The Dymaxion car was a concept car designed by Buckminster Fuller in 1933. Fuller, born in 1895, was best known for his geodesic domes. The word “dymaxion” was a word used by Fuller for several of his inventions. Fuller took the words dynamic, maximum and tension and combined them into “dymaxion.”
The story of the Dymaxion begins in 1933 with Buckminster and culminates in 2015 with Jeff Lane and the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tenn.
The building of the original and first Dymaxion began in 1933. The car was hand-built, as it was a prototype, and was to be displayed at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair. On its way to the fair on Oct. 17, 1933, the Dymaxion was hit by another car and flipped over. It resulted in the death of the driver and seriously injuring the two passengers. The vehicle that hit the Dymaxion was driven by a local politician, and his car was immediately removed from the accident scene. The reports in the press the next day lay the blame on the Dymaxion’s unconventional design and the fact it had two wheels in the front and one in the rear that acted like a rudder.
The official investigation that followed exonerated the Dymaxion and its design and lay the fault of the accident on the Dymaxion being hit by a car that was illegally removed from the accident scene. This “report” came out 60 days after the accident. It found the actual cause of the impact was a collision with a car driven by a Chicago South Park commissioner who wanted a closer look at the Dymaxion. The damage to the Dymaxion and its reputation for being a safe vehicle was already done, with initial reports blaming a “freak car rolls over, killing driver.” There was never any mention about a second vehicle in the news report.
This first Dymaxion was eventually repaired by Fuller and his small team of workers and designers. There were three original Dymaxion’s made. The first being the one badly damaged in Chicago. Car number two is in a Museum in Reno, Nev., and car number three changed owners several times and was supposedly scrapped in the 1950s.
Which brings us to the Dymaxion you see here and Jeff Lane of the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. Jeff Lane is a “car guy” in the truest and purest sense of the term, although the cars in the museum are not “museum” pieces — they are all “drivers,” and indeed Jeff does drive them around Nashville on warm, dry days. Cars are “fun” and meant to be enjoyed and that is one thing Jeff excels at. Being an aficionado of the oddball automobile, he thought there should be an example of a Dymaxion that people could see “driving down the road.” The chassis for Jeff’s Dymaxionn was built in Pennsylvania with refinements made at the Lane Musuem’s facility in Nashville. It was then sent off to the Czech Republic where Mirko Hrazdira built the wooden-body support structure. Ecorra, a Czech company which specializes in restoring Tatras and restored Jeff’s 1947 T-87 Tatra, fabricated the aluminum skin for the Dymaxion. To stay as true to the original 1938 Dymaxion as possbile, a 1936 Ford Flat Head V-8 was used as the power plant along with a Ford three-speed manual transmission. Hydraulic brakes are used in place of the mechanical brakes of the original Dymaxion. Anything related to safety has been updated. Radial tires are used in place of bias ply tires, seats have safety belts, etc.
As for the unique design of the Dymaxion, to say the interior is spacious would be a slight understatement. Visibility out that front scenic cruiser windshield is superb, you can see the road three feet in front of you since there is no engine compartment. With its two front wheels being the “power wheels” and single rear-wheel acts like a rudder; driving and handling take some “getting used to,” in particular on highways where 18-wheelers have created “that ridge” in the center of a lane, where the single rear-steering tire is. In the 1930s, trucks were not as big as today’s 18-wheelers and the weight they carry. As for rear visibility, there is a periscopic mirror in the roof above the driver that affords 360-degree vision with no worry of an electronic failure
It was said that if the Dymaxion had gone into production, Fuller and his design team was going to go with a conventional set up of front steering and rear-wheels being the power or driving wheels. As Jeff says, “When you’re pulling out onto a two-lane road, you have to turn the wheel first, before you move. Then as you come out, you need to turn back, because if you don’t do that, the rear end’s going to swing into oncoming traffic. Every time somebody drives it initially, it’s like they’re drunk. But once you get used to it, it’s not so bad.” In March, Jeff and “his crew” drove the Dymaxion from Nashville to the 2015 Amelia Island Concours in Florida a distance of 600 miles.
I had the distinct pleasure of riding in the Dymaxion, which “is quite a trip” in the physical and spiritual sense. Looking out the front windshield makes taking in the scenery an entirely different visual experience. You have a field of vision between 280 and 300 degree,s and the sky is the limit without ever having to move your head. You sit “high” in the “Max” but not as high as some modern day 4 x 4 pickups. The ride is smooth and comfortable, which is in no small part due to Jeff’s expertise with the vehicle.
You cannot go down the road or stop at any traffic light without scores of people smiling and waving at you. When parked, the Dymaxion is like honey to flies, except it is people swarming about it. You do not own a vehicle like the Dymaxion — or any in the Lane Motor Museum — and not like people, for people will be all you meet and talk with.
The Lane museum has a collection of 400 cars, many one-off or limited production vehicles with a good percentage being European cars rarely seen in the U.S., such at Tatra, Travant, along with mini and micro cars, an Amphicar to name just a few. Not all are on display at one time, as the theme of each exhibit changes. The museum is a great place for “kids of all ages,” a place the family can enjoy and it is educational in a fun way. When was the last time you had “fun” as in enjoyment, lighthearted pleasure. Go to the Lane Museum in Nashville, and you will know why Jeff always has a smile on his face.
