FRIDAY SURPRISE: The Abner, John, Warren, and Bill Auto Company

Friday, October 27, 2006 Filed in: Friday Surprise!, Things I like, Completely irrelevant
Jay Leno has one (two, actually.) In 1924, it ran on kerosene, developed 1,000 ft-lbs of torque, got 15+ MPG, had a top speed of over 100 mph, and had an engine that ran at 900 RPM while traveling at 75mph.

What was this remarkable vehicle? The Doble Steam car! The Doble was the pinnacle of steam automobile design, and even today remains a marvel of engineering. Steam, for those not familiar with the "antiquated" technology, produces phenomenal, linear power with almost no noise. I've long been of the opinion that a modern steam car, taking advantage of advances in metallurgy and computer control, could be economical, powerful, and clean. What's keeping Detroit??

In the meantime, check out this article on the fantastic Doble. (Oh, and be sure to ignore the idiot commentary from one of the readers, who opines that the steam car is impractical because of the "dangerous" high pressure boiler. The Doble used a flash boiler, which doesn't contain a large quantity of high pressure steam. If it burst, the only result would be a sudden drop of power and large cloud of water vapor. Maybe he works for one of the Big 3 - it would explain a lot!)

-=[ Grant ]=-
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