Question:
Those huge cars Hitler used to parade in - did they have power steering?
2012-09-24 03:26:55 UTC
They were long and heavy, those things, many of them had huge steering wheels, and hefty guys driving them. Did they require brute strength to drive them? The wide diam steering wheel....... was it to give extra leverage ?
What puzzles me is that an ingenious race of engineers, as the Germans were, apparently didn't fit power steering to a most expensive car supplied to their God, Adolf Hitler.
Have I got this wrong ? Had power steering not yet been invented in 1940's Germany ?
Four answers:
clncarplz
2012-09-24 03:58:13 UTC
no power steering except "Armstrong power steering" That is why they had huge steering wheels & heft men driving. Also notice that very few women drove in those days.
Jamal69
2012-09-24 03:48:59 UTC
Most military vehicles got them before the public did, power steering actually existed since 1876 but not much is actually known about him heres what wikipedia says:The first power steering system on an automobile was apparently installed in 1876 by a man with the surname of Fitts. Little else is known about him. The next power steering system was put on a Columbia 5-ton truck in 1903.[1]

Robert E. Twyford, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, included a mechanical power steering mechanism as part of his patent (U.S. Patent 646,477) issued on April 3, 1900 for the first four wheel drive system.[2]

Francis W. Davis, an engineer of the truck division of Pierce Arrow began exploring how steering could be made easier, and in 1926 invented and demonstrated the first practical power steering system.[3][4][5] Davis moved to General Motors and refined the hydraulic-assisted power steering system, but the automaker calculated it would be too expensive to produce.[6] Davis then signed up with Bendix, a parts manufacturer for automakers. Military needs during World War II for easier steering on heavy vehicles boosted the need for power assistance on armored cars and tank-recovery vehicles for the British and American armies.[6]

Chrysler Corporation introduced the first commercially available passenger car power steering system on the 1951 Chrysler Imperial under the name "Hydraguide".[7] The Chrysler system was based on some of Davis' expired patents. General Motors introduced the 1952 Cadillac with a power steering system using the work Davis had done for the company almost twenty years earlier.[8]

Charles F. Hammond, an American, born in Detroit, filed several patents for improvements of power steering with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office in 1958.[9][10][11]

Most new vehicles now have power steering, owing to the trends toward front wheel drive, greater vehicle mass, and wider tires, which all increase the required steering effort. Heavier vehicles as common in some countries would be extremely difficult to maneuver at low speeds, while vehicles of lighter weight may not need power assisted steering at all.



But I would think the vehicles hitler drove didn't have power steering otherwise I think the steering wheels would be smaller, also I bet if Hitler was the one driving it would've gotten power assisted steering, because the Germans have always been one of those countries that were at the forefront of automotive innovations.



Best of luck
2012-09-24 04:21:20 UTC
The large Mercedes used by Hitler wouldn't have had power steering (not that he actually drove it anyway.)

Power steering is one of those things like iPhones that the under 25s just can't imagine what life must be like without, but anyone in their 40s thinks, "yeah, so it doesn't have it, so what?"



Even on big cars PAS was pretty much unheard of before the 60s.



If you want to know when PAS was invented, look it up, but I'll give you a clue. It was the laziest fattest race on earth, unsurprisingly....
?
2012-09-24 04:00:07 UTC
no the driver worked out ha


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