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The Cyclops Home Page
Automobili Cyclops SpA
Artwork © Stan Mott
(except where stated)
In
1957 Road & Track introduced The Cyclops I. This was the brain child
of cartoonist Stan Mott. Why, I don't know but from then on it was
treated as a real car. The last known article on R&T about the car was
in the year 2000 when it was voted one of the best cars in the century where
it came in at 51st place. In the late 50's my friends and I were very
interested in hot rods and sports cars. One day Bob Campbell and a few
others made a crude working model of the car (I was the only one that would
fit inside). We drove it through the pits at the now long gone
Riverside Raceway. 20 minutes later it was sold to some guy for $200.
A good deal at the time because it only cost about $25 to build.
Now I'm back to cars again, going to
car cruises, shows and all that. This gave me the idea to build a new
more accurate version of the famous Cyclops II. There is a web site in
the UK that had the basic dimensions.
The Cyclops was a tongue-in-both-cheeks concoction built in Italy
of old Cinzano signs and vaguely similar in shape to today's VW Beetle II
(i.e. - a half-cylinder), it had both sides identical and a huge Lucas P-100
headlamp centered in the front. There was no transmission, differential,
clutch, or starter, or any other fancy doodads; the single cylinder was
mounted vertically at the rear and the conn rod connected directly to a
cranked real axle! You just stuck your foot through the floor and pushed
back to start it going forwards and v.v. It sat on two fore-and-aft
elliptical spring leaves. Stan had an absolutely brilliant idea one time;
to ship them over here cheaply (they couldn't afford a ship), they turned
the little buggers over into the harbor, lashed a bunch together as a giant
raft, and floated them across the pond!
The following is an portion from the above site. Thank
you.
"Back in 1957, Automobili Cyclops SpA introduced the world’s smallest and
cheapest car, the Cyclops II. It was and still is made out of old CinZano
signs and costs $14.32 US. Its phenomenal sales over the last 40 years have
made it so common worldwide that only the most astute observer even notices
them on the road today!"
"Yet, did you know that the Cyclops II is race proven? That it won the
1960 Le Mans 24 Hour Race? Won the 1964 East African Safari? Won the 1965
Targa Florio? Won the 1966 Indy 500? Won the 1967 German Grand Prix? And
more?"
I decided to see if I could generate a set of 3d renderings using the
Cyclops II as the subject because I'm in the process of learning Rhino 3D
for another project. My purpose will be to have the car and all of the
documentation, old R&T mags to display at some of the Hot Rod and Classic
Car shows in So Cal. The car will be presented as if it cost $250,000
like the Boydsters and other high dollar cars. Here's what I have so far,
some are of the racing variant and others of the commercial variant.
To date I have secured a motor from Ken and that's about it. When I
retire I hope to get at it. Click on picture to see a larger view.
The following is taken from a web site I found.
On 12 Nov 00, Robert Cumberford, writing as Technical Director,
Automobili Cyclops SpA, ties down the Cyclops II drivetrain as follows:
"the very rational Piero Martini had a separate engine in the rear of the
bodywork (except in the first series of model II, where the engine lived
outside, behind the body, its spark plug protected by a small all-season
umbrella). It drove forward by chain to a double-crank jackshaft, from which
two rods linked downward and rearward to the double-crank rear axle, which
of course had no differential. This is the famous Torque-Whip Drive (the
name is registered, copyrighted and otherwise protected). Thus it is
possible to remove and replace the multi-valve single cylinder engine
without disassembling the driveline." I stand corrected to a degree but
deny the outside engine; not even the Cyclops I had any such outlandish
arrangement (sez I; Stan - help me!). Mr. Cumberford stated the next day
that "you've never seen or heard of the Cyclops I, a machine known only to
Mott, me, and Piero, who made it with his own hands." I don't buy that; I'd
swear there was an exceedingly basic model that preceded the "II" but can't
prove it. Mr. C. also wrote, "But as to the external engine placement, take
a look at Beyond Belief, the Amazing Story of the Cyclops II, Road & Track,
March 1957" (my copy is squirreled away and inaccessible); my irreverent
response was, "you Cyclopean folks are sly and may well have planted that
version then just to trip me up today!"
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