Editorial - Once more, about driving. Just drive well!

Driving an automobile on public roads shouldn’t be about being the fastest, pushing the car to its limits or showing spectacular manoeuvres. Essentially, the automobile was invented for taking us faster from point A to point B.

Attaching other purposes to this basic definition may alter the outcome of its usage. Something more: all the trips should reach to their destinations without any kind of harm. Enjoying the drive will come just naturally when doing so.

As far as there is no explicit emergency concerned, driving without a certain safety reserve on public roads is something stupid. Even then, in case of an emergency, attention and measure to what you at the wheel do must be an absolute priority.

The daily drives, also, must not degenerate in quests for adrenaline – that’s not their point. How about the pleasure and satisfaction driving an automobile may generate? Some cars feature a so-called Sport mode. So, what’s that for? Driving a bit faster and sharper than normally shouldn’t imply any serious risk. Especially if the road is free of traffic. 

So, that’s how you may get an idea about what a car may hold in terms of dynamic potential, engine sound and, generally, feedback for the driver. Keeping decent manners and a certain level of care should be part of a default behavior when driving on a public road. 

Extreme driving should be tried only in proper conditions (speed circuit, proving ground, isolated zone, etc.), assuming you can’t hurt anyone but yourself, as a consequence of your own choice to take risks or to exceed whatever you have done before.

I proudly got my Private Pilot License in the US more than a couple of decades ago and I noticed the sentence written on its verso: “safety is not an accident, it must be planned”. Obviously, these words are relevant for anything else, not only for flying. Also driving fits well to their message. Agree, things are far less complicated when it comes to take the wheel of an automobile instead of taking the stick/yoke of an airplane, but keeping a high level of awareness and paying attention to what you are about to do during your drive should always be on your mind.

While reading, you may think – “OK, this guy says nice things, yet how seriously should I take this? Anyone can put together some more or less wise words to impress the audience. Is there a real experience behind what he tells or is this just another safety-oriented theory text?” Actually, there is an unpleasant experience behind this text.

At a certain moment during my automotive journalist career, one winter I was returning from a tour with a long-term test car, the quite ordinary kind of – it was a Peugeot 206 1.4. And here are the circumstances that led to the disaster: insisting to go as fast as possible after leaving behind a busy road section (yep, just call it gratuitous speeding), I met uneven fog conditions. Also, feeling tempted to increase speed, I overrated my knowledge of the road segment. As I was driving downhill, the curves were becoming shallower – it seemed like I can push harder. When I reached a lower altitude, nearing the bottom of the valley, fog became thicker and temperature dropped (as I noticed watching the simple digital thermometer on the dashboard).

What I treated too easily: just before nearing the course of a river, the road took another last tight curve. So, suddenly, I found myself “sorti dans le décor”, as they say in France. The fog prevented me to properly see the road, the wind, plus humidity, plus low temperature generated icy conditions on the tarmac and (worst of all) I was intentionally faster than the common sense would have recommended. After a brief understeer phase, I found myself out in the ditch, car totaled, me unharmed physically. Mentally, this remained a radical turning point in my life.

Trick of the destiny: for the next day, there was a filming session scheduled for me with a Saab 9-3 2.0 Turbo XWD around the same place, but in daylight conditions. Since the job was implying many other people and a TV show, I could not afford to skip it. How does it feel to have to put yourself at the wheel of a quite performant car after you just stupidly crashed an elementary thing? I wish you to never find out.

Of course, in order to shoot some convincing scenes, the producer of the show yelled a lot at me: “Come on, do you call this a fast pass? Are you awake? Are you done with inspecting the road? Is this car defective, or what?” Truly, the only defective thing there and then, it was me. And I had to put myself back together without delay, since my professional life and reputation were in jeopardy. Again, I wish you to never find out what something like this feels. In order to avoid or properly solve any potential problems on your own way, reading again, from the beginning, it might be helpful.

Editorial - Ethix and Replix

Things haven't always been this way. The manufacturing of automobile replicas began at an advanced stage of development of the automotive industry, when the glamorous era of the coachbuilders was gone and the huge numbers of pretty much identical and rather dull vehicles triggered an adverse reaction among the fervent fans of the automobile.

Now, we have plants, small-scale manufacturers, workshops or even DIYers reproducing already known desired automobiles in a more or less accurate manner, yet at a life-scale functional size. Is it OK what they do?

Inevitably, the makers of the original automobiles were offended to see their creative endeavor materialized from scratch, which had cost them effort and resources, reproduced and sold at a discount price by more or less dubious third parties. Some of the pirated brands tried to put an end to the situation by going to court. Justice has often been hampered by the limits of international enforcement of copyright laws. Other times, simply, the problem did not come up anymore.

How normal is it to find on the market cars that look roughly the same on the outside, but have significantly different technical content, build quality and performance? On top of that, speaking of replicas, there is no explicit conflict in terms of sales targets between replicas and the cars they imitate. Quite sure, a Ferrari customer will never be a Ferrari replica customer and probably things won’t happen also the other way around.

The price, the level of refinement of the design, the fit and finish (there are downright ridiculous replicas in these respects), as well as what the object has to offer in terms of sensations and performance are usually incompatible considering the original cars and their replicas.

Also, the manufacturer of the original automobile (Ferrari or anything else) has every right to feel aggrieved by the appearance of replicas because any uninformed person on the street could form a bad opinion about the original cars by unknowingly examining a replica.

Creating an automobile imitation remains morally reprehensible, at least according to Western culture. The culture of the Far East, however, sees the situation differently - which is why no one will be able to shame any Asian manufacturers even for two minutes for producing replicas of the already known Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Toyota, VW and other cars. The typical learning process practiced in the Far East involves imitating a master till getting to do what the master does as well as him, possibly better.

Thus, switching back the perspective, do the claims of reserved rights by the Western authors over their own creations have a somehow restrictive character? The real purpose of copyright protection has two major components. The first: if you keep making efforts to materialize a project, it would be normal for you, not some imitator, to get all the benefits of its success. The second: the spread of an imitation product (having a price, but also inferior characteristics to the original) will, over time, have an implicit effect of compromising the original brand - which here would have no other fault than that of being imitated by someone else.

Raw History of the Automobile - 3

Diversification and Progress

Thought the conceptual treatment of downsizing and lightweight vehicles was something new, as the current advertising and marketing gimmicks claim? Well, it is and it isn't. We can talk about the integration of components with specialized and optimized functional definition in the vehicles’ construction right from the early axles with wheels. In addition, the use of vehicles was already taken beyond the theme of heavy transport during the last part of the Neolithic.

Since the mass of the chariot had to be supported by the axle and wheels without causing any of those to crack, the problem of lightening the components came up. It has also been observed that reducing the number of components makes manufacturing of the vehicle easier. No surprise, among the entry-level vehicles, the single-axle carts prevailed: they were light, robust and had a good maneuverability. Lots of those were made since the dawn of antique times, as they could be used for light transport (including deliveries within the densely populated settlements), short personal journeys and military purposes (the development of states and empires would trigger armed conflicts at unprecedented scales).

On the right side here, you can see an example of a light Danish cart from the late Neolithic era. In this case, an ultra-light engineering by the builders of Viking origin is noted: the superstructure is a reed basket, the chassis and the perch are an integrated construction, while the wheels not solidly attached to the axle. By the way, the axle has a structural role.

Numerous depictions attributed to the legendary Sumerian civilization (years 6500 to 2000 BC) show four-wheeled, steerable chariots having perfectly circular wheels made of solid pieces of wood fastened with metal mounts. Later, significant engineering progress occurred through the standardization and refinement of the wood and metal components out of which the wheels were made.

Following this, spoked wheels began to be manufactured. The spokes were massive and few in number at the beginning, but over time they became finer and their number per wheel increased. Beyond the already complex technique, the Sumerian chariot in the bas-relief reproduced below also has numerous decorative elements.

Of note in the construction of the light Sumerian chariot shown here: the eight-spoke wheels have a surprisingly complex construction. We are dealing with a rim and separate rolling elements. It seems that the Sumerians could replace the outer part of the wheel when it became damaged, keeping the rim - a more difficult component to manufacture, with finely integrated metal parts.

Celtic Chieftain's Symbolic Carriage 

The tomb of the Celtic chieftain discovered at Hochdorf (its dating reference calls to the year 530 BC, the archaeological site being assimilated to the Hallstatt culture) has a certain importance in the history of wheeled vehicles. Among the many very well-preserved artifacts, a small, intact four-wheeled symbolic carriage was also found there.

This is an illustrative example of the best the technology of the time had to offer: precision manufacturing of all the components, solid metal fittings, 10-spoke wheels with metal hubs. The images borrowed here from Wikipedia show a reconstruction of the Hochdorf carriage, along with recent replicas of the other historical artifacts, all of which can be seen in the tomb that was set up in the 1990s for visitors.

Rome and its Ways

The rise of the civilizations of Greece and, later, Rome during the European antique times were marked by striking advances in terms of chariots’ design and manufacturing improvements. Seeking to create superior transport and travel conditions, the Romans started building paved roads around 300 BC.

As the illustration below shows, examining the reconstruction of a luxury Roman carriage intended for long journeys, six essential elements that we also find in the concept of current automobiles may be identified without a trace of doubt: chassis (1), suspension (2), steering (3), brakes (4), parking brake (5) and body/superstructure separate from the chassis (6). The Romans also created an impressive variety of chariots and carts, partially comparable to the automobile classes of our times.

Engine of the ancient Greeks: the aeolipila

Unmistakably, all ancient carts, chariots and carriages of various sizes were drawn by oxen, horses and other domesticated animals. Besides, the device called the "aeolipila" created by Heron of Alexandria in the first century AD used the steam pressure to generate a rotary motion.

The steam jets coming out through two nozzles located diametrically opposite on the pressure accumulator-sphere generated a couple of forces intended to rotate the sphere around the axis formed by the steam feeding pipes themselves (particularly demanding constructive idea for the technology of the time). Calling it a steam turbine is not inappropriate for the principle of the aeolipila, but its functionality and reliability, viewed from the perspective of recent industrial times, still appear very precarious.

Theoretically – at least – the aeolipila could have been brought to a form capable of transferring that rotational motion to a vehicle's drive axle. According to known and accepted historical sources, such a thing did not happen during the ancient times.

Raw History of the Automobile - 2

Technical Integration

Metal and progress: certainly, throughout the latter part of the Neolithic times, carriers of that era noticed that larger diameter trunk-rollers passed more easily over obstacles encountered in the road. Otherwise, such rollers did not make it easy to change direction. So, there was plenty of room for improvements on the transportation techniques that emerged in the Neolithic.

Functional fact: wear was affecting the log rollers by abrasion in their mid-section (where they were pressed against the fixed bearing/supports under the "chassis" or even against the "chassis" itself), causing them to thin. The phenomenon would have inspired the creation of solid bridges with wheels at their extremities.

A first noticeable advantage of this difference in diameters: the higher torque resulting from the movement of the larger diameter ends of the log-roller helped to easier overcome the rolling resistance given by the lower torque generated at the bearings/chassis in the middle area (where the diameter had been reduced by wear). This would have given to the tech guys of that era a first idea regarding what a reduction ratio in a rolling mechanism might be good for. Agree, all this sounds dizzyingly complicated. Other studies claim that, at some point during the early metal ages, the idea of an axle with wheels – already present in pottery devices – ended up being transposed to a higher scale, taking over the role of a solid axle with wheels in the vehicles’ general concept.

Beginning with the time of copper and then bronze, new tools were invented and perfected. These were used to produce increasingly sophisticated and finely defined objects. The new metal tools, amenable to use to obtain fairly rigorously defined shapes, allowed both the carving of wheels from sections of large trunks and the carving of wheels from stone - those better supported the idea of non-rigid mounting with the axle.

As the first part of the metal ages developed, solid wheels made from pieces of wood and stiffened with metal parts appeared, and new metal elements began to be used to attach wheels to axles and axles to the vehicle. The stiffening of a wheel made of wooden elements (thick planks) with metal parts was an important step in the wheel manufacturing technique. One such wheel, dated as coming from the year 5200 BC, was discovered in Slovenia (bottom right).

The most advanced invention related to the development of vehicles during the Bronze Age was the directional front axle. This involved a pivoting device to attach the axle to the chassis. The use of metal for small parts highly resistant to mechanical stress was essential in that sense. The toy figurine in the shape of a cow on wheels discovered at Cucuteni shows that the idea of the wheels attached to an fixed axle was something familiar around the year 3900 BC.

On a ceramic pot discovered in Bronocice (Poland) and dated as coming approximately from the year 3600 BC, some four-wheeled chariots are represented simplistically (top right image). It is only at this time, approximately 4000 years BC, that the first carts can be considered as part of the current life of the advanced human communities.

Raw History of the Automobile - 1

Prehistory

Indicative starting point: year 12,000 BC. The time interval during which some essential objects for raising living standards of the early humans were invented is difficult to accurately establish at a global level. However, the time order of their appearance can and has been reconstructed on logical and archaeological bases. Auto Cult Notes is particularly interested in the automobile, of course.

Background

In the Paleolithic era, human ancestors began to use improvised tools made of stone and bone. Huts and shelters building tech evolved within the early communities. At a certain point, for the primitive houses, it became necessary to transport materials to the chosen construction site. Difficult problem: transportation of stones. Reason: their large mass. The Paleolithic lasted until 12,000 years ago.

After the vague threshold of the last 12,000 years, we are talking about the Neolithic era. Then progress really took off in agriculture and in some kinds of crude techniques. The late Neolithic is the historical phase of the appearance of the early things properly assimilable to the notion of “vehicle”. Their propulsion: mostly human physical force.

What our ancestors found back then: if a large and heavy boulder stays on the ground, it will be difficult to displace it, as it encounters a considerable moving resistance. The journey will be slow, arduous, full of obstacles. But if you push it along some tree trunks placed parallel, longitudinally and conveniently oriented in the direction of the desired movement? Well, this way the boulder was becoming much easier to move.

Chassis (well, kind of...)

The next step of progress was made starting from this finding: in the case of fixing the boulder on the logs, the sliding friction moved from the contact zones between the boulder and the trunks to those between the trunks and the ground. The idea turned out to be good for a smoother transportation, because you didn't have to use at least four logs, replacing them in pairs in front of the boulder as the travel was going on.  

Of course, in this case, you had to pull both the mass of the boulder and of the logs, so a better solution was needed regarding the traction power. Implicit advantage of the boulder fixed on mounted logs: the supporting assembly created for one transport could be reused for other subsequent transports. Thus appeared the first sleds usable with more or less effort on any kind of terrain and which, with indulgence, we could consider a kind of technical correspondent of the today rigid ladder chassis. It's just that our ancestors had not yet put wheels under this so-called sled chassis. But the age of wheels was approaching with the end of the Neolithic.

Rolls

Another direction of work toward the facilitation of heavy transport appeared during the Neolithic: the movement of boulders on trunks placed transversely in front of them, ensuring a rolling function. The sliding friction generated by pushing the boulder on the ground or longitudinal trunks was thus replaced by rolling friction – significantly easier to defeat, as some simple physical experiments can demonstrate. However, the travelling progress required the recovery of the rolling logs over which the boulder passed and their replacement in front of it, in the direction of advance. Clearly, you needed quite a lot of trunks per transportation act to do that.

Soon, the transport techniques evolved in the sense of pulling loaded sleds on logs with a roller function - those simple stiffened wooden assemblies, to which we have already attributed the significance and historical importance of the protochassis. This way, it was a lot easier to keep the boulder up on the rolling logs and to steer the whole stuff.

The domestication of animals also took place in the Neolithic, linked to the development of agriculture. Recourse to animal traction for moving heavy things kicked in sometime by then. It certainly did not occur to our ancestors that animal traction would continue to be used for many millennia, roughly until the turn of the twentieth century.

Vehicle

What if the rolling logs could be attached to the sled, instead of keeping to retrieve and replace them in front of it? Finally, this became possible thanks to the advances in the production, diversification and use of necessary tools to carve new components from wood and stone. Also, more flexible and strong ropes woven from vegetable fibers, and greases based on lard and/or vegetable oils came along to enrich the technical field of the transportation means.

We must admit, a stiffened sled equipped with supports for some basic rolling elements placed underneath is already a vehicle. Pulled by animals (whose domestication intervened in those times), this Neolithic vehicle solved the transportation needs of a primitive society much more efficiently than anything else known up to that time. 

However, this primitive vehicle encountered an appreciable rolling resistance along almost its entire width (more precisely, the entire length of the wooden logs/parts with roller function, arranged transversely to the direction of travel) and could not change the direction of travel too easily.

The highlight: during the time period in which these advances in transportation technology were made, ceramics had begun to be produced on potter's wheels, but for quite some time the potential of using the wheel concept in transportation was not noticed and exploited. One of the reasons for this situation is the lack of knowledge related to metalworking, which would later become the basis of superior techniques and tools. This tech did not develop until after the Neolithic, during the first phase of the metal age (copper, then bronze).

Editorial - Change and Persistence

Change is inescapably necessary, being demanded and imposed by the some known conditions of existence and survival. On the other hand, the conservation instinct gives us enough signals against change. From its perspective, we are tempted to keep living the way we are already used to, knowing how it works, feeling we can easily control things and without allocating any supplementary vital resources to make a change or adjust to one.

The familiarity of a known living context gives us physical and mental comfort, while the conservation instinct validates this on an irrational basis, as a kind of "default settings". Did you ever think comfort can be a trap?

Nowadays, the conditions of existence and survival are pointing to intelligent electromobility. Environmental protection and traffic safety will thus gain, the atmosphere will no longer be polluted by vehicle emissions (yet, there are much more significant combustion-based polluters than the ICE engines of the casual automobiles), and the air will no longer be consumed for burning fuel - we are therefore talking about a good on an extended scale, on a planetary level - that greater good that transcends the personal and subjective good.

What about the good on a personal scale? Will ICE cars automobiles completely disappear in the coming decades, even if their stinky emissions will no longer threat to become a critical mass for the state of the atmosphere? Such questions arise, of course, from the point of view of those who are passionate about the classic (conventional, if you prefer) automobile, its history and culture.

We have every reason to be optimistic about the answers. This is because nothing that has become technically and/or economically obsolete throughout history has completely disappeared from human life. Eventually, it acquired a classic, reserved, luxurious-exclusive character and an increased price.

All kinds of things come in here, starting with fine-dining food vs. fast food and up to the mechanical watch vs. smartwatch, going through supermarket clothes vs. haute couture stuff, common fashion accessories vs. brand jewelry, or custom-made furniture vs. factory made furniture. We can even add here the horse-drawn carriages (in some historic centers or tourist destinations, for example) vs. the ICE-powered car that we care so much about…

Science itself tells us that nothing is lost, nothing is gained, everything is transformed. How and when, that just depends on what happens on Earth, the planet where major decisions are taken at the human level – coming, however, as inevitable effects of existential and survival pressures.