How This Two-Wheeled Car Uses A Disk To Balance

The Lane Motor Museum is the home to some whacky cars. One of the craziest is the Gyro-X that balances on two wheels through the use of a gyroscope.

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Following is a transcript of the video:

This is the Lane Motor Museum, home of the one and only Gyro-X. The Gyro-X is a two-wheeled prototype vehicle. Developed in the 1960s, it was proposed as a solution for the future of transportation. The car balances on two wheels through the use of a gyroscope under its hood. A gyroscope is a device consisting of a rapidly spinning wheel or disk mounted so that its axis can turn freely in all directions. As the axis turns the wheel remains stationary. Gyroscopes can be used for measuring and maintaining orientation.

Jeff Lane: So the car was developed in 1966 and 1967 by two very famous people, Tom Summers and Alex Tremulis.

Alex Tremulis was a car designer well known for his work as Ford’s styling director. Thomas Summers was a gyroscope expert who had integrated the technology into missile navigation systems during World War II.

Jeff Lane: They both lived in the LA area and they became kind of friends. And they were always interested in developing a gyroscopically balanced car. So in '66 and '67 they got about three quarters of a million dollars together from investors to develop this car.

The duo believed the Gyro-X could solve many of the issues presented by cars at the time.

Jeff Lane: The car would be safer because it would be more stable. It wouldn't skid. It wouldn't slide. The car would also be more aerodynamic than a typical car of that era. Also it would be half the width of a normal car at that time and so you could put twice as many cars on existing roads.

Unfortunately the Gyro-X was deemed unstable, a result of its complex engineering that was still years away from being perfected. Tremulis and Summers’ company Gyro Transport Systems would go bankrupt around 1970 before the vehicle ever reached production.

Jeff Lane: So the way the gyro works is it's hydraulically driven off of the motor. So the motor sits right behind the front seat traversely. It's a mini-motor. There's a hydraulic pump that's on the engine. Then there is a hydraulic pump inside the sphere of the gyro. So when the motor runs it produces hydraulic pressure that spins the gyro up. It's a 17-inch flywheel. It weighs about 230 pounds. It spins inside of this sphere.

When Jeff acquired the car, it was a shell of its former self. It was even missing its gyroscope, so a third wheel had been added to balance it out.

Jeff Lane: We bought the car in 2011. A lot of the car was changed or just literally gone. So the car really needed a lot of work to be restored to what it was in 1967. It took six years. We knew from the beginning the most challenging part of doing the restoration would be building a gyro. We finally found a company from Italy that builds gyroscopes to stabilize large yachts from rocking when they're on the ocean. I would say we've gotten it to work as well as it ever did. So we've decided we're not going to drive it on public roads and we're not going to drive it over 30 mph because we've figured out that to make the car go highway speeds you have to redesign the whole car. And because this is such a historic car we don't want to destroy it and make it a car that it's not. We're trying to keep it close to what it was originally in 1967.

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How This Two-Wheeled Car Uses A Disk To Balance

[akawilly]

😒 You incorrectly explained the gyroscope used in the vehicle. If the gyroscope is allowed to move along any axis it wouldn't keep the car upright.
The gyro has to be fixed in place in order to transfer its gyroscopic energy to the frame of the vehicle to hold it upright.

[whatyearisit]

A message to the people in the video:

Great to see you preserve a piece of history as close to original as possible.
However, don't let the dream die by preserving what's left; rather build on top of what's left and take it a step further. Make it a complete car - just how it was intended to be.

[TheTalkedSpy]

Add this car to Forza Horizon 4, please.

[joewoodchuck]

Im surprised they didnt use an electric motor for the gyro instead of hydraulics. Easier design and the motor itself becomes part of the spinning weight.

[JamesAllmond]

Eco-cycle, but they don't have Gyros...still available but based on inline 4 BMW bike engine that is no longer in production. Do love the (what appear to be) Corvair tail lights.

[Ponk_]

So put a pedal driven gyroscope on a bicycle, and you can pretty much stand still upright, while sitting on the cycle. :) for example a spinning disc inside each wheel, should do it.

[yanxu]

Am i the only one that thought of that blue 3 wheeled car in Mr bean when i saw this video ?

[fidgetwidget]

Dad-Hey son i bought a new car
Son- kick it once
Son- Whoops Gyroscope fell off.

[Alvar]

What a time the 60s were, they were designing today's future and at the same time living it day to day, without mental limits. Reaching the moon, diving autonomously and reaching the abyssal pits, flying at several times the speed of sound, cybernetics, organ transplant surgery... hell, even fashion was prettier than now and the icons of beauty female were more beautiful than today's without surgery.
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[corvanha]

Any attempts to revive such an idea in this time?

[EclipsedShadowK]

This is technically a bicycle with a steering wheel and a comfy seat

[dirtpoorchris]

they need 2 angular gryos slanted that can point toward or away from eachother?

[megha]

Great job ...learned a new thing today

[DEAckern]

Some ideas may sooner or a later became reality. :)

[zxcvbnm]

When a concept still has training wheels on it, I can see why investors backed out. If the gyro can run for 2 hours after the engine shuts down, seems like the hydraulics inside are pressurized enough to pulse the gyro back up to speed. very impressive engineering.

[CaptainHamsterPants]

Congrats. You discovered the gyroscope.

[NorceCodine]

Of course we all know its kryptonite in that metal enclosure.

[Jean-Denis_R_R_Loret]

Basically the gyro is the only common point with a missile.

[schweinner]

actually why don't every car have some kind of gyroscope inside for an emergency unusual manuver so that your car can't topple up

[diyonfernando]

Gyroscopes help with orientation? Will it help with my friends orientation?