1980 Briggs & Stratton Hybrid - Jay Leno’s Garage

electric, you don't even need to hold the clutch. The engines don't turn at all, oh, so you release the clutch. I'll get out and start pumping gas right now. It's like driving a normal car. Suddenly, it's

1980

. I mean, it actually cruises pretty well and 60 miles seems incredible to me live on that battery technology. Alex, that's good the more I learn. about this and as we got it back up and running and seeing where the industry had gone, it really made me appreciate what the concept behind this was, yeah, it doesn't feel much heavier because Franklin is trying to produce a lot of cooled air. the engines are mostly water cooled, we don't make any water cooled engines, it's always been strictly, we've had some product lines with them, some engines are water cooled, but it's not a good high volume business for adapt well to us.

Let me ask you a technical question because this is the question I get every time. I have a Franklin, which was the air-cooled car. Well, two schools of thought: the more diluted the oil from Iran and an air-cooled engine, the colder, it's not like that. I want to run straight 50 on an air cooled engine, that's not right. I'm the kind of person who says I need to see dyno tests. I need to see the test data for that to answer and the other part is that most of the cooling comes from the fins in the air but as for the butch coil it gives you a little more cooling.

I think the lighter stuff, I think the line is because it's flowing, yeah, and I mean, thicker oil will hold the right heat, better thermal conductivity with the lighter drain oil, right? Touch the surfaces because most guys I know run it's almost like water. but it's one of those debates that people have back and forth, you know, versus Pepsi, yes, but the other side is that air-cooled engines generally run at higher oil temperatures, so then you want the grade thicker for higher oil temperature, a trade off of sorts. off like everything now, when I drive an electric like this, should I downshift?

Yeah, so I guess the idea of ​​using it electric in the city and then when I get on the highway you turn off the electric, yeah, that's the most efficient way, yeah, and what kind. of mileage that they were getting in the past, in the past they were driving about 30 miles per gallon on gas, like ooh, that's 55 cruising, which 30 miles per gallon on the 50 was 200 or 300 percent better than a typical car. Well, most cars are getting, you know, it came out, it goes back to our gasoline engine, well, I guess it's electric, so we're using a combination of both to get away, so when I turn off the gasoline engine, that type of D clutches, true, yes, strictly follow. first some tricky advice, okay guys get off the walkie?

Greg corrects no way similar to Milwaukee, then Italy got all this and canoes makes Harley-Davidson come with high tech stuff, a lot of companies that make air motors in that area we have. The repulsion cardboard breeding business was born 300, but breaking through the strata the core business is still mainly air-cooled engines. Try it. Well, we used to be known as manufacturers of air-cooled internal combustion engines, but we recently launched our commercial Vanguard lithium series. -ion ​​battery packs cry because the poor equipment industry, this change is moving towards greater electrification and our engineering and our experience has put us at the forefront and that vacation field of most type applications was gassing the boys, all the diesel, we made some agreements.

So in the early '70s, we actually sold and manufactured quite a few engines for gaseous fuel like liquid propane. Brian natural gas for home backup generators that run on what the home says metric so our engines have to run on fuel around the world. fix some of the fuel some other parts of the world are quite different NEADS for the engine we try to make a product that works only calls challenged in what appears to be a simple engine where are you with flowery ethanol or against with an era, well I was looking again, it's something you have to keep in mind and you can design your product correctly, you know what it was introduced for, the products I want to design for it, yes, then it will cause conflicts for us, but the things that it is designed for that's fine , but if other

hybrid

s and you guys were totally based on that, Oliver, you don't think it's a totally original thought because when I think back, I remember there were some electric cars in the '80s.

I think there's one called T-Rex and it just we showed up on the trawlers and just blew the doors off, people were amazed, unbelievable, yes it seemed crazy that an electric car could be so fast, but there was actually no such thing as what is the most powerful motor. Briggs on this track generates up to 40 horsepower. Oh yes, we have our Vanguard commercial series engines. We recently launched the fuel injected 40 RS:Louis version and are now working on an electric ride-on throttle for steering. He is a very good product for us, he is actually the furnace for our big block engines, yes, commercial and internal, he is the brakes, big blocks, can you comment?

Is there anything else with a carburetor? And a good majority of them still have a carburetor. Actually, yes, there are many. For engines that do not have 12 volt systems that are on battery charging, so having any type of advanced electronics or fuel injection is difficult to achieve, we have a product with a fuel injection that is the battery, the battery and fuel injection, but it is a magneto that generates electricity either in state or generates electricity, but it is too complex and too expensive for most of our applications now, is there Mr. Briggs and mr. Stratton, well, Stephen Foster Briggs partnered with Mr.

Strat to start the company, keep walking, you want outboard motors, he started the marina outboard, Evinrude outboard, so it's been the Stratton family almost everything. time. Well, were you surprised we called it that? We even knew about this from Edmund on the way home and the last time he came out was probably 1988, well, do you have anything? I hate alcohol jamm. It was an interesting thing to hear, you remember knowing about the car. In fact, I remember it 30 or 35 years ago. You know, a lot of times we always think that the Europeans and the Japanese were the first to have an idea and I think it's safe to say that even much of the engineering of the Prius I think not.

I don't know, thanks for the evidence, but a lot of it came from general owners, but no one here was interested at the time because gasoline is still relatively cheap, right, when you point out, you wouldn't look at it, it was in the warehouse when it was 30 years old , it was like ah. boy, I have a lot of work ahead of me, you see, my role is to thank you all, we actually have a museum that is quite impressive, yes, a complete museum for the last 30 years, so I went to the museum and simply looked up how to start a sensitive Its condition started with its suspension frame structure, then I started looking at the brakes or the car itself and it looked pretty good.

You say, "Hey, this is very possible." I would take it out of the museum. We just started something. It's time to start checking and getting the systems done to make sure they are workable, obviously the structural integrity of the brake suspension was good, we have it all in the engine. I wasn't worried about where the engine people were, whatever the conditions were, that said okay, we'll get it going. but that didn't take long and then someone took out the old electronics but didn't turn it on in 30 years, we did that kind of step and a power supply slowly turned up the voltage monitor, the component electrode, it's okay, nothing burned up, it was it sees good, it's driving good, so we buy batteries and include them in the compiler; we broke them here we are and here we are, thank you Frank, miss, sing, see peace and think differently, yes, that's right, and that's our Briggs and Stratton philosophy.

We do a lot of unique things during the staff who really applaud the unique ideas, the products we make are different than the ones you get fired from. I just think it's quite different, it's really a unique car, the only one they built properly. I had never seen it. nothing like that so no need to worry about seeing how it comes in the other direction this is even explicit compared to the McLaren that's right it's more exclusive than the McLaren f1 that 64 built those are just one of these because it could there is one reasonably good field. talking about six miles, but you know, get a speeding ticket, thank you very much my friend, well thanks for featuring the car on the show, this has really been yeah, look back, the car here like 35 years, as opposed to after that, is depression.

Yes, you know it or you destroy it, it's a mystery. I'll tell you what happens if you get more. You must come visit a company. I won't see it in a CR museum.