micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility @lemmy.world

7mo ago

1944 Brogan Doodlebug

HistoryPorn @lemmy.world

164 18

119 comments

Only 10HP? It's not likely to live very long with such a low amount of hit points.
- It makes up for it with enough mana to keep a shield spell up indefinitely.
  If you're still worried, though, you can pair it with a Volvo for tanking and a Fiat 500 for nimble single target dps and flanking.
  
  A Fiat 500? Glass cannon much?
  
  With an insane mana point gain rate or MPG of 70, your mana's already full before the end of cool down.
  
  With that many HP, who does Volvo? If you're going to car on easy mode, just don't car.
- Depends on the AC.
  
  I doubt it even had AC
- It's fine! AGI is totally maxed out, so you'll never land any hits.

Looks like if you ever hit a pebble on the road it would probably flip and kill you. Note also the conspicuous absence of a seat belt. Cute little death machine.
- Did anything have a seatbelt in 1944?
  
  Volvo filed a patent for some sort of seatbelt in 1889. SAAB became the first car company to make any sort of seatbelt standard in 1958. Volvo became the first car company to install modern 3 point belts as standard equipment in 1959.
  So yes, but actually probably not.
  
  Early seatbelt design
  
  No, that was before Ralph Nader made a whole ruckus about car safety (and rightly so). Still, we're looking at this from the year 2024 so you can really tell this vehicle doesn't make sense in our time.
  
  Preston Tucker designed his Tucker Torpedo with a safety belt (and a lot of other safety features) in 1948.
  And then was driven out of business by the Big Three automakers in the U.S.
  There's a good movie about it.
- Yeah but not instantly. It would drag you around the road grinding your meats and bones into a nice pasty consistency.
  
  I mean, I could see a modern version being made with a rally harness-type restraint system and a windshield frame that doubles as a rollover bar. In this case the biggest danger would be to the driver's limbs.

It's almost a motorcycle. Something like this would be great for commuting, if not for all the Compensator™ Trucks and SUVs on the road.
- I feel bad for driving a big SUV, but I needed something electric that was easy for my wife to get in and out of.
  
  Any electric vehicle is high because of the batteries. That's why so many are those awful looking crossovers. SUVs you have to climb into which would make them harder to get in and out of. So I don't really follow your logic I'm afraid.
  
  I totally get the need for tall vehicles that are easy for people to get in and out. Not everyone can lift themselves from a low seat in a modern sedan or coupe. Accessibility is important.
  
  That’s a weird way to call your wife immensely obese.

Renault Twizy
- That last picture doesn't look too bad
  
  ^^^
  Even comes with a napping package
  
  It only got two stars sadly
- That looks pretty fun. People are always driving around here in those Rhinos. They're not street legal, but the cops don't seem to care.

I beg you pardon?
- Ah yes, a scrotumnudger
  
  Ah, the balltingler
- Considering it was 1944, I'm just hoping they didn't name it after this doodlebug, because that would have been pretty tasteless.
  That said, probably not the best choice of names due to that.

It's easy to make a 100mpg car. All you need is to make it small, flimsy, no aircon, no heater, no stereo, no airbags, toss emissions standards out, pack you in like a snake going up a bear's anus, and drive around at a steady 25 mph without any stops.
- Idk, Dutch micro cars are pretty comfortable. They're quieter, safer for pedestrians, and environmentally friendly. Had a chance to use one last time I was in the Netherlands. The American mindset of "it has to be a giga-truck or it's bad" really sucks.
  
  I'm in love with the Citroen Ami
  
  I mean just look at this little guy. If I had ovaries, they'd be popping right now.
  
  No, that's pretty much what I mean. I'm having trouble finding references to the gas milage of the Canta, but Kei cars tend to max out around 60mpg, and the Canta is only a bit smaller. I also found plenty of posts from locals saying it's loud, uncomfortable, and unsafe.
  The Peel P50 can get close to 100mpg, but that's pushing what a person can even fit in. This sort of thing is pushing into "why not get a moped?" territory.
- It's that last thing that america (or at least California) has an issue with. We fucking love stop signs. If you have a stop sign every other block, your mpg is gonna be in the range matt gaetz would be interested in regardless of what car you drive.
  
  Buddy, I don't know when the last time you drove a car in the summer with no AC in dress clothes but I lived that for a few seasons and I'll say that it's a bigger problem than the stop signs lol
- But it’s hard to make such a car street-legal in the US.
- Idk man, I got comfy 50mpg from a 2 ton Mercedes-Benz with most of the trimmings. Well... it was too old to have AC.
  The acceleration was utter dogshit tho. Comfy ride tho.

I'm not sure I'd want to do 45 in that thing, hell of a way to go if you got speed wobbles. I could see a use for kei vehicles in downtown areas. Traffic is so bad that a car's top speed might be 30 if you are lucky. Mass transit, bikes and tiny vehicles are what most people could easily get away with day to day.

That thing looks like it falls over on its side if you look at it funny.

it looks like a Twinkie fucked a space ship.
- spaceshipsfuckingtwinkies

So a motor scooter with a car-like wrapper.

The world would be a more fun place if we all drove bumper cars

That's terribly inefficient for a motorcycle
- How do you figure? 70mpg isn't too shabby for a motorcycle today. In the 40s? 70mpg is pretty bonkers for a 40s machine.
  
  Seems like it was a joke that the "car" is a motorcycle in disguise.

One wheel in front?
It's a TRICYCLE!
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8
- There's four wheels.
  
  Looks like just one in front

If you sneeze you can do a kickflip.

It looks like a bumper car without the bumpers and pole

My 2007 Ninja 250 made about 35 horsepower, could achieve a top speed over 100 mph and could also travel nearly 70 miles on a gallon of gas.
- My Honda Metropolitan gets 117 MPG. As a result, its fuel tank is precisely 1 gallon.
  ...It only makes 4 horsepower and has a top speed of 40, though.
  
  Yeah I couldn't quite hit that efficiency with my Ninja but it was fully capable of traveling on the interstate and it it had a damn near 5 gallon tank. That bike was designed in 1988 and received only minor adjustments for 20 years and basically nothing has that combination of efficiency and capacity.
- Not to mention super reliable and fun to ride

Looks like a giant tape dispenser.

Cool, now make it HPV or EV.

OK, but this appears to carry a maximum of two people and doesn't look like it has a trunk, so...how would this be better than public transit? Realistically, anyone who bought this would still need a full sized car to support a family of more than two, so this thing would only work for single people or childless couples. It's cool, and certainly better than everyone owning their own sedan, but not exactly a practical solution to car culture.
- That's kind of like asking, "why do people buy ebikes?" These seem the fit the same nich but like in 1944. Obviously it's not a perfect solution, humans and perfect solutions mix like oil and water. (Salad dressing is mostly oil and water, so I guess that's the perfect solution)
  
  I guess so, but it seems like the bike would have already fit that niche in 1944.

@jordanlund@lemmy.world needs to find a way to merge this with his wheelchair.
Zipping around town in style!
- My plan is to build a shell for the wheelchair. ;)
  
  Yes! With hovercraft fans at the bottom so you can pretend you're making it float!

119 comments