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Friday, May 14, 2010

Everything's Better When You Add 93 Years And Japan



That's an Octoauto. It was the brainchild of one Milton Reeves, who one day watched a train go by and said 'Look at that smooth ride it's getting. It must be all those wheels! If I put them all on a car, it will have a smooth ride too!'

Never mind that a train runs on metal rails while a car runs on what is essentially packed rocks. On 1911 roads. Or that more wheels means a much larger turning circle. Or that the damn thing just looked ugly as sin.

Absolutely nobody wanted it. Not a single order came in. Reeves' solution: make a six-wheeled car called the Sextoauto. That didn't work out too well either.

Reeves also invented the muffler, so he did have that.

Many years passed.

Cars are more advanced, roads are more paved, and in 2004, of all the things to look into, a team at Japan's Kelo University tried the Octoauto again. As an electric car.

Let us compare it in a drag race to a Porsche 911.

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