Comments on: Screw it!

Screw it!

phrontist — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:00:15 -0800

In soviet russia... screw drives you! (via)

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:05:58 -0800

It's a very cool vehicle. Just the one link would have done, mind.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:10:12 -0800

(Yeah, there is a lot of overlap between the links, but all of them add something, however minor)

By: Phire

Phire — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:12:40 -0800

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!

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:13:42 -0800

What are the benefits of such a vehicle? Why was/wasn't it mass-produced?

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:16:03 -0800

The Sierra Club just ordered a fleet of those. (not really)

By: lekvar

lekvar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:16:16 -0800

It looks like it needs a hoard of laser-modded ice-weasels driven before it while Ride of the Valkyries plays. I approve.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:18:19 -0800

I need context! Context!

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:18:41 -0800

This looks like it would be useful if you wanted to drive over a road and not have anyone follow you...

By: T.D. Strange

T.D. Strange — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:21:45 -0800

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).

By: DU

DU — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:25:13 -0800

Only in America!

By: vronsky

vronsky — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:30:05 -0800

Very cool phrontist! I'm not sure if it has been posted before, but this walking machine is pretty neat too.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:34:19 -0800

vronsky--- I am not sleeping tonight!

By: milquetoast

milquetoast — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:35:25 -0800

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.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:37:03 -0800

My God... it's full of win.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:39:27 -0800

We've done walking before.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:41:04 -0800

Man. That's just plain awesome.

By: about_time

about_time — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:55:21 -0800

No yakov smirnov tag?

By: darkripper

darkripper — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:57:36 -0800

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.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:07:16 -0800

whoa

By: Dipsomaniac

Dipsomaniac — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:09:32 -0800

Boy, that thing would suu-uck for traversing a hillside.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:09:45 -0800

What a country!

By: martinX's bellbottoms

martinX's bellbottoms — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:16:24 -0800

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.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:45:54 -0800

Huh. Screwy.

By: jpdoane

jpdoane — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:47:36 -0800

Can't imagine my driveway would hold up all that well under that

By: fungible

fungible — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:05:10 -0800

Oh internet, is there ever a day you don't surprise me?

By: steef

steef — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:16:55 -0800

Screwy won't cover it. That thing is screwed up. Screwlicious. Screwriffic. Screwifying. Screw^nth.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:32:55 -0800

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.

By: Challahtronix

Challahtronix — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:42:09 -0800

What's the difference between soviet Russia and Maxtor? In Soviet Russia screw drives you.....

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:46:15 -0800

Jeez, vronksy, the Lorax weeps again!

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:48:53 -0800

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.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:08:30 -0800

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.

By: eritain

eritain — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:29:10 -0800

/me secretly hopes someone from Ill Bethisad is watching

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:49:23 -0800

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.

By: davejay

davejay — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:58:50 -0800

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

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:59:31 -0800

German screw drive tractor Crossing the bering straight with a screw drive vehicle

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:03:12 -0800

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.

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:34:34 -0800

It's Dick Cheney's getaway car!

By: tommasz

tommasz — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:07:57 -0800

I hear there may be yet another Austin Powers movie. I could see this featuring prominently.

By: autodidact

autodidact — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:15:43 -0800

Damn, imagine getting run over by one of those!?

By: quin

quin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:19:31 -0800

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.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:32:54 -0800

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.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:40:48 -0800

I'm pretty good pals with Major Matt Mason (Mattel's Man In Space, natch) and he approves heartily.

By: Akeem

Akeem — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:34:45 -0800

What happens if you put one side in forward and the other in reverse?

By: quin

quin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:54:49 -0800

I would imagine that it spins around in a circle on it's axis.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:38:49 -0800

What happens if it hits an errant apostrophe?

By: Akeem

Akeem — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:07:06 -0800

Wouldn't it travel sideways or circle around an axis which lies outside the vehicle?