Same here. I had a vertical crank 2hp Briggs. Took it apart, put it back together, and mounted it on a tree stump in our yard. It only took about 493 pulls of the rope start to get it going, but whoo-hoo, it actually ran!
Yes, it was kind of like that time I took apart my sisters Sturmey Archer three speed hub when I was very young and didn't figure out how to put it together until I was much older. I also took apart everything I could find that my Dad wasn't using, except his prized Bradley walk behind sickle bar mower which had a good sized Briggs & Stratton motor. Sadly, after many years of sitting idle I found the motor seized up completely. I have many other happy memories of refurbing so many motors. It was really cool to see the Briggs & Stratton hybrid in this video. Cheers!
A very valiant and fascinating effort for the day by a company not known for automobiles. Jay Leno actually did an episode on his show where he got to drive it. And, this car has one wiper because the VW Scirocco does.
Recaro made a TON of normal seats for lots of cars but also planes, trains and busses. Here they are adding value playing off the name with what looks like a slightly upgraded standard seat. Those look like the LS orange Spectrums 70s to 80s.
Fun fact: by the time this concept came around, Briggs & Stratton was no stranger to the automotive world as the company was an OEM supplier of locks & keys to the auto industry throughout most of the 20th century. The security division was eventually spun off into its own company, Strattec Security, in 1995
I remember seeing this in Motor Trend magazine back in 1980 and I thought it was so cool as I was in high school and playing around with small engines myself as a hobby back then. I believe I also read someplace that Brooks Steven’s designed the blower housing and exterior sheetmetal on that 18hp twin that’s powering that car. Great video dude!
The single wiper design was one of the quirks of the early Scirocco. A Scirocco is basically a MK1 Golf (Rabbit) chassis, but with the more slanted lower windshield of the Scirocco, it was felt that a single wiper would be sufficient. They really weren't, and when the second generation Scirocco, which was not a Giugiaro design but an internal design, this went away. Still an interesting quirk.
Actually, Citroën beat to Volkswagen when it introduced CX with one wiper in 1974. Volkswagen didn't switch from two wipers to one for its Scirocco until 1976 model year.
Having owned one the wiper was kind of cool and worked Ok. The thing that kind of made it a problem was the speeds were the same as a duel set up. The sweep of on wiper over the entire windshield instead of half it would take twice as long. Was only an issue in heavy rain, just wasn't fast enough to make high speed a high speed. High was equivalent to more of a low speed operation. That long blade might have been dangerous if they amped up the speed to give it a real high speed. That thing would really be moving to cover all the glass that fast. Might have been very sword like.
The batteries are most likely golf cart batteries. They are 6VDC lead acid batteries readily available at the time. The batteries are deep cycle batteries designed for vehicle use. The use of commonly available golf cart batteries, basically the standard in electric vehicle batteries of the day, mates well to the very pedestrian B&S engine.
There is a guy here on UA-cam that runs the Robot Cantina channel. He has taken cars (his Honda Insight is the most recent) and he put Harbor Freight lawn mower and cement mixer engines and puts them in the cars and does experiments with. Very cool concepts and when the "no more engines apocalypse for new cars" happens this would be a great work around to bring back. A hybrid Briggs and Stratton EV with modern batteries and little lawn mower engine option. Something people could install themselves and a work around from the government mandate.
His channel is just the tip of the iceberg. I would say there are a dozen other smaller YTer's who have build various Harbor Freight powered vehicles, some that are half a decade old now.
Briggs & Stratton also made a "car" way back in 1919-20. It was basically a 2 seat go-kart with a B&S engine mounted in the back, driving it's own separate wheel. If you google 'B&S Buckboard Flyer', you can see what it was like. I've seen exactly one, in a museum. I had forgotten about the 6-wheel hybrid, but it isn't a bad looking vehicle.
As a kid I mowed many yards in my neighborhood using lawnmowers with B&S engines. The engines always wore out no matter how well you maintained them definitely not the best. Then in 1982, one of the homeowners bought a lawnmower with a Honda engine! Omg a really great engine, ran perfect lasted forever & even had an oil filter. I was from then on a fan of Honda.
I concur on both your points. BS engines always were dirty, smelly, and it made no difference if you took care of them or not, they wore out. I got a chance to buy a Honda lawnmower with a plastic deck that looked brand new from a local lawn equipment dealer - the previous owner traded in mowers every year. Not only was this a great mower, but it was more fuel efficient and quieter than the BS and very little detectible fumes. I cannot stand Honduh vehicles, but they make great lawn equipment!
@@laserwizard2 Not sure why you don’t like Honda cars my family has had many of the years always great cars with zero problems. Great resale value too!
I think (don't know for sure ) but as a former 79 Scirocco owner from way back: the doors, the front windshield (including the single wiper), the dash and the seats were part of the top line Scirocco from that year.
I actually watched a video recently that actually had thos car taken out if storage in the Briggs & Stratton home office, they got it serviced and ready to run on the road! It was pretty cool watched then get it prepared to run again, and run again it did all beit slowly hahaha 😆 but what a cool video of a car I never knew existed! So look this car up on UA-cam if you haven't already seen it, and enjoy watching this very unique, one off car! Well done Briggs & Straton...
The Scirocco had a single wiper as well as the Recaro seats as optional. So I would guess they just used the complete center section of a donor Scirocco.
The Briggs & Stratton Special used a single windshield wiper because that was straight off the VW Scirocco on which it was based. As were the Recaro seats, I believe. But the gear shift lever is straight out of my 1975 Pinto. I was stuck with the Pinto, while my good friend had the Scirocco. High School was a long time ago...
Brooks Stevens also designed many of the OMC outboard cowls back in the day as well. This is pretty remarkable that Briggs came up with this idea way back in the day....
Saw this in the museum at Briggs when I worked there. MSOE used to have a small aluminum van with the same drivetrain and dual rear axles, I suspect it was donated by Briggs to the school.
In the 1970s my dad tinkered with some small engines, trying to make a few extra dollars. It didn't add up to much, but along the way we ended up with a little B&S that was factory-painted green. We thought that was unusual. Also, its output shaft was only 1/2" in diameter, the only one I have ever seen. What I really liked was that it started almost at a mere suggestion. I made a starter rope only 3 inches long, nowhere near a full wrap on the pulley. I could set the choke and start that little bugger on one or two quick pulls when it was cold. Dad insisted on selling it, much to my dismay.
I always said this about my Miata, it was WAY more fun than my Corvette, and it's my little Yamaha YZF-R3 I'm always finding myself reaching for the keys to as opposed to the bigger faster motorcycles, but I think this is taking the idea to an extreme! :D This car was even slower than my old '86 Corolla SR5 with automatic with overdrive and that's saying something, that car really couldn't get out of its own way and with the barely functioning AC on it lost about 5MPH each time the compressor engaged. :D Having said that, would i drive this if given a chance? Oh Hell YES!!!
Don't forget that engines were only part of how big Briggs & Stratton was. They have made locks keys and ignition components for General Motors since the beginning of time.
The reason for the uniwiper and the Recaro seats are because of the Scirocco (specifically Scirocoo "S" trim) components: windshield, doors, and interior (the dash is completely Scirocco sans the gauges).
They used the one wiper because that is what the Scirocco came with. Had to go with the windshield and cowl as you mentioned, also the Recaro seats would have been in the VW too.
I seem to recall that Briggs used the rear suspension dual axle arrangement from a small electric van made by another company. One of those vans was at MSOE in the late 80s, probably donated by Briggs, it had Briggs logos on it. Probably used to test the powertrain while the rest of the car was being constructed
This Briggs & Stratton Hybrid made an appearance around 1980 at my elementary school quite near to Brooks Stevens’ design studio and auto museum in Mequon, Wisconsin! Brooks Stevens would make a great deep-dive video for this channel…he had broad range and depth in both automotive and industrial design!
Brook Steven’s designed a line up of new cars for Studebaker to introduce in the mid sixties. Unfortunately Studebaker ran out of money for the car division. They are on display in the Studebaker museum in South Bend Indiana. Check out the basement that has military and lots of different designs like the Steven’s cars.
That's actually really cool! I'd be into driving something like that, but it would be nice to have it electric over fuel. Meaning the gas engine runs a large alternator that puts the electric back into the battery while making just enough to power the car at lower speed. Great video!
I read all the articles back in the day, in C&D, R&T, etc. Thanks for the memories - of actually HOLDING a magazine and seeing the same images... weird, deja vu. 🖖🙏
Very similar powertrain to many modern series plug-in hybrid cars and trucks today. Wrangler 4XE comes to mind, turbo 4 cylinder with a 100 hp electric motor between the gas engine and 8-speed transmission, then power through a conventional transfer case and axles. B&S engines were some of my first experience with gas motors during my childhood in th 80's. A well known name then.
6 volts used over 12 volts for economy of scale, at that time the 6volt gc type battery were used for many motive power applications and produced in greater numbers. thanks for your vids.
I remember this car! Never really thought about the powertrain and how forward thinking it was. Now I see the Scirocco body which I didn't notice before. Good thing they used the front parts of a Pinto instead of the rear! 🔥😅
Very interesting!! Briggs and Stratton engines are about bulletproof. I could see a car like this nowadays for short trips to the store and such and being very economical.
Yup! I remember as a high school kid who was interested in anything with four wheels picking up a magazine with this car on the cover, pretty sure it was Car and Driver. Fascinating reading and this was the first time I ever heard the word "hybrid" as applied to anything other than gardening. 🤣 What I remember most to this day was just how slow this car was, the acceleration was probably about like my old Corolla SR5 or a little worse with "all systems running"--nothing exciting but manageable for the time. But tested with gas only it was horrendous, maybe taking upwards of a minute to reach 60mph! I don't remember the MPG figures from their test but it should've been pretty good. And I was so disappointed on reading they had no intention of putting it into production! 🤣
The fuel tank mounted behind the front bumper is a nice touch ;-) But, of course, this was not intended for production, and they obviously did it for packaging reasons.
when I was in high school in the late 70's we saw a old VW Beatle that when the engine blew up the owner put a briggs and Stratton engine in to replace it, Used it to get around town. We were told under ideal conditions could get up to about 45 MPH
Brooks Stevens had a long term relationship with OMC and did all the DECO look Johnson, Evenrude and LAWNBOY designs. And also Briggs and Stratton made the keys for GM cars for decades.
I remember the craze of making battery &small generators after the 1973-ish fuel crisis. Interesting how Briggs & Stratton was kind of late to the show. Seems like we had adjusted to $0.50/gallon gasoline by then.😎
Thunderbirds are GO! 😃I was late to the game on that Gerry Anderson series, read about it in the early 1980's but finally saw the episodes a few years ago on them being available on Apple's iTunes, but that also meant I got to enjoy it as new! Same for Stingray, and I'm catching up on Supercar on youtube! I also seem to remember there was a racing car, seems like the name was ELF? Which had 2 sets of smaller wheels in front, 1 bigger set in back.
My first impression in 1980 was how silly it looked. The public was softened up to the 6-wheel concept by the success of of Tyrell P-6 Grand Prix car of '76, though that one had the duallies up front. I do recall finding the specifications fascinating, if overly complex. That impression persists despite the overall effectiveness and fuel efficiency of the proven hybrids of today. In any case, the concept got its point across, and must have influenced future designs.
We joked with many people that drove tiny cars in the 80s and 90s that they had Briggs and Stratton engines. But this is the first time I learned they ACTUALLY made one! 😮
Before I even watch the video, I'm going to test my memory and say that I saw it in Mechanix Illustrated; second choice, Popular Mechanics. There was another car/motorcycle, too, made of foam panels covered in fiberglass. Good times.
It's pretty funky, but for my money, the absolute funkiest concept car is GM's Firebird I of 1953: a single-seat, bubble-canopied, gas-turbine-powered car that looked like nothing so much as a mostly-wingless X-1A and had actual aerobraking flaps.
They must have changed the tunnel. The MK1 Golf chassis has a squared tunnel that runs from front to rear to carry the exhaust. As we see at 8:21, there is probably a Ford transmission and Ford rear end for the middle axle, this means that the Golf Chassis has been heavily modified, probably with a Pinto transmission tunnel, a Scirocco has a LOT more room right there where the shifter is located. Apparently both rear axles were supported via a pair of long leaf springs. Pretty bizarre, and a recipe for tire wear during turns. A total of 26 hp....Versus 3200 pounds? Obviously this was a simple demonstration car for shows, and that is good because this thing would literally be DANGEROUSLY slow on the road! Still very cool. Back at that time, I was flying radio control model airplanes with nickel cadmium batteries that were very lightweight. Though they were not cheap at all, I only need a few of them. If you really want a concept car like this to work, you would have thought they would have used NICAD's versus silly lead acid batteries.
I would like to see a hybrid like this produced today with Li-ion batteries instead. Batteries enough for maybe 100 or only 50 km and then a 20 hp combustion engine as a range extender for long trips. Then I could use only electricity like 350 days/year, not have so large and expensive batteries and still be able to make a few long trips without the hassle of slow recharging.
Early VW Siroccos had a single wiper arm/blade. It's possible and it looks like they used the cowl and windshield from Sirocco...along with the dash and doors.
The Dale was another car that had a lawnmower engine, though it had no electric drivetrain. The transvestite-conman promoting it was mainly after investor cash and I believe said person disappeared when the scam started unraveling in mid-1975. Another interesting model that really was too far ahead of its time was the Checker Model D, a Honda-Accord-sized FWD car with a transverse inline 6 cylinder engine. Checker built 3 prototypes in 1945-1946, but decided against further developing the car due to high production and maintenance costs.
back in high school 1980 for me freshman year ,we had industrial arts an we would take apart B and S engines that people donated to the school when their mower died . 99 percent of the time we got them to run again those motors were great I dont care what anybody says all made in the USA then!
Something about the body styling makes me think Chrysler of the early 1980's. Dodge and Plymouth made some "sporty" cars in that era that similar angular contours.
Interesting video. GM claimed that a 2.5 liter 1982 Chevy Celebrity needed 12 hp to maintain 55 mph and that was probably true. Briggs & Stratton! In the summers of '86 and '87 I cut grass between years of college for a guy in Trenton who was the local wrestling coach, Dave Thomas. One of the places we cut was Jack Telnack's house, but mostly Detroit Edison plants. The B&S engines with one cylinder even back then were JUNK. Their flat twin was decent, we had one walk behind mower that had this, but the other mower had a 12 hp Kawasaki single that was flawless and the Graveley walk behind had a Kohler 14 hp single that was also very good. To this day I will not have a Briggs & Stratton on my property. Back in the '70's my dad swore at these things with the simple suction carburetor. I bought a lawnmower for my first house and it had a Tecumseh engine with a bowl carburetor and it was night and day! That thing always started by the second pull. My dad had an '80 Chevette with the TH200 automatic transmission; It's top speed was 65 mph..... The Briggs & Stratton car in this video? The doors come from the MK1 Volkswagen Scirocco. Look it up via pictures, you will see it instantly. Thats where Brooks Stevens got his inspiration. That, and all they did was modify a Scirocco to build this car.
What drives me nuts is we tout these modern electric cars as cutting edge yet we had this car nearly 40+ years ago with a quarter of he electronics and probably the cost too? and from a lawnmower company? Who says a simple yet effectively cheap car isn't sustainable? Take some notes Big Three!
I read an article about a gm stirlec 1, it was another concept car, like a modern hybrid but using a small stirling engine to charge batteries. would be awesome if you could dig something up about it.
To summarize: 1) Briggs & Stratton built a HYBRID car 2) Tandem rear axles 3) Bodywork by Weinermobile stylist 4) Richard Petty drove it I'm gonna need to lay down for a while.
Ahhh yes the Briggs and Stratton ... 1st engine i took apart as a kid😚....im sure ill get it🤞hammered back together one of these days
Same here. 1st time visualizing what the heck "4-stroke cycle" meant. Then came the minibikes, go-carts, motorcycles...fun times.
Yes, in high school, the "junior auto shop" class, called "Power Tech" involved taking these apart.
Same here. I had a vertical crank 2hp Briggs. Took it apart, put it back together, and mounted it on a tree stump in our yard. It only took about 493 pulls of the rope start to get it going, but whoo-hoo, it actually ran!
Yes, it was kind of like that time I took apart my sisters Sturmey Archer three speed hub when I was very young and didn't figure out how to put it together until I was much older. I also took apart everything I could find that my Dad wasn't using, except his prized Bradley walk behind sickle bar mower which had a good sized Briggs & Stratton motor. Sadly, after many years of sitting idle I found the motor seized up completely. I have many other happy memories of refurbing so many motors. It was really cool to see the Briggs & Stratton hybrid in this video. Cheers!
I took apart a Tecumseh 5hp engine in shop class in highschool lol 😅
A very valiant and fascinating effort for the day by a company not known for automobiles. Jay Leno actually did an episode on his show where he got to drive it. And, this car has one wiper because the VW Scirocco does.
Some of the photos Adam used are from the Jay Leno video
I had two of those first generation Sciroccos, yes there was only one windshield wiper!
Recaro made a TON of normal seats for lots of cars but also planes, trains and busses. Here they are adding value playing off the name with what looks like a slightly upgraded standard seat. Those look like the LS orange Spectrums 70s to 80s.
Nothing better than to hear Adam talk about a vehicle like this.
I love it because of it's engineering simplicity. The every person's hybrid. Cheap and fixable.
Briggs & Stratton !!!!! They powered my first few Go-Karts and three or four Mini-Bikes, "Oh" and the stupid lawn mower.
I had one of those minibikes. If I remember correctly, it was a Bronco.
Fun fact: by the time this concept came around, Briggs & Stratton was no stranger to the automotive world as the company was an OEM supplier of locks & keys to the auto industry throughout most of the 20th century. The security division was eventually spun off into its own company, Strattec Security, in 1995
I remember seeing this in Motor Trend magazine back in 1980 and I thought it was so cool as I was in high school and playing around with small engines myself as a hobby back then.
I believe I also read someplace that Brooks Steven’s designed the blower housing and exterior sheetmetal on that 18hp twin that’s powering that car.
Great video dude!
I think I first saw it there as well, or maybe Popular Science.
They really did get a lot of "free" marketing from magazines back then.
The single wiper design was one of the quirks of the early Scirocco. A Scirocco is basically a MK1 Golf (Rabbit) chassis, but with the more slanted lower windshield of the Scirocco, it was felt that a single wiper would be sufficient. They really weren't, and when the second generation Scirocco, which was not a Giugiaro design but an internal design, this went away. Still an interesting quirk.
Actually, Citroën beat to Volkswagen when it introduced CX with one wiper in 1974. Volkswagen didn't switch from two wipers to one for its Scirocco until 1976 model year.
Having owned one the wiper was kind of cool and worked Ok. The thing that kind of made it a problem was the speeds were the same as a duel set up. The sweep of on wiper over the entire windshield instead of half it would take twice as long. Was only an issue in heavy rain, just wasn't fast enough to make high speed a high speed. High was equivalent to more of a low speed operation. That long blade might have been dangerous if they amped up the speed to give it a real high speed. That thing would really be moving to cover all the glass that fast. Might have been very sword like.
Seats have also been taken from the Scirocco, looks like they took have the chassis of it .
The batteries are most likely golf cart batteries. They are 6VDC lead acid batteries readily available at the time. The batteries are deep cycle batteries designed for vehicle use. The use of commonly available golf cart batteries, basically the standard in electric vehicle batteries of the day, mates well to the very pedestrian B&S engine.
There is a guy here on UA-cam that runs the Robot Cantina channel. He has taken cars (his Honda Insight is the most recent) and he put Harbor Freight lawn mower and cement mixer engines and puts them in the cars and does experiments with. Very cool concepts and when the "no more engines apocalypse for new cars" happens this would be a great work around to bring back. A hybrid Briggs and Stratton EV with modern batteries and little lawn mower engine option. Something people could install themselves and a work around from the government mandate.
His channel is just the tip of the iceberg. I would say there are a dozen other smaller YTer's who have build various Harbor Freight powered vehicles, some that are half a decade old now.
I can hear. the theme music from the robot cantina channel in my head now, haha
B & S is / was a major manufacturer of key switches for auto use.
They spun off that division in 1995, they are now known as Strattec Security Corporation.
I was going to comment on that. GM used Briggs and Stratton keys
@@Buzz-vz2js I first knew that when I noticed that my grandfather's Allis Chalmers farm tractor had a B & S key.
Only Adam would find the obscurest of obscurest concept car!!! Bravo Adam, Bravo!!!~
Not a bad effort considering it was their first try. Decent looking car in my opinion.
when they took the doors off the Scirocco, they saw the seats and said "hey lets take them too."
Jay Leno drove this car a few years ago. The video is still available on UA-cam.
I had no idea. Briggs and Stratton motors in go-carts, oh the memories.
The headlights look a bit like The Dodge Magnum’s headlights.
Briggs & Stratton also made a "car" way back in 1919-20. It was basically a 2 seat go-kart with a B&S engine mounted in the back, driving it's own separate wheel. If you google 'B&S Buckboard Flyer', you can see what it was like. I've seen exactly one, in a museum. I had forgotten about the 6-wheel hybrid, but it isn't a bad looking vehicle.
Briggs also built a big touring car with a 2 stroke engine in about 1908. But they ultimately decided to not go into the auto business
@@Wiencourager I did not know that!
At a local fair around 1982, I saw a three wheeled micro car called a " Freeway" that used a single cylinder 16hp Briggs and Stratton engine...
As a kid I mowed many yards in my neighborhood using lawnmowers with B&S engines.
The engines always wore out no matter how well you maintained them definitely not the best.
Then in 1982, one of the homeowners bought a lawnmower with a Honda engine!
Omg a really great engine, ran perfect lasted forever & even had an oil filter.
I was from then on a fan of Honda.
i had two b&s engines in my life both dropped valves. i heard the older side valve engines were reliable though.
I concur on both your points. BS engines always were dirty, smelly, and it made no difference if you took care of them or not, they wore out. I got a chance to buy a Honda lawnmower with a plastic deck that looked brand new from a local lawn equipment dealer - the previous owner traded in mowers every year. Not only was this a great mower, but it was more fuel efficient and quieter than the BS and very little detectible fumes. I cannot stand Honduh vehicles, but they make great lawn equipment!
You're not wrong but sometimes you can get a dozen B/S for the price of one Honda
@@laserwizard2 Not sure why you don’t like Honda cars my family has had many of the years always great cars with zero problems.
Great resale value too!
@@laserwizard2How would they wear out? Oil burning? Knocking? No compression? All of the above?
They missed a couple of features on this one. I was hoping to see a mower deck underneath and turf tires all around 😂😂
Great video!! Thanks
One of the coolest vehicles and videos you have ever put on this video, Adam! 😎👍
Floor scrubber's and floor buffers still use 6 volt batteries
I don't know about old electric golf carts
It almost looks like a dodge Omni 024
I think (don't know for sure ) but as a former 79 Scirocco owner from way back: the doors, the front windshield (including the single wiper), the dash and the seats were part of the top line Scirocco from that year.
I actually watched a video recently that actually had thos car taken out if storage in the Briggs & Stratton home office, they got it serviced and ready to run on the road! It was pretty cool watched then get it prepared to run again, and run again it did all beit slowly hahaha 😆 but what a cool video of a car I never knew existed! So look this car up on UA-cam if you haven't already seen it, and enjoy watching this very unique, one off car! Well done Briggs & Straton...
The Scirocco had a single wiper as well as the Recaro seats as optional. So I would guess they just used the complete center section of a donor Scirocco.
The Briggs & Stratton Special used a single windshield wiper because that was straight off the VW Scirocco on which it was based. As were the Recaro seats, I believe. But the gear shift lever is straight out of my 1975 Pinto. I was stuck with the Pinto, while my good friend had the Scirocco. High School was a long time ago...
Brooks Stevens also designed many of the OMC outboard cowls back in the day as well. This is pretty remarkable that Briggs came up with this idea way back in the day....
Saw this in the museum at Briggs when I worked there. MSOE used to have a small aluminum van with the same drivetrain and dual rear axles, I suspect it was donated by Briggs to the school.
People say an underpowered car has a lawnmower engine. Well, this is actually does!
Adam, The rear section looks like it should be on tracks rather than wheels. 😁
It had Recaro seats and one wiper from the Scirocco. I had same seats in my Scirocco.
In the 1970s my dad tinkered with some small engines, trying to make a few extra dollars. It didn't add up to much,
but along the way we ended up with a little B&S that was factory-painted green. We thought that was unusual.
Also, its output shaft was only 1/2" in diameter, the only one I have ever seen. What I really liked was that
it started almost at a mere suggestion. I made a starter rope only 3 inches long, nowhere near a full wrap on the pulley.
I could set the choke and start that little bugger on one or two quick pulls when it was cold.
Dad insisted on selling it, much to my dismay.
The hood says AMC to me? Kenosha was just down the road ehh
So do the rims. They really look like AMC to me.
It's always more fun to drive fast in a slow car, than slow in a fast car.
I always said this about my Miata, it was WAY more fun than my Corvette, and it's my little Yamaha YZF-R3 I'm always finding myself reaching for the keys to as opposed to the bigger faster motorcycles, but I think this is taking the idea to an extreme! :D This car was even slower than my old '86 Corolla SR5 with automatic with overdrive and that's saying something, that car really couldn't get out of its own way and with the barely functioning AC on it lost about 5MPH each time the compressor engaged. :D Having said that, would i drive this if given a chance? Oh Hell YES!!!
Don't forget that engines were only part of how big Briggs & Stratton was. They have made locks keys and ignition components for General Motors since the beginning of time.
The reason for the uniwiper and the Recaro seats are because of the Scirocco (specifically Scirocoo "S" trim) components: windshield, doors, and interior (the dash is completely Scirocco sans the gauges).
please do more quirky car concepts. Love your videos.
They used the one wiper because that is what the Scirocco came with. Had to go with the windshield and cowl as you mentioned, also the Recaro seats would have been in the VW too.
This tops your list!
I seem to recall that Briggs used the rear suspension dual axle arrangement from a small electric van made by another company. One of those vans was at MSOE in the late 80s, probably donated by Briggs, it had Briggs logos on it. Probably used to test the powertrain while the rest of the car was being constructed
This Briggs & Stratton Hybrid made an appearance around 1980 at my elementary school quite near to Brooks Stevens’ design studio and auto museum in Mequon, Wisconsin!
Brooks Stevens would make a great deep-dive video for this channel…he had broad range and depth in both automotive and industrial design!
Brook Steven’s designed a line up of new cars for Studebaker to introduce in the mid sixties. Unfortunately Studebaker ran out of money for the car division. They are on display in the Studebaker museum in South Bend Indiana. Check out the basement that has military and lots of different designs like the Steven’s cars.
thank you Adam. This was an education.
That's actually really cool! I'd be into driving something like that, but it would be nice to have it electric over fuel. Meaning the gas engine runs a large alternator that puts the electric back into the battery while making just enough to power the car at lower speed. Great video!
I read all the articles back in the day, in C&D, R&T, etc. Thanks for the memories - of actually HOLDING a magazine and seeing the same images... weird, deja vu.
🖖🙏
Same. It looked so cool. The Briggs & Stratton angle just made it that much cooler to me at the time.
Very similar powertrain to many modern series plug-in hybrid cars and trucks today. Wrangler 4XE comes to mind, turbo 4 cylinder with a 100 hp electric motor between the gas engine and 8-speed transmission, then power through a conventional transfer case and axles. B&S engines were some of my first experience with gas motors during my childhood in th 80's. A well known name then.
Love it! Good looking car (not surprising since Brooks Stevens designed it).
Compared to most electric powered cars at the time, this looks stunning!
There were some guys on UA-cam who put this B&S 18 hp.v-twin engine into a tiny King Midget car. It managed to do 65 mph quite easily.
6 volts used over 12 volts for economy of scale, at that time the 6volt gc type battery were used for many motive power applications and produced in greater numbers. thanks for your vids.
I remember this car! Never really thought about the powertrain and how forward thinking it was. Now I see the Scirocco body which I didn't notice before. Good thing they used the front parts of a Pinto instead of the rear! 🔥😅
Many hot rodders use "Mustang II" front ends, which are actually Pinto.
BTW, the flammable Pinto urban legend lives on,apparently.😉
Very interesting!! Briggs and Stratton engines are about bulletproof. I could see a car like this nowadays for short trips to the store and such and being very economical.
One vehicle I’d do a segment on is the 1963 Chrysler Turbine Car.
I think Jay Leno's Garage on YT did a video on that car.
I remember this car on the cover of Car&Driver or Hot Rod or...(?). First time seing the word "hybrid".
Yup! I remember as a high school kid who was interested in anything with four wheels picking up a magazine with this car on the cover, pretty sure it was Car and Driver. Fascinating reading and this was the first time I ever heard the word "hybrid" as applied to anything other than gardening. 🤣 What I remember most to this day was just how slow this car was, the acceleration was probably about like my old Corolla SR5 or a little worse with "all systems running"--nothing exciting but manageable for the time. But tested with gas only it was horrendous, maybe taking upwards of a minute to reach 60mph! I don't remember the MPG figures from their test but it should've been pretty good. And I was so disappointed on reading they had no intention of putting it into production! 🤣
The fuel tank mounted behind the front bumper is a nice touch ;-) But, of course, this was not intended for production, and they obviously did it for packaging reasons.
when I was in high school in the late 70's we saw a old VW Beatle that when the engine blew up the owner put a briggs and Stratton engine in to replace it, Used it to get around town. We were told under ideal conditions could get up to about 45 MPH
Fascinating video. Interesting toping. Knowledgeable presentation.
Brooks Stevens had a long term relationship with OMC and did all the DECO look Johnson, Evenrude and LAWNBOY designs. And also Briggs and Stratton made the keys for GM cars for decades.
I have a horizontally opposed B&S engine that is probably the same . It's in a Sears Suburban garden tractor.
I remember the craze of making battery &small generators after the 1973-ish fuel crisis. Interesting how Briggs & Stratton was kind of late to the show. Seems like we had adjusted to $0.50/gallon gasoline by then.😎
Ms. Penelope's Rolls had six wheels too, but the four were upfront.
Thunderbirds are GO! 😃I was late to the game on that Gerry Anderson series, read about it in the early 1980's but finally saw the episodes a few years ago on them being available on Apple's iTunes, but that also meant I got to enjoy it as new! Same for Stingray, and I'm catching up on Supercar on youtube! I also seem to remember there was a racing car, seems like the name was ELF? Which had 2 sets of smaller wheels in front, 1 bigger set in back.
Briggs & Scrapiron built a very innovative car! Now I feel better about having to rebuild the plastic carburetor on my walk behind lawnmower.
"Breaks and Scrap'em"
My first impression in 1980 was how silly it looked. The public was softened up to the 6-wheel concept by the success of of Tyrell P-6 Grand Prix car of '76, though that one had the duallies up front. I do recall finding the specifications fascinating, if overly complex. That impression persists despite the overall effectiveness and fuel efficiency of the proven hybrids of today. In any case, the concept got its point across, and must have influenced future designs.
Fascinating design!
1980 Scirroco had single wipers. My son owned one back in '89.
Possibly has an electric motor out of a fork truck which most are also 72 volt !
I grew up in the Milwaukee area. They brought that to my school for Earth Day, If I remember correctly.
Hot wheels or matchbox should do a diecast line of concept cars. This one would be awesome
Awesome nobody ever talks about the B&S anymore
We joked with many people that drove tiny cars in the 80s and 90s that they had Briggs and Stratton engines. But this is the first time I learned they ACTUALLY made one! 😮
Briggs and Stratton...Who knew, I didn't!
Before I even watch the video, I'm going to test my memory and say that I saw it in Mechanix Illustrated; second choice, Popular Mechanics. There was another car/motorcycle, too, made of foam panels covered in fiberglass. Good times.
It's pretty funky, but for my money, the absolute funkiest concept car is GM's Firebird I of 1953: a single-seat, bubble-canopied, gas-turbine-powered car that looked like nothing so much as a mostly-wingless X-1A and had actual aerobraking flaps.
They must have changed the tunnel. The MK1 Golf chassis has a squared tunnel that runs from front to rear to carry the exhaust. As we see at 8:21, there is probably a Ford transmission and Ford rear end for the middle axle, this means that the Golf Chassis has been heavily modified, probably with a Pinto transmission tunnel, a Scirocco has a LOT more room right there where the shifter is located. Apparently both rear axles were supported via a pair of long leaf springs. Pretty bizarre, and a recipe for tire wear during turns.
A total of 26 hp....Versus 3200 pounds? Obviously this was a simple demonstration car for shows, and that is good because this thing would literally be DANGEROUSLY slow on the road!
Still very cool. Back at that time, I was flying radio control model airplanes with nickel cadmium batteries that were very lightweight. Though they were not cheap at all, I only need a few of them. If you really want a concept car like this to work, you would have thought they would have used NICAD's versus silly lead acid batteries.
that thing was never meant to leave the driveway
I would like to see a hybrid like this produced today with Li-ion batteries instead. Batteries enough for maybe 100 or only 50 km and then a 20 hp combustion engine as a range extender for long trips. Then I could use only electricity like 350 days/year, not have so large and expensive batteries and still be able to make a few long trips without the hassle of slow recharging.
Definitely see that Pinto/Mustang II shifter - and a Ford turn signal stalk as well.
I purchased a new 1979 VW Scirocco in the same color as the photo. I loved my Scirocco, it was great fun but not much faster than a lawn mower.
I've never heard of it before but I think it looks great.
This car could be built with today's lightweight battery tech and probably would be competitive
Early VW Siroccos had a single wiper arm/blade. It's possible and it looks like they used the cowl and windshield from Sirocco...along with the dash and doors.
The Dale was another car that had a lawnmower engine, though it had no electric drivetrain. The transvestite-conman promoting it was mainly after investor cash and I believe said person disappeared when the scam started unraveling in mid-1975. Another interesting model that really was too far ahead of its time was the Checker Model D, a Honda-Accord-sized FWD car with a transverse inline 6 cylinder engine. Checker built 3 prototypes in 1945-1946, but decided against further developing the car due to high production and maintenance costs.
Pretty cool🤔👍🏾
Only takes 15hp to keep a car moving 55mph. But you have to accelerate it. An extra axle needed to support the additional weight is a clear negative.
Be awesome to take this to a car show. Plus can get vital parts at Home Depot haha
So cool! I'd love to get my hands on one of these and do a little upgrades. Maybe a 4x4.
back in high school 1980 for me freshman year ,we had industrial arts an we would take apart B and S engines that people donated to the school when their mower died . 99 percent of the time we got them to run again those motors were great I dont care what anybody says all made in the USA then!
Something about the body styling makes me think Chrysler of the early 1980's. Dodge and Plymouth made some "sporty" cars in that era that similar angular contours.
Interesting video. GM claimed that a 2.5 liter 1982 Chevy Celebrity needed 12 hp to maintain 55 mph and that was probably true. Briggs & Stratton! In the summers of '86 and '87 I cut grass between years of college for a guy in Trenton who was the local wrestling coach, Dave Thomas. One of the places we cut was Jack Telnack's house, but mostly Detroit Edison plants. The B&S engines with one cylinder even back then were JUNK. Their flat twin was decent, we had one walk behind mower that had this, but the other mower had a 12 hp Kawasaki single that was flawless and the Graveley walk behind had a Kohler 14 hp single that was also very good. To this day I will not have a Briggs & Stratton on my property. Back in the '70's my dad swore at these things with the simple suction carburetor. I bought a lawnmower for my first house and it had a Tecumseh engine with a bowl carburetor and it was night and day! That thing always started by the second pull.
My dad had an '80 Chevette with the TH200 automatic transmission; It's top speed was 65 mph.....
The Briggs & Stratton car in this video? The doors come from the MK1 Volkswagen Scirocco. Look it up via pictures, you will see it instantly. Thats where Brooks Stevens got his inspiration. That, and all they did was modify a Scirocco to build this car.
What drives me nuts is we tout these modern electric cars as cutting edge yet we had this car nearly 40+ years ago with a quarter of he electronics and probably the cost too? and from a lawnmower company? Who says a simple yet effectively cheap car isn't sustainable? Take some notes Big Three!
Big three are not so big nor three anymore
I read an article about a gm stirlec 1, it was another concept car, like a modern hybrid but using a small stirling engine to charge batteries. would be awesome if you could dig something up about it.
Too much fun - I must have one...
The VW Scirocco also had a single windshield wiper, so that's where they got it from.
Wonder if you could put a truck body on that! A six wheeler is kinda cool!
To summarize:
1) Briggs & Stratton built a HYBRID car
2) Tandem rear axles
3) Bodywork by Weinermobile stylist
4) Richard Petty drove it
I'm gonna need to lay down for a while.
You got it right.
I think it's hilarious they added a 3rd set of tires to accommodate the electric drive train.
So far ahead of it's time! Brilliant. But why not skinny tyres on 3rd axle. Less drag
Adam, looks to me like a Renault of those late 70's/ early 80s