Auto Design Fail: Ford’s Experimental "Wrist-Twist" Steering Wheel(s) from 1965

Ford-wrist-twist.jpg

We all know the value of bringing in an outsider to shake things up creatively, just as we know that there are spectacularly talented engineers who are well-capable of doing industrial design, even without any of our training. But here’s a reminder that sometimes that combination just goes spectacularly wrong.

Robert J. Rumpf was an aerospace engineer who worked on missiles, and in the 1960s Ford brought him in to work on experimental auto designs. What he came up with was this crazy two-handed “Wrist-Twist” steering system, shown here in what I believe is a 1965 Mercury:

(more…)


No Responses to “Auto Design Fail: Ford’s Experimental "Wrist-Twist" Steering Wheel(s) from 1965”

Post a Comment