1989 Sbarro Osmos #1
1989 Sbarro Osmos #1
1989 Sbarro Osmos #2
specs? any info? like why do the wheels look wierd
Andreas Preuninger, Manager of Porsche High Performance Cars: "Grandmas can use paddles. They aren't challenging."
Throw out the hubs!" exhorted Franco Sbarro at the 1989 Geneva show when he released on to die world a major innovation: die hubless wheel. The concept of a wheel without a centre to it had a sound theoretical basis, as Gordon Murray confirmed. The idea was that the wheel rotated around bearings -actually in the rim. Having the drive and braking applied directly to the run meant greater rigidity, less weight, less torque reaction, less axial and radial strain and perfectly vented braking. Sbarro had experimented with such wheels on a motorcycle a few years before; however, it was obvious that much more development was required, and tills innovative scheme was left on die shelf.
Nevertheless, the Osmos show car, which incorporated the hubless wheel, was popular at motor shows. Cleanly styled, somewhat soberly perhaps for Sbarro, it boasted a 12-cylinder engine from Jaguar.
Source : www .is-it-a-lemon.com
Last edited by Man of Steel; 10-01-2008 at 02:23 AM.
very interesting..has any more development work been done on this type of wheel?
Andreas Preuninger, Manager of Porsche High Performance Cars: "Grandmas can use paddles. They aren't challenging."
It pops up every once in a while, but I'm not sure if anyone's really tried to make it work. I imagine the rim cartels put pressure on anyone who's trying to fund the research.. a few missing family members, phone calls that are only heavy breathing, you know the thing. Like the oil giants were doing when people were proclaiming to be making super efficient engines in the 90s.
Either that or it's not as feasible as they like to think it is. It is a little surprising that someone hasn't updated it to use super powerful magnets instead of bearings yet though.
Hmm.. when's the next auto show around here...
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
looks like it was designed by hotwheels...
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