The Dymaxion car: three wheels and a big idea.
In 1933 Buckminster Fuller unveiled a teardrop-shaped car with two wheels at the front, one at the back, the engine behind the passengers and steering from the tail. Three were built. One was in a fatal crash outside the Chicago World’s Fair, and the story Fuller told about that crash is not the one the records tell. Here is what we actually know, with every fact linked to its source.
The car, not the house or the map. Dymaxion was the brand name Fuller used for most of his inventions. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 The name went on everything from housing to world maps, and even his personal journal, the Dymaxion Chronofile. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst) This site is about the car of 1933 and 1934 only.
The Dymaxion House is a different Fuller design, an aluminium dwelling. The only remaining prototype is at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The Henry Ford
The short version
The Dymaxion car was Buckminster Fuller’s streamlined, three-wheeled car, first unveiled in July 1933. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 Only three were ever made. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022
A Ford flathead V-8 sat at the back but drove the front wheels. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst) The single rear wheel did the steering, worked by steel cables, and the car could turn in a circle only slightly bigger than its wheelbase. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022
Fuller saw it as more than a car. He disliked the press calling it the “Dymaxion car”, and imagined a later version with wings. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
On 27 October 1933 car No. 1 rolled over in Chicago, and its driver, Francis T. Turner, was killed. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
Only one original survives: car No. 2, in the permanent collection of the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst) It was never a commercial success. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
Explore the story
The storyA sketch, a socialite, a yacht designer and an old car factory.
How it workedRear engine, front drive, and steering from the tail.
The 1933 crashWhat happened in Chicago, and the story Fuller told.
What happenedThree cars: one burned, one vanished, one survived.
Tile pictures are credited on their pages and on the credits page.