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1961 Ford Gyron

Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Interior
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Interior
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Interior
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Interior
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Interior
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Interior
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Clay Model
Ford Gyron, 1961 - Clay Model
Driving Through Future's Past - Syd Mead Gyron. This particular piece is believed to be a proposal for a motor show display.
Driving Through Future's Past - Syd Mead Gyron. This particular piece is believed to be a proposal for a motor show display.
Images: Ford; www.petersen.org; www.motorcities.org
Rating:  59    -39    +98
A gyroscopically controlled two-wheeled car called the Gyron.
The two-wheeled Gyron, however, would shortly afterward consume much of Tremulis’s effort and time. As the Farrells wrote, Tremulis – whose chief and overwhelming concern was for aerodynamics – believed his design for a two-wheeled gyroscopically balanced car would represent the ultimate in automotive aerodynamics. “In short, Tremulis expected the Gyron to be a genuine breakthrough that would influence all future car design.”

The earliest Gyron sketches were rendered in 1956, but Tremulis renewed his interest in the Gyron after learning of GM’s 1959 Firebird III concept, which was hailed as the world’s most advanced and most exotic car. Tremulis felt he could do better. At about that time, Tremulis’s superiors at Ford assigned new hire Syd Mead to work with Tremulis on the Gyron, and together they convinced Ford to let them build a full-scale version of the car. Because a gyroscope of sufficient size to keep the full-scale Gyron upright proved far too expensive for the show car, a pair of wheels on outriggers were added to the design to keep the Gyron upright on the show stand (copywriters explained them away as necessary at low speeds and noted they’d retract at higher speeds); however, its front wheel did steer via a console-mounted dial, and an electric motor did propel the fiberglass-bodied show car up to about 5 MPH. The Gyron debuted in 1961 and would be one of Tremulis’s last projects at Ford, though he would continue to pursue the idea of a two-wheeled gyro car long after he left the company. The fire that destroyed Ford’s Rotunda reportedly took the Gyron as well.

Daniel Strohl - blog.hemmings.com


Syd Mead was one of a small number of designers that worked on Ford’s Gyron, a two-wheel gyroscopically-balanced automobile. One prototype was built and displayed in 1961 then lost in a fire.

Contrary to what has been reported elsewhere, Syd did not design the 1961 Gyron concept car. He did work on the development of a gyroscopically-stabilized car, along with Bill Dayton (Dayton later went to Chrysler where he designed the interior of the Lamborghini Diablo, among other things), but the four-passenger vehicle they created was replaced by a two-seat design from Elwood Engel.

www.petersen.org; Bill Cawthon - www.promotex.ca
Other Ford
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Comments
frank
Monday, May 11, 2009
would Love to get more specs on this... 1961 ford gyron....and for the... 1958 ford volante...seems like they would be fun cars to have own...
Pete G.
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Tremulis designed this vehicle in the S Studio at Ford PDC. He knew Henry2 pretty good and told him he needed a gyro out of a military jet to make it work and that would cost around $25,000. Quite a bit of dough back then. A few weeks later Alex's boss came up to him and told him he was going to get the money for the gyro but he would have to lay off two of his co-workers. Tremulis replied, "Why don't you lay yourself off. Then we can buy two gyro's." Tremulis didn't last long after that.
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