Utterly pointless quora-type question
This popped into what's left of my mind while "building" Colonel Green's little electric runabout. I was pulling out pieces of my older Detroit Electric and Great Smith cars, changing all sorts of dimensions, and slapping them together. Easy in digital, not so easy in reality.

Cars have all sorts of variable dimensions and characteristics. Variable speed and direction, obviously. Variable seating arrangements are old, starting with removable and foldable jump seats in coupes, which are still around. Station wagons and SUVs always have variable seating.

Height from the ground has been variable, first with dash-adjustable suspensions in the '30s, then Citroen and Packard in the '50s, and now it's fairly common.

Height of the body can be variable. Convertibles and popup vans.

Question: Why hasn't anyone ever made a variable-LENGTH car? Or variable-wheelbase within the same length?

It wouldn't be easy with a full body, but it would be both possible and useful for a flatbed or pickup truck. Longer for big loads, shorter for maneuverabiity when not carrying. A variable-length van would be equally handy.

Variation would be easier with an electric vehicle. Separate motors on each wheel would avoid transmissions and driveshafts.

A few business coupes were fitted with demountable little pickup beds in the '30s, but that's not really variable, and it wasn't useful.

Streeeeeeeeeeeetchy cars were common in cartoons in the '30s. In and out like an accordion, bend around corners like a snake. The idea has always been there, but the implementation hasn't.

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A separate and more interesting observation. There aren't many old pics of Colonel Green's mansion and the MIT research that resulted from Ned Green's gift. I'm "making" the radio studio and water tower, where the technical action happened. I tried Googlemaps to get a sense of the terrain. The mansion itself is still there, and the old pics do show the location of the studio and water tower wrt the mansion. Satellite view is clear enough for my purposes:



Trying to get closer via Streetview didn't work. Google's cameras carefully skipped the entire area...



... even though there are several streets full of ordinary houses that would ordinarily get viewed. The MIT/Darpa buildings are long gone, but apparently the area is still classified for unknown and unknowable reasons. Note also that the main street in the area is Hetty Green St, not Ned Green or just plain Green St. Hetty was already dead before Ned built this estate, and Hetty had nothing to do with this area. Did Ned get crosswise with the locals? More unknowable reasons.

Thinking of previous item, maybe we need a new proverb: Actions speak louder than words, and nonactions speak louder than actions. Or better, Non-barking dogs bark louder than barking dogs.

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Update next day: Ask and ye shall receive.

The website of Collectible Auto magazine added a feature today about a Ford 'concept car' from 1966. It was a super-long pickup with an automatically expandable passenger compartment.

To make room for two extra passengers, the Ranger’s driver need only push a button. Set into action, the Ranger II’s small rear roof section slid back 18 inches, a pair of bucket seats rose from the floor, as did side “filler” sections with windows.

Still not variable wheelbase or total length, but pretty close. The body-sliding mechanism as described would also serve to vary total length. I can't find any videos of the action online, and it appears from the available material that the expansion was just a concept, not really functional. (Ford and GM often built non-functional dream cars. Chrysler made a point of creating real drivable cars that could be manufactured.)

Labels: Asked and not worth asking

  ¶ 2:51 PM