Alex Tremulis car that made 100 miles per galon!

[TUCKER]

Check it out at this site!
http://www.drive.subaru.com/Fall06_attic4.htm

[NailheadRocketman]

excellent concept. too bad most brand new Subarus are constructed of tinfoil and are going backwards in styling. they apparently dumped the aircraft themed front clips for something that looks a little like a jazzed up Kia, yuck. The front fenders on new Subaru cars can be dented in by pushing on them with your thumb, very flimsy in comparison with years past. Supposedly though, engines and transmissions have gotten better. You can hate me for saying this, but even as an old car purist, i do admire the Impreza models made a couple model years back with the round headlamps. it had a vaguely retro appearance. The WRX STI was an insane car, making 304 hp with a flat four. I took a ride in one awhile back at just about top speed on the highway and it was amazing how you could actually feel the rear end "recoil" with every shift.

[streamliner]

While taking a much needed break from the hunt for 1057's whereabouts, I came across some other interesting info on the Subaru X-100...

You would think that ending up at Subaru would be totally anti-climactic for such an illustrious career. But it was at Subaru that Alex Tremulis was able to pursue many of his original concepts, some 40 years old, with the resources of Subaru of America backing them up. Keep in mind that Tremulis preached employing streamlining to go more efficiently with less horsepower. Conversely, you could go faster with the same horsepower. Tremulis’ work constantly teetered back and forth between the two, but always with an aerodynamic flair. Subaru, and especially Walt Biggers, shared many of Tremulis’ visions for more efficient vehicles and thus a partnership was created that lasted longer than most of Tremulis’ more notable associations.

The 1980 X-100 was the fuel-efficient version of the 1964 Gyronaut X-1 that was powered by two Triumph 650’s and built purely for speed:



The Gyronaut X-1 was originally meant to hold one or two gyroscopes to keep it stable at high speeds, but these never made it onto Bonneville. Driven masterfully by Bob Leppan (on Tremulis' right), it held the record from 1966 through 1970 when Yamaha, and then Harley-Davidson topped its 245.667 mph record run by 9 mph.

Building on the Gyronaut X-1 theme, Tremulis sketched out several renderings that eventually became the X-100:





Ron Jones, one of the X-100 designers, has some fascinating details about the project at: http://www.rongineer.com/x100.html

Alex and Chrissie both celebrated the X-100’s victorious runs at Ontario Motor Speedway, and also note that the X-100 has Tremulis' Gyronaut/Gyrodynamics logo on the tail:



And Subaru enjoyed the press generated from the feat:







In a retrospective article several years later, Subaru makes parallels between the X-100 and the Tucker…