Two Questions

[Dean Los Angeles]

Looking at the Costella 350 streamliner, I have two questions:
1. Did we make our own tire?
2. How does the steering work?
Inquiring minds want to know.

[don pennington]

It's kinda fun being on here when everybody is at the salt, it's like a week-end at the boarding school, everybody went home but you and two other guys.

The tire looks like a plastic material. There has been much talk about metal wheels which some liners run, and "rubber bands" over aluminum discs, but have plastics been explored. I wonder about the traction when trying to turn, would it skate or turn?

[JackD]

Look at the geometry carefully and you will see it is a modified parallelogram.
It has been used on FIM Sprinters where the rider lays down with the head forward and the engine is to the rear.
 

[pookie]

Hi Dean, that steering is the same" type " Jack used in the yellow 5050 streamliner. If you are at the salt, stop and talk to Jack about it he is easily the most approachable  individual out there at the  races. If you aren't at the "SALT", talk to him next Elmo meet. He also will tell you about the "homemade wheels. By the way I really like your ride!! See you at Elmo in September.

[Sumner]

The way I understand the steering is that the wheel doesn't turn, but moves side to side (Jack's response).  So to turn right it goes to the left side of the "bike" (I use this term bike very loosely in this case  ) and the bike overbalances to the right (falls in that direction) and turns right.

I never would have thought about it in million years, but it probably only took Jack a few milliseconds to come up with the idea.

Someone please correct me if I have this wrong  .

c ya,

Sum

[JGMagoo]

Sum,

I think you are right on the money!  Just imagine what happens when the front axle is 'out of line'. If it is, the car will 'pull' to the left or the right.

Here, it looks like he has just devised a method to "out-of-line it" in what ever direction he wants..

Really clever!

I would LOVE to know WHAT MATERIAL, (exactly), that front tire is made out of and how it worked??  And how he got it onto the "wheel"

Jack, are you listening???

Please???

JGMagoo

[JackD]

Look at it again.
Remember I said "modified parallelogram" ?
Look at the placement of the rear hinge point in relation to the front hinge point.
Does Joe Ackerman come to mind ?
The concept of the wheel is not new either.

" First seen is not always first discovered ". (me)

[sockjohn]

That front tire/wheel looks suspiciously like solid rubber.

That or the old movies where the prisoner carves a gun out of soap and tries to make it look real with shoe polish 

Very clever steering with nothing sticking above the front tire!

[maguromic]

The wheel is not rubber or rubber bands.  It’s an aluminum wheel, I was at his shop when he was making it.  He had a similar wheel on the yellow car last year and the tech guys were giving him a hard time over it.  They said he had switched from a aluminum wheel to a rubber wheel after tech.

He doesn’t get enough credit for his work.  He once made his own torque converter!

[hitz]

       Me thinks there is something there that we are not seeing (or understanding).

       Trapezoids are rigid even when they have joints where the sides join (single plane).

       If the front axle is solid, how would it turn or move sideways?

       Harvey

[Jonny Hotnuts]

The more I look at it the more I have having a hard time understanding how the steering works. To me the way the heim joints are positioned and where the steering linkage is connected it looks like the wheel would move a few degrees right or left....this would mean that it would steer fine this way....the problem I have is that it looks like it has an identical setup on the other side. To be able to move right or left one of the sides would have to grow or shrink to allow for the movement and I am fairly sure this is not what is going on.

The only way I see it working is if the axle going through the wheel also has pivots so when the assembly would move to the right, the left arm would be a shorter distance from the mounting heim and steer to the left....backwards to what it would seem unless you put a tape on it.

[Jonny Hotnuts]

Just for kicks I did a 3d model of the steering to see if my BS is what he did and feel somewhat confident that it is now that I can see it work.

[JackD]

Just for kicks I did a 3d model of the steering to see if my BS is what he did and feel somewhat confident that it is now that I can see it work.

We have a winner !!!!
Note the angle inward on both sides from the rear pivit point and the front and imagine what happens.
Old Man Ackerman would be proud.
JH also figured out the simple way to get close to the GC and CP the simple way.
Now he is going to go about setting up a table top wind tunnel to explore the effect various nose shapes have on his Hot Rod.

"Learn the hard thing the easy way and it saves more time for racing." (me)

[maguromic]

It’s actually very simple. It only moves left to right and it has a small handle bar for steering.  When you push the bar or pull the bar it moves the wheel to correspond to the movement.  All his liners have a similar style of steering. 

[Dean Los Angeles]

If the front axle is solid, how would it turn or move sideways?

The axle is solid but the bearing housing pivots in the arm with a self-aligning bearing.

"Joe"? Rudolph Ackermann, a German coach builder patented the steering geometry in 1817.

The wheel may be aluminum, but there is rubber? on the outside. Must be thin to avoid adhesion problems from centrifugal forces.