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Detroit, 3:05 PM
Mon Nov 30
21 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/25/09
09/25/09
Have you ever driven a 1930's vehicle? They were all horrible handling. Have you ever driven a rear-steer? It takes some getting used to.
The car that crashed was a prototype with a canvas roof and no serious body structure. The driver died.
Car #2 and #3 were runners that amassed a a huge amount of miles, touring the country and appearing at shows for years.
Perhaps they should have canceled and ended Le Mans in 1955 because 80+ people died?
Anyway, what the hell do you care if some fans of Buckminster Fuller want to make a runner out of his plans?
09/25/09
The Dymaxion was the result of an arrogant non-engineer dreaming up a bunch of so-called "improvements" to the automobile without any investigation into how many of them had already been conceived of and abandoned by other individuals who actually had experience designing cars — all of whom he was much too egotistical to actually converse with, anyway.
He was an arrogant prick who claimed to have revolutionary answers to everything, in any field. He was the Oprah of his day.
09/25/09
09/25/09
@Tanshanomi: I won't deny that he was an arrogant prick. He was an architect. Most of them are. But he got people to listen. He was a patent student, and he gave credit where due.
He didn't invent the Geodesic Dome either. He announced publicly and proudly that he had taken the design from Walther Bauersfeld. The Zeiss I Planetarium was around for 25 years before Bucky did anything at all with it.
He specifically stated that he based the Dymaxion Car on several existing aircraft. He also specifically stated that he didn't claim to have invented tensegrity.
Buckminster Fuller was an Architect. A shameless self-promoter, fine. He worked on dynamic maximum tension and tensegrity to see if he could design THINGS that would do the world good. At least he tried to do something good. Maybe in the end, at most, the end result was that he influenced a lot of people. He influenced thought. He influenced design. He influenced Norman Foster and Steve Baer.
His work can be seen as an influence on the Hearst Building and the Swiss Re Building among others.
He wasn't an "engineer". Engineers aren't designers... they take designs and make them work structurally. We'd all live in square fucking boxes if you gave the rule of design over to Engineers. "Well it makes the most sense", right?
Fine, his products aren't as common as toilet paper... but do you know who invented that?
Oprah is a genius of marketing and self-promotion. A worthless human being otherwise. Shame on you for bringing her into this conversation. Now I have to wash my hands and go have a vomit. Just the thought of her makes me sick.
09/25/09
09/25/09
Who knows. Hauling that thing around might be just the thing to make an old cargo plane feel new again.
09/25/09
09/25/09
This is Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Airflow in 1933. It was developed as a prototype for Chrysler Motor Co.
09/25/09
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09/25/09
"The term was invented for Fuller approximately 1928 by Waldo Warren, an advertising expert who had become well-known previously by inventing the word "radio" for what people used to call "the wireless" at the time. A brand name was needed for the display of Fuller's first architectural model, later to be known as the Dymaxion house.
In order to invent a word, Warren spent two days listening to Fuller and trying to get a feel for the type of language he used. He then played randomly with syllables from typical Fuller words, until the word "Dymaxion" was born."
09/25/09
09/25/09
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09/25/09
09/25/09
Buckytubes.
09/25/09
09/25/09
09/25/09
09/25/09
@Number_Six: Not completly his own ideas, but who has? (Rumpler Tropfenauto)
09/25/09
09/25/09
[jalopnik.com]
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09/25/09
07/02/09
The Dymaxion, however? By any measure, it sucked weasel fur.
Furthermore, the fact that Fuller steadfastly refused to address the design's faults, clinging instead to his original design "advancements" even after they were proven not to work makes him look somewhat less than rational. Oh, he also spent an entire year talking to no one but his infant daughter.
So, yea -- nutcase.
07/02/09
If I ever build a weird, futuristic car it will be the Climaxion and will have beds for 11.
07/02/09
07/02/09
07/02/09
07/02/09
07/02/09
Do you like cars? Do you like art? Do you like car art?
Well, we don't really have any of that, but- hey- wait, where are you going?
Sir?
Sir?
We have stuff by guys who did some car art and design.
No- we don't have any car stuff right now, but hey
Sir- where are you going?