignition is cone-shaped and locks have an oval head.) Must've been part of the GM-ification that included four sealed-beams.

Also of note is that my gas door has a lock, too.

Another idiosyncracy on that car: the power steering pulley is inaccesssible with the engine in the car - it's behind the strut tower. with about a quarter inch of clearance.

 

[homeforsummer]

We can't have one of these threads without a mention of Citroen... so the best place to begin is with their Hydropneumatic suspension system, first seen in cars like the DS:

A simple explanation, from here:

On the Hydropneumatic system, four spheres, one on each wheel, are filled with nitrogen, which is a gas and therefore can be compressed, providing the "spring" action.

The spheres act as springs. The link between these springs, and the moving parts connected to the wheels is provided by a liquid, which cannot be compressed.

This allows for a liquid-operated shock absorber to form part of the unit.

As the car is loaded, the gas in the sphere is compressed, but a pump and a reservoir of hydraulic fluid compensate for any vertical displacement of the wheel, restoring normal ride height. Handling remains consistent, whether you drive alone or with a maximum payload.

The payload can be lowered to make loading or hitching on a trailer much easier by raising the suspension. Extra ground clearance can make it possible to cover rutted tracks and surfaces.

A driver-operated manual control makes it possible to vary the ground clearance of the car. This is useful when changing a wheel or driving over bumpy ground.

The system is common to all Citroën's hydraulic suspension models.

This solution also gave certain Citroens interesting talents - one was that if you gained a puncture, the car would remain perfectly level, compensating for the disabled wheel. The second was that when you got around to stopping to change your tyre, you could pump the system up and remove and refit the wheel without needing any jacks! The biggest talent of course is that the cars rode better than anything, ever, even on terrible roads.

The disadvantage of course is that it's a very clever, very complicated and very expensive technology being put together by the French working classes, for whom, let's be honest here - every day is a Friday afternoon before closing time. It's not the most reliable system in the world. It can also make rear-seat passengers feel a little ill as the car floats along (so says my mum, who's dad owned a number of Citroens with this system).

But it's very clever and was responsible for adding to the character of some fabulous cars, such as the DS:

 

[eiriksmil]

Didn't some have headlamps turning the same way as the steering as well? Like on some new cars, just a bit more mechanical?

It's this way on my (Toyota-built) Nova (though ignition is cone-shaped and locks have an oval head.) Must've been part of the GM-ification that included four sealed-beams.

Also of note is that my gas door has a lock, too.

Has nothing to do with GM, my KE70 does also, together with loads of other cars.. I don't really see the point, as I can open the gas door with a flat head screwdriver and I can probably pull out the boot lock with the same tool..
Oh, and even some KE70s had four sealed-beams in the US..

 

[homeforsummer]

Didn't some have headlamps turning the same way as the steering as well? Like on some new cars, just a bit more mechanical?

It did indeed:

It was also one of the very first cars to use crumple zones, it was the first production car with disc brakes (which were also mounted inboard to reduce unsprung weight), it had power steering, a "mid-front" engine layout" (a bit like the Renault 4 mentioned before) and a semi-automatic clutch.

Not really bad for a car released in 1955 really, was it?

Staggering, staggering car.

 

[Tornado]

Speaking of innovations, I'm quite astounded that no one mentioned the car that the swivel-headlight idea (probably wasn't in the slightest) taken from:

Assuming the Wikipedia page isn't rose-tinted, that car could have revolutionized everything.

 

[buickgnx88]

The early 60's Pontiac Tempest. Came with a flexible "rope" driveshaft and transmission mounted at the rear axle.

Like a speedometer cable, the 1961-63 Tempest's "rope" drive*shaft carried rotary motion through a long, gently curved bar beneath the floor. Thin, but lightly stressed within a steel case, it was mounted on bearings and permanently lubed. The driveshaft's slight sag allowed a lower transmission tunnel in front, though not in back; it also eliminated the need for U-joints and permitted softer engine mounts for better interior isolation.

 

[neanderthal]

Stuff... then

No wonder they are bankrupt.

A smarter idea is the valet key. My vintage BMW 2002 has one. One key opens all the locks in the car. The other, a slightly different shape, only operates the ignition and doors.

On my W124s turning off the ignition kills power to everything but the door (puddle) lights, trunk light, headlights. I noticed this when I had the glovebox open and its light turned off with the ignition.

Also on my W124s (Mercedes Benz 300E bodystyle BTW) the coolant is circulated through the bottle that holds the windshield washer fluid. So those in snowy climes can clear the windshield of snow quickly.
Seat controls on the door, not the side of the seat where those of us with big hands have no access if the door is closed.

 

[nobuffalo]

Knobs to adjust the recline of the seat instead of levers. I'm not sure if I would call that a solution though.

As far as GM's day time running lights or whatever they're called, they never caught on because they're stupid. I wouldn't really call the idea stupid, just the way they executed it. The fact that you can not turn the lights off without turning the car off is just ridiculous. If I'm wrong and you can turn them off just ignore me. Some info on DRLs

No wonder they are bankrupt.

+1

Now toyota, they figured it out. In some of their models, my camry does it, all you gotta do is just leave the lights in the on position and when you open the drivers door after shutting the car off, then the lights will turn off. Get back in the car and turn the key on and bam, lights are back on. At the same time if you don't want the lights on, for say stalking or sneaking in the drive way without waking the parents you just turn them off. Perhaps they weren't the first to do this, but it works.

My personal favorite engineering solution is the one in my Celica. The power windows are set on a timer, so when you turn the key off and even after you pull it out, you can still operate them for around 60 seconds.

 

[High-Test]

A smarter idea is the valet key. My vintage BMW 2002 has one. One key opens all the locks in the car. The other, a slightly different shape, only operates the ignition and doors.

On my W124s turning off the ignition kills power to everything but the door (puddle) lights, trunk light, headlights. I noticed this when I had the glovebox open and its light turned off with the ignition.

Also on my W124s (Mercedes Benz 300E bodystyle BTW) the coolant is circulated through the bottle that holds the windshield washer fluid. So those in snowy climes can clear the windshield of snow quickly.
Seat controls on the door, not the side of the seat where those of us with big hands have no access if the door is closed.

I never knew that about the coolant going through the wiper fluid reservoir.

Not to mention that that the window controls and mirror controls are inboard on the center console. Plus, the mirrors are asymmetrical. I like how on the M104 the oil filter is on the top. No burning your hands and getting "peed on" here. They made me a car with no glovebox or cupholders, but gave me three ashtrays. Crazy Germans..

I have to say the Citroen DS wins hands down. It was recently voted the most beautiful automobile in history by a panel of auto designers.

Mercedes-Benz copied the hydropneumatic self-levelling rear suspension for many of their cars, albeit without the rear lowering when the car is shut off.

I think it's clever how Koenigsegg solved the issue of what to do for the windshield wiper on the CC, leaving it straight up in the middle to not alter the airflow on either side of the car.

on driving lights: I've been driving a 2005 trailblazer for a month now, I could swear that I've turned off the driving lights by turning the knob all the way to the left and letting it click back. (124 among the living mid-may)

 

[Heldenzeit]

In the '50s and '60s, each GM car came with 2 keys - a round one and a square(ish) one.

My 92' Camaro had 4 keys, one for ignition, one for the doors, one for the t-tops, and one for the locker on the trunk.

 

[Eric.]

Sticking with the GM thought for a moment, their clever engineers suck automatic light switches/sensors on pretty much all of their vehicles in the past 10 or more years. Its convenient, mainly because not only does it become a safety feature (lights on when necessary), but it also makes you not really have to worry about whether your lights are on or not.

As far as I know, GM is the only company doing it in the majority of their vehicles. I've never understood why this hasn't caught on.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I was also thinking about the longitudinal layout that VW has used in the Passat forever and ever, despite being FWD, but I've yet to figure out if that is a completely weird design choice or not.

It was kind of annoying not being able to turn off my headlights when I had the Grand Am though. They should have had off, auto, and on positions for the headlights.

And I can't recall any Honda with daytime running or automatic lights.

*points at avatar*

The DRLs come on as soon as the parking brake comes off. Otherwise the lights are all manual, which at first I didn't like having to get used to, but now its second nature and I prefer it this way.

You know, I'm certain that all new Hondas have DRLs...