8/14/2019 Cornering Attitude of Box When Tested is Flat, No Lean

1/2

Cornering attitude of Box when tested is flat, no lean or pitchbut all wheels adopt curious camber angles, and rear

The Box - All Wheels Steer

Look at this ultralighton-and-off-road vehicle that

hits new highs in mobility

By JIM DAVIS/PS West Coast Editor

Racing car? Economy car? Dune buggy? Off-road vehicle? The an-swer, every time, is yes; the Box is allof these. It began life as a multipur-pose car suitable for street, track, andoffroad use; but because it has a fully

watertight body, it even converts toan amphibian when paddles are fixedto the wheels.

The designers, Dan Hanebrink andMatt Van Leeuwen of Costa Mesa,Calif., aimed for aircraft lightness.They also had their own ideas on justabout everything in the chassis de-partment.

A radical departure. The Box is farfrom the norm. But when you analyzeit, you see the thoughtful reasoningand the simplicity behind the design:four-wheel-drive as well as four-wheel

steering; power by a rear-mounted

motorcycle engine, and belt drive totransmit the power. With the two-stroke, 500cc, 60-hp Kawasaki engine,the Box will top 100 mph and do thestanding quarter-mile in 13.5 secondsat 95-mph terminal speed! A four-stroke LaVerda engine is now beingtested.

From the engine, power is transmit-ted to the rear differential via a pul-ley. Suspension is an independentswing-axle affair, front and rear. Itutilizes a hydropneumatic nitrogen-oil system, with separate reservoirsfor each wheel. Over rough terrain

this system really proves itself, tak-ing the bumps out of ruts and gullies,and making off-road driving almostcomfortable.

There is no separate frame. Thebody structure is what holds the partstogether. The body is made in twosections, a top and bottom, bolted to-gether. The Box is a two-seater. Youstep into it through a single frontdoor, which also serves as the wind-shield.

The Box is made of balsa wood(the ultralight stuff you build model

planes of) and fiberglass (the kind

used in big aircraft). The balsa, end-cut into small pieces, is fitted betweenlayers of the fiberglass.

Although aircraft fiberglass isharder to work and requires more at-tention to detail, it gives greaterstrength. Using this balsa/glass sand-wich construction made it possible tostrengthen points exposed to thegreatest stresssuch as suspensionmountingswithout beefing up areasthat dont need it.

Controls for the Box. Theyre sim-pleborrowed from motorcycle com-ponents. Gear-changing is managed

with the right hand, and so is theclutch control. The left hand controlsthe throttle by a twist-grip arrange-ment, as used on motorcycles. Brakesare applied simply by pushing thethrottle grip forward.

You steer with your feet. It soundsweird, but really isnt. Its like thesteering on those soapbox carts youhad as a kid. When you pushed withyour right foot, the cart turned left.When you pushed with the left, youturned right. But in the Box, insteadof pushing directly on the axle, you

8/14/2019 Cornering Attitude of Box When Tested is Flat, No Lean

2/2

are operating a hydraulic four-wheelsteering system. The surprising thingto the designers was that it provedeasier to make than a conventionaltwo-wheel mechanical steering gear

and linkage.When can you buy? Plans call for

about half a dozen of the Boxes to bebuilt by the end of the year. A teamof them will be entered in the Mexi-can 1000 off-road race this winter.Theyll still be experimental. Afterthat, start watching for yours.

and Drive

THE BOX SCORE

Wheelbase 77 in.Track (front and rear) 68 in.Overall length 144 in.

Overall width 80 in./(w/tires)Overall hight 40 in.Ground clearance 8 in.Steering Closed-loop hydraulicSuspension Swing axles front

and rear with hydro-pneumatic struts

Wheels 13 x 10TIres 5.75/12.00.13Dry weight 700 poundsTransmission Uniroyal belt drive Engine

3-cyl. Kawasaki 500or 2-cyl.La Verda 750

wheels show a pronounced steering angle!

You steer with your feet, use hand controlsof motorcycle type for throttle, clutch, gear-

Top sectio n is made ofend-cut pieces of balsawood sandwiched be-

tween fiberglass andmolded. Door (whichholds windshield) andwindows are cut outafter molding.

Fiberglass bottom mold

shows great tightness of the

supporting structure with

total lack of seam, joints, or

bond. The raised area in the

floor pan form the cover for

the suspension control arms.

Sketch below clarifies trans-

mission and suspensionprinciples, and shows the

unique disk brake that is

mounted inboard.

box. Driving the Box, D.avis discovered,is no stranger than anything else about it.