Tourette windscreen mystery continues!

[richard]

Hmmm didn't realise Tourette had schmitt wheels/brakes just like Bruetsch , how strange  I have also wondered which screen is used on my Bruetsch - before I trip over and break it !

[steven mandell]

Does the Tourette body provide some lateral stability to the tops of the front shock mounts, or is there a missing chassis piece that provides for useful chassis triangulation?
Which engine is that showing?
Is that insulative pipe wrap on the chassis tubes, and if so ..why? 

[Trident]

That's a Villiers 9E Steven - the same as in your Scootacar and Frisky Family Three.

[Bob Purton]

Hi Steve. The tops of those suspension brackets bolt to the top of the wheel arches which I guess is what you suspected. The photo is of Edwin Hammonds Tourette chassis. As the Hammonds are a family of heating engineers I suspect it IS pipe insulation. Most fibreglass shells do have some kind of rubber/foam sandwiched between it and the chassis, it stops some of the creaking!

[Bob Purton]

Hmmm didn't realise Tourette had schmitt wheels/brakes just like Bruetsch , how strange  I have also wondered which screen is used on my Bruetsch - before I trip over and break it !

You must have a very short memory then! Why am I thinking goldfish?

[richard]

Oh have we been here before ? Sorry but the list of similarities is so long .... Ah here at the bottom of page 5 

[Big Al]

Ah page five. Often one of my favourites. So much more sophisticated than page two. What was a goldfish again?

Tourette, sounding better than Frisky on suspension. Well the early ones anyway. Is it better than the Scootacar. If you like dampers, yes. Its looking good for the Villiers to perform to its maxiumum.

[Bob Purton]

Talking of suspension, I was talking to Paul Merkelt [grandson of the designer] and he told me that the prototypes used two BSA coil overs on each side and like that it was quite stable, however to save costs Progress supreme ditched the idea in favour of one each side to cut costs. At that point it handled far worse. I may have mentioned this story before but if you have the memory of a guppy it doesn't matter! 

[richard]

 .     Goldfish/guppy brutsch / tourette

[Big Al]

Hmm, shades of Tri Tech. Here is a suspension that is known to work. No, its OK, we will fit one we know doesn't, and save several shekels. Oh bother, no one is buying, as the thing is crap to drive. A shekel saved is not one made.

We go back to cars that were sorted out and that were capable of performance and handling, plenty tried it on. maximizing the minimal power of their engines. If you cannot do that, do not bother to compete, but plenty tried it on and failed. Then again never underestimate the stupidity of the public. Current fad - take one fully sorted car, alter its suspension and power characteristics and wonder why it is total crap to drive. The manufacturers learn quick and offer factory ruined options for a nice profit rather than watch the tune up merchants get it. Well done Top Gear. Perhaps the Tourette is a tuned up Breutsch - stand back and lurk amongst the ramparts of plastic castle.

[Bob Purton]

I can never understand why Egon is revered so much. A man who failed to build a single successful microcar. Some of his styling was nice but that's about it. Without bolting a proper chassis under them they were all but useless.  I have far more respect for Laurie Bond who with the art of sheet aluminium origami built quit stout little chassisless  cars.

[richard]

Hmmm remind me bob just how many cars did Mr. Merkelt design ? Herr Bruetsch is only respected for the curvy designs not the roadworthiness . And my Bruetsch has the sturdiest chassis of probably all microcars - or had you forgotten 

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Richard

There is nothing like learning from your mistakes.

Chris Thomas

[Bob Purton]

Hmmm remind me bob just how many cars did Mr. Merkelt design ? Herr Bruetsch is only respected for the curvy designs not the roadworthiness . And my Bruetsch has the sturdiest chassis of probably all microcars - or had you forgotten 

I have never seen your car, only a picture of the body shell Richard.
So why was its body bent like a banana? Surely a sturdy chassis would have kept it straight with bracing in all the right places?
You seem to have developed this idea that there is some kind of contest between a Tourette and various of Egons failures, if it was a contest as to who designed the most flops there is a clear winner! Maybe that's the appeal. They were all a huge flop financially including the Tourette, I'm just saying, as an engineer Egon was pants, as an artist he was great, I love just about everything that flowed from his pen! Laurie was perhaps the other way around. In fact its noteworthy that when Laurie did go the Egon route with the chassis less Berkeley it was not good, twisting bodyshells causing doors to fly open when cornering etc.
It would be great to have a drive of these cars so as to formulate a true opinion rather than speculation. When can I have a drive of your Bruetsch Richard? Is it nearly finished?
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[richard]

Well obviously Chris ,one learns . Look at the fend flitzer, the iso isetta Bond shopping car - it often takes someone else to develop the idea practically . Bob I think my car just sufferred from having a ton of carpet tiles stored on it for 20 years ! The floor and internal chassis were not the problem really. Progress you ask ? As I now spend half my life away from home it's just going nowhere as you well know.   ;)currently in snowy Edinburgh having left dismal Glasgow behind . Thinking of those involved in flooding much further south . I do hope we don't find out if Mopettas will float