Better head turner than a 928!

[Plexus928]

THE 1910 Brooke Swan Car was the brainchild of a wealthy British engineer, Robert Nicholl "Scotty" Matthewson, who lived at Swan Park, Calcutta, then the capital of British India. In 1909, Matthewson travelled to England to commission a truly eccentric motor car from the Brooke company of Lowestoft, Suffolk. Its wooden body was apparently built by Savage of Kings Lynn, Britain's most famous maker of steam-powered fairground rides. The swan's head and body, carved to create the effect of feathers, concealed the radiator and bonnet.




Matthewson's car arrived in Calcutta in April 1910. It had amber eyes that glowed eerily in the dark, a multi-note Gabriel exhaust horn with a keyboard in the rear of the car so that Scotty could play chords and bugle calls, and a hot water spray in the swan's beak that enabled the chauffeur to clear a passage through Calcutta's crowded streets.

It was in the fashionable Maidan Park, where Calcutta's elite promenaded in their carriages and cars every afternoon, that Scotty displayed the Swan Car's most outrageous feature. A dump valve inside the car dropped splats of whitewash on to the road from the Swan's rear end - just to make it more lifelike

I really like the idea of being able to blast slow pedestrians with boiling water
And it craps on the road as well!

[JK McDonald]

Hey Plexus928, The aerodynamics of the Swan-mobile was probably not at issue in the design. Speaking of a head turner, a few years ago there were actually bets being made within the automotive engineering community that the aerodynamics prior to the availability of super computers were so crude that many cars were equally inefficient at speed in either direction. Even after all the water tank, wind tunnel and exotic calculations had been made, in many cases it was actually a gut instinct that was considered the final authority. Last year I read an article in Popular Mechanics (Reverse Engineering) that used an operational 1984 928S in a bi-directional test case. It was dismembered and the upper body mounted in reverse to it’s running chassis. A real world evaluation was made by comparing an identical 928 to the mongrelized 928 (total weight, front/back ballast. ground clearance, tires, etc....). The final result indicated the drag coefficient of the original orientation was considered slightly more aerodynamic when the vehicles were kept under 100 mph.

Looks versus aerodynamics have come a long way in automotive design. The worst thing that could happen in the Swan-mobile is a few feathers floating around in the cab....

Michael

[Plexus928]

I had an E Type years ago, looked like it was doing 100mph when parked,years after production finished they put one through all the modern tests, apparently they had the drag co-efficient of a house brick.
That Swan car looks like it would fly though!
Steam powered bugle calls from the back seat- nobody would have thought to do that today.

[kennner]

They did a piece with a 928 on Myth Busters. Funny and sad at the same time.

[JK McDonald]

Hey Plexus928, Talk about a head turner - that new Corvette looks absolutely awesome. I’d love to see the 928 that would pop out of the latest engineering software available today. What’s nice is that even though the 928 is a bit dated, it is still a real “Head Turner” because of it’s distinctive Porsche pedigree.

The majority of the cost that goes into a new vehicle is related to the battle to overcome physics. Vehicle weight/material cost, crash safety, engine size/6 speed auto, frontal area, body contours, engine cooling, passenger environment, lighting/safety, tire width, ground clearance/parking lot damage, etc...are simply universal issues. Theoretically, an optimum point will be reached where every car will look virtually identical as the manufacturers try to eek out the last morsel of efficiency. Top of the line exotics (Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, etc..) even take into account where the exhausted air exits the passenger compartment because it could grow into a drag pocket at speed and affect stability. During a discussion with a Corvette owner about where the 928 interior air leaves the cab - I told him with a straight face, the exhaust pipe......

What‘s great about owning a 928 is that it still turns heads every time you take her out.

Michael

[Plexus928]

That's the problem, when all cars are designed by computers, they will all come out looking the same.
A guy I work with bought an Audi V8 R5 all wheel drive, Magnificent performance, but at about 50 yards (or when the sun goes down) it just looks like a Toyota.

[JhwShark]

Keep the CLASSIC sports cars rollin'!