Screw it!

April 15, 2008 5:00 PM

In soviet russia... screw drives you! (via)
posted by phrontist (44 comments total)

It's a very cool vehicle.

Just the one link would have done, mind.
posted by Artw at 5:05 PM on April 15, 2008

(Yeah, there is a lot of overlap between the links, but all of them add something, however minor)
posted by phrontist at 5:10 PM on April 15, 2008

Ohhhhh man. Watching that thing drive is mildly terrifying. I can almost hear a high-pitched screeching sound accompanying the turning of the screw, its equivalent of cackling gleefully. That thing looks like it could bore into your soul and destroy you from the inside out or something.

Or maybe I need more sleep.

Either way, cool post!
posted by Phire at 5:12 PM on April 15, 2008

What are the benefits of such a vehicle?
Why was/wasn't it mass-produced?
posted by Dizzy at 5:13 PM on April 15, 2008

It looks like it needs a hoard of laser-modded ice-weasels driven before it while Ride of the Valkyries plays. I approve.
posted by lekvar at 5:16 PM on April 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I need context!
Context!
posted by Dizzy at 5:18 PM on April 15, 2008

This looks like it would be useful if you wanted to drive over a road and not have anyone follow you...
posted by Citizen Premier at 5:18 PM on April 15, 2008

Well, there's no suspension, which means every time it drops the vehicle takes the full brunt of the impact. Can't be good for any kind of electronic or cameras or anything that needs to be somewhat stable (like people, ouch).
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:21 PM on April 15, 2008

Only in America!
posted by DU at 5:25 PM on April 15, 2008

Very cool phrontist!

I'm not sure if it has been posted before, but this walking machine is pretty neat too.
posted by vronsky at 5:30 PM on April 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

vronsky--- I am not sleeping tonight!
posted by Dizzy at 5:34 PM on April 15, 2008

There's a short comic scene in this somewhere -- a scene between a Russian engineer and an embittered tank commander near the end of the cold war.
posted by milquetoast at 5:35 PM on April 15, 2008

My God... it's full of win.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:37 PM on April 15, 2008

We've done walking before.
posted by phrontist at 5:39 PM on April 15, 2008

Man. That's just plain awesome.
posted by cortex at 5:41 PM on April 15, 2008

No yakov smirnov tag?
posted by about_time at 5:55 PM on April 15, 2008

The walking machine looks like something from a ghost in the shell page.

The FPP truly made me lol due to the fact I wasn't really sure what to expect.
posted by darkripper at 5:57 PM on April 15, 2008

whoa
posted by humannaire at 6:07 PM on April 15, 2008

Boy, that thing would suu-uck for traversing a hillside.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 6:09 PM on April 15, 2008

What a country!
posted by blue_beetle at 6:09 PM on April 15, 2008

Sweet. Ten bucks if you post this to chief delphi and get a discussion going about whether this sort of drive would be legal in FIRST.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 6:16 PM on April 15, 2008

Huh. Screwy.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:45 PM on April 15, 2008

Can't imagine my driveway would hold up all that well under that
posted by jpdoane at 6:47 PM on April 15, 2008

Oh internet, is there ever a day you don't surprise me?
posted by fungible at 7:05 PM on April 15, 2008

Screwy won't cover it. That thing is screwed up. Screwlicious. Screwriffic. Screwifying. Screw^nth.
posted by steef at 7:16 PM on April 15, 2008

Now that is how to go off roading. It would rip the crap out of anything it drives over, but very cool, and it can be amphibious if the screws are hollow.
posted by caddis at 7:32 PM on April 15, 2008

What's the difference between soviet Russia and Maxtor?

In Soviet Russia screw drives you.....
posted by Challahtronix at 7:42 PM on April 15, 2008

Imagine the roadkill that thing would leave behind (shudder). Vronsky, that walking machine just freaked me out - I was oddly glad to see the human sitting in the cab.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 8:48 PM on April 15, 2008

Yeah I was gonna make a Seuss reference too B-han! (mediocre minds think alike;)


And Dizzy, I think Major Matt Mason would look right at home driving either the Russian screwmobile or the walking machine.
posted by vronsky at 9:08 PM on April 15, 2008

/me secretly hopes someone from Ill Bethisad is watching
posted by eritain at 9:29 PM on April 15, 2008

Sometimes, Communism Actually Rules Because We Could All Use More Ekranoplan in Our Lives

Have we ever had a big ekranoplan post? Because ekranoplan are awesome.
posted by Artw at 9:49 PM on April 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Imagine if someone had invented that when cars were new, in lieu of using wheels, because there were so few paved roads. We'd literally have a world full of vehicles that didn't need roads, and roads would in fact be a bad thing (because of the damage our vehicles would cause.)

THIS THOUGHT FILLS ME WITH AWESOME.

plus they'd be nuclear powered
posted by davejay at 9:58 PM on April 15, 2008

German screw drive tractor

Crossing the bering straight with a screw drive vehicle
posted by Artw at 9:59 PM on April 15, 2008

Oh, and now my computer is complaining that one opf those sites I've been looking at is trying to install a trojan, so, um, be careful.
posted by Artw at 10:03 PM on April 15, 2008

It's Dick Cheney's getaway car!
posted by maryh at 11:34 PM on April 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I hear there may be yet another Austin Powers movie. I could see this featuring prominently.
posted by tommasz at 6:07 AM on April 16, 2008

Damn, imagine getting run over by one of those!?
posted by autodidact at 6:15 AM on April 16, 2008

What are the benefits of such a vehicle?

They built something like this on Junkyard Wars/ Scrapyard Challenge back in the day. If I recall correctly, the idea was that the Archimedes screw as a propulsion device will run on any kind of surface (Though poor on paved roads, it is quite good at mud, snow, and if the vehicle is designed to float, it is supposed to be excellent in water.)

And unlike a tire, it won't go flat, nor will it throw a track like a tank tread. Basically, it's for really nasty conditions like arctic travel, where you don't know what you are going to encounter, but absolutely can not afford to get stranded because your vehicle got stuck.
posted by quin at 11:19 AM on April 16, 2008

Ideal for picking up cosmonauts on the tundra, apparently.

So it’s not just a completely wacky vehicle design, it’s a completely wacky vehickle design FOR CARRYING SPACEMEN.
posted by Artw at 11:32 AM on April 16, 2008

I'm pretty good pals with Major Matt Mason (Mattel's Man In Space, natch) and he approves heartily.
posted by Dizzy at 6:40 PM on April 16, 2008

What happens if you put one side in forward and the other in reverse?
posted by Akeem at 12:34 AM on April 17, 2008

I would imagine that it spins around in a circle on it's axis.
posted by quin at 7:54 AM on April 17, 2008

What happens if it hits an errant apostrophe?
posted by Dizzy at 8:38 AM on April 17, 2008

Wouldn't it travel sideways or circle around an axis which lies outside the vehicle?
posted by Akeem at 2:07 AM on April 18, 2008