What you see here is an obscured piece of the automotive history. This is a 1967 Gyro-X made by Gyro Transport Systems, a two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle that is also a testament of folks of the 60s desired to make The Jetsons kind of future a reality. The fact that it is a self-balancing two-wheeler is prove that future almost happened in 1967. Almost.
Anyways, the beautiful cherry red example wasn’t in this glorious state when Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, took possession of it. It was kind of dilapidated and it was most certainly not in its original conditions as many modifications had been done. Most damning mod was perhaps the missing gyroscope to enable it to self-balance.
Lane Motor Museum, being car nut, proceed to fully restored Gyro-X back into its original conditions, adhering to the original specifications. The missing gyroscope that enables the balancing magic to happen is installed too and the result is, as you can see, rather future-magical. The future was once in 1967. No doubt about it.
According to Lane Motor Museum, Gyro-X is a rear, transversely-mounted, water-cooled 1,275 cc inline 4 engine with 80 HP on the tap, mated to a 4-speed manual gearbox. On paper, it makes a top speed of 125 mph, but I am guessing nobody attempted to verify the claim. Only one was ever made and apparently, it cost a cool $750,000. If you desire, you can read more about this automobile wonder boy HERE. Meanwhile, there is a video of it in action below.
Images: YouTube (19Bozzy92)/Wes Duenkel via Lane Motor Museum.
Source: Laughing Squid.
