Past Imperfect: the DymaxionR Buckminster Fuller was one of the best-known American thinkers of the 20th century. He was also an extraordinary inventor who is today best recalled for his geodesic dome structures.
But Fuller was a man whose mind was attracted by all sorts of challenges. Thus it's no surprise that when he made a foray into the world of automotive design the result was spectacularly original.
The series of World Fairs in America in the 1930s gave the American public a glimpse of how their future might develop. Celebrating progress they featured huge stands of which the car manufacturers offerings were amongst the most lavish and spectacular. The GM Pavilion was among the most visited and its most popular attactions were the prototype cars which pointed the way for future car design. But at the 1934 World Fair even GM's offerings were upstaged by the strange car design from F Buckminster Fuller.
The Dymaxion - as Fuller titled his creation - was actually just part of a much grander project. He wrote: "I decided to try to develop an omni-medium transport vehicle to function in the sky, on negotiable terrain or on the water - to be securely landable anywhere, like an eagle . . ."
The three Dymaxion prototypes built were intended to test ground-taxiing of the concept under transverse wind conditions. Looking like an elongated teardrop, the body was designed by yachtsman Starling Burgess and built in Connecticut. The car rested on three wheels - two in front and one at the rear - with the rear wheel supporting only 25 per cent of the weight and being the steering wheel. Powered by a Ford V8, the Dymaxion was fast for the time and reportedly was tested at speeds up to 120 mph.
Fuller had great belief in the concept, so much so that he built the first three prototypes using all the money he had inherited from his mother.
Naturally, he needed further investment if he was to see his ambitious design reach production and it seemed as if the 1934 World Fair would provide him with the sort of showcase he needed to attract investors.
The Dymaxion was a sensation at the show and one of the cars became a familiar sight on the streets of Chicago during the Fair as it brought potential investors on demonstration rides. But then disaster struck when the Dymaxion crashed on a street near the fairground killing the driver and maiming the other occupant.
Incredibly the excellent performance of the Dymaxion had been its downfall, for its driver got involved in a drag race with another car which ended in a crash. The negative publicity that followed killed the Dymaxion project although the subsequent inquiry showed that it had in no way contributed to the cause of the accident.
And there the Dymaxion story ended, just another bizarre footnote in motoring history. Bizarre perhaps, but also one of the few times when some truly original thinking has been applied to automotive design.