This Car Is Related To The One Above because...

Before getting offended, please go back to the start of the thread and try to understand what it's aim is.
There is several threads aroudn the theme of "tenuous links" which may suit you better if you cannot see the difference between "offensive" and "steering back on to track". Please also refer to the smiley face used in my post in an effort to keep things light hearted. The aim here is not post count or tenuous links, but education and discovering lesser known facts and interesting information. Keeping the thread close to it's theme is why it's still going 34 pages later.

Mitsubishi weren't the only ones to build a variable displacement engine that could shut down cylinders to save fuel. Cadillac made the 8-6-4 engine in 1981 (I think) but the originators of the concept were the Sturtevant 38/45hp. However as no photos seem to exist here is the second off the blocks, the 1917 Enger Six-Twelve.


 
Control was all manual in those days of course with a lever to cut off half the engine.

DKW is just an awesome brand. It offered all kinds of transport.
What about this; Just a bicycle with a little DKW motor

Or what about this beautiful DKW the DKW 3=6 Monza (and links straight back to the last post)

Is this not the coolest moped ever? The DKW 155 or Spoetnik

I could go on forever. They built a massive amount of very interesting cars and motorbikes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKW
It's hard to believe that this DKW

is directly related to this vehicle

The coupé version of the 200 was called the "Tomcat". The internal designation of the 6-series Gran Coupé is appearantly F14. So the F14 Tomcat is the link between them.

The Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV) is based on a Chevy S10 chassis.

The S10 chassis also very popular for frame swaps, specially under the '47 to '54 Chevy P/U trucks ( known as the Advance-Design)
Because everything is pretty close to fitting, making it an easy swap.

i didnt see the previous ibiza post, i just made a post related to the car above. i know how the thread works, i have made 3 of the 34 pages myself. i'm sorry that you think two manufacturers with the parent company of vw, and two military step side trucks as tenuous links. i didnt find it "light hearted" to be told its easy to go on wikipedia and find something interesting to say, which by default is offensive to those people who have been doing that.

It wasn't me that called that "link" tenuous.



As to the rest - once again I am sorry if I have offended you. My intention was fully to light-heartedly steer this (supposed to be fun) thread back into line. It's not the first time during it's course that I've done that, but you are the first person to take it to heart - everyone else has carried on and made more great posts. Your previous posts have been valued additions. Your Ibiza post was a strong one, I have no problem with that. Referring to the double post (and there have been some before) is no more than "hey guys, you got the same car twice, come on". Most importantly, while it might read so to you, the post I made was NOT aimed at you. If I wanted to target you, I would have done so, with quotes and such. But I didn't, because that's not me, that's not pleasant, and because keeping the thread jovial is paramount alongside the informative side. I did not realise at the time of writing that you were the person that posted both things I highlighted, so again I apologise for inadvertently making it seem as though I was picking on you.
The last line of metalshapes' post above is precisely the aim here, and it takes a bit of steering from time to time to keep it so. That's all it is.

Plastic cars...The very first thing that came to mind were these ones

Years and many more years ago I played a lot with exact the same plastic cars.
They were awesome to play with and you could bend them and play as if they were in a real crash...

Henry thought the same when he was thinking of plastic.


Some of you Fordophiles already know about the Soybean Ford of 1941, but for those who think I’m joking, here’s the skinny: In 1941 Henry Ford was looking for alternatives to steel for car bodies, which was getting on shorter supply as the war in Europe was heating up. He also understood that plastics could be more energy absorbing than metal, rust free, and weighed 30% less, so there was an aspect of additional safety, practicality, and fuel economy. Probably the largest factor in Henry’s pursuit of soybean plastics was his desire to marry agriculture and industry together- He thought of supporting farmers (who bought his Fordson tractors) as them being able to ‘grow’ the materials for his cars.

The design was first handed to the great E.T. Gregorie, but soon switched hands to the Soybean Laboratory in Greenfield Village and Lowell E. Overly, a tool and die designer, not an automotive stylist, was put in charge. (This explains the dumpy looking results, and after the war the rumor goes that Gregorie himself destroyed the Soybean car so no one would attribute it to him.) The plastic body was mounted on a tubular steel chassis, and even featured soy-based seat covers and paint.

When the US entered World War II at the end of 1941, the government suspended all private use auto production, and therefore the plastic car experiment was shelved. A second car was actually in the works at the time the war broke out, but the project was abandoned as well. By the end of the war, the idea of a plastic car had lost its momentum, and the focus to get back to civilian automobiles required all of Ford’s efforts. Henry would pass away less than two years later, killing any chance of the Soybean car getting on the road.

The 'Squarebird' perhaps most famously known as the car that Elvira, Mistress of Dark, drove. It has some other interesting claims to fame too, being the progenitor to the 'personal luxury car' trend that both hit its height and fizzled out in the 1970s. By all accounts, even the Squarebird, often mocked for being an ungainly thing, was a huge success in its day. Another star of the small screen that's also a personal luxury car would be the long suffering Buick Riviera from Due South.