10x03 - Square Wheels

[bunniefuu]

Do not try what you're about to see at home.

We're what you call experts.

On this car-crazy episode of Mythbusters:

The obscenity begins!

Adam and Jamie think outside the box...

Well, there's your problem.

as they literally reinvent the wheel

Our lives have officially become a cartoon.

Testing the myth that square wheels

will give you a smooth ride...

provided you drive fast enough.

Meanwhile, Kari, Tory, and Grant

tackle a "Date Night" movie myth.

Well, there's something you don't see every day.

Can two cars stuck bumper to bumper...

Let's do it.

drive city streets...

- I've got no steering! - Brakes! Brakes!

cut corners...

Can you believe we're getting paid to do this?

and even do a 180 spin?

So, yeah,

that was pretty much the best date I've ever been on.

Who are the mythbusters?

Adam Savage...

and Jamie Hyneman.

Things are gonna start to get a little crazy in here.

Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience.

Together with Grant Imahara...

Kari Byron...

Hi, Grant!

and Tory Belleci.

Hit it!

They don't just tell the myths,

they put them to the test.

Hey. What, uh -- whatcha doing?

Daydreaming.

What does a Hyneman daydream about?

Square wheels.

Like, what if you put square wheels on a truck?

I would imagine it would give you the roughest possible ride.

it would eventually smooth out, wouldn't it?

You're wondering how fast you have to drive with square wheels

in order to get a smooth ride?

- Yeah. - That's great.

I think we should put it to the test.

It may have come from the Hyneman's mind,

but it's also going gangbusters on the fan site.

Because according to the myth, at a fast-enough speed,

the difference between square and round wheels would disappear.

But can this really be true?

Or is this a myth that's headed back to square one?

So, what's your plan for these square wheels?

Well, pretty much everything that we need for this

is gonna be really abused.

So the wheels we're gonna have to design

to be able to take all of the stress.

The truck's gonna have to be really heavy-duty.

It's gonna have to be four-wheel drive,

and have a big torque engine in it.

Super-beefy wheels, super-beefy truck.

I think we should also add in there

some nice, objective way

of measuring the smoothness of the ride we get.

Like, we compare it to a round-wheel drive,

and see how close we can get.

Instrumentation.

Precisely.

What I'm trying to figure out here is that

if we took a wheel like this,

and changed it into something shaped more like this, a square,

how fast would we have to go

to stay on the corners, like so,

and actually end up with a smooth ride?

Whether that's possible or not,

at what speed that occurs --

that's what we're trying to find out.

And first up comes the brainstorm --

how to design a square wheel in the first place.

How is this square wheel gonna look?

It's gonna be square.

All right.

Reinventing the wheel is no easy feat.

Obviously we're gonna go with steel for this.

What about something like,

you know, a straight box?

Well, I think that's a decent place to start.

Every single wheel rotation...

And then we spider out with some gussets.

could lead to a catastrophic collapse...

That'll start to look pretty sexy.

because of the 5,000-pound truck that they'll be carrying.

This is really, really bizarre.

But by thinking inside the square,

their idea gets into gear.

Cool.

Well, let's get to it.

The final four-sided design

has reinforcements at the center and corners,

making it incredibly strong,

but also, incredibly complex.

And with so many individual pieces of steel,

it'll need to be laser-cut.

And thanks to the wonders of television...

Our parts are here?

They're here.

Dude.

That takes no time at all.

That is gorgeous!

Man, those are so pretty.

- Let's set one up. - Okay.

In order to keep our square wheels from each wing,

like, 200 pounds a piece,

we designed it all out of 3/16-inch steel.

Now, that may not seem like much,

but the design and the gussets

and the distribution of the forces

really ought to be able to take this.

But with steel this thin,

you can't just lay in these big, fat welding beads.

You actually have to stitch it carefully,

because the stuff, if it gets too hot,

can warp, and that's bad.

It's a laborious process,

but hopefully, it'll be worth it.

And once the mythbusters get their heads down,

their hubs are soon looking like the "wheel" deal.

Nice!

Want to grab a side? Let's put it on the ground.

Yeah. This is how the tire goes on, right?

Hopefully.

That has a satisfying ring to it, doesn't it?

It really does. It rings like a bell.

It's so pretty.

I'll be right back.

It's a square wheel!

Those two words shouldn't go together!

They shouldn't,

But this isn't quite up to shape yet...

Well, there's your problem.

because next, it's time for the rubber to meet the rim.

When you started this job,

did you ever imagine you'd be lubing a square tire

to fit a large piece of rubber on it?

That's been my lifelong dream.

In theory, the guide bars

should make levering on the tire easier.

Go ahead and get a clamp on that.

But trying to fit a square peg into a round hole

is just as difficult as it sounds.

My family's been fitting square wheels

for two centuries now.

No one's bought one, though.

I want my square wheels!

Even bringing in a 2,000-pound wrecking ball...

This is like how the Egyptians do it.

Behold, the Egyptian forklift.

doesn't get the tire onto the square.

So, Jamie has a solution.

Slightly bigger.

I hope it works.

How's it look?

Much better.

Dude!

I was able to just put it on by hand.

That is a square wheel.

That is, without a doubt, a square-frigging-wheel.

Thanks to their ingenuity and hard work,

the mythbusters have squared the circle.

Doing that makes me nervous.

Now, they just have to complete another three.

Next up, a conjoined car caper.

All right, so, we have another Hollywood myth,

and this one comes from the movie "Date Night,"

where two cars get into a head-on collision

and become conjoined.

Not only that, but they continue to drive around the city.

I know this one.

They actually get stuck together.

They go forward, backward, go around corners.

It's awesome.

A little demolition, a little stunt driving.

I love it.

It's a date night with a difference.

According to the movie, two cars crash together,

then speed down city streets, cut corners,

and even manage a 180 spin.

But could two conjoined cars even move,

let alone achieve these turbocharged tricks?

All right, so we're gonna test

whether these two conjoined cars

can drive all these crazy maneuvers, right?

But are we gonna test whether they can

become joined that way in the first place?

No, actually we don't have to test that.

I was talking to these guys at the crash-test facility,

and they were saying that this can happen.

Cars can become connected in a collision.

It's very rare, like, 1 in 100,000 chances.

But it can happen.

Which means that could take days and days to replicate,

not to mention that's quite a chunk of change.

Okay, so, we'll join the cars ourselves.

And we'll do just like they did in the movie --

nose-to-nose, and make sure that they never separate.

Cool, because this myth really

is about the maneuvers,

and not whether they can get stuck together.

And we've got to design something

that can accelerate, brake, do slide turns,



Exactly. Now the real question is,

how the heck are we gonna do this?

Well, step one is to get two cars

more or less identical to the ones in the movie.

Here's what we've got.

Over here we have our cab,

which is a basic sedan, rear-wheel drive.

And for our sports sedan,

since we can't afford a $158,000 car just to wreck,

we got one with equivalent technology.

It's got equivalent horsepower, and it's all-wheel drive.

And with that,

step two is to turn them into a double act.

What's that?

It's got missiles!

This is the coolest car ever!

What the heck are these?

But connecting two cars bumper-to-bumper

was never going to be easy.

All right, well, problem number one --

this car has an all-aluminum frame,

so there's no welding to it.

That sucks.

No welding means that the mythbusters

will have to come up with a plan B.

Now, initially we were gonna try and connect to the bumper,

but that's not the strongest part of the car.

The strongest part of the car is actually the frame.

That's where the driver's cage is.

That's the most rigid part of the car.

So, we're gonna use that to connect frame-to-frame

instead of bumper-to-bumper.

Let's put these cars together.

It's a heavy-duty solution...

Oh, not using the light stuff.

That'll ensure that their heavy-duty cars

stay nose-to-nose on the track.

Now, each of these cars weighs over 2 tons,

and we'll have these stuck together

driving over 40 miles an hour.

So, we've designed a steel frame that will fuse to the taxi,

and that will bolt to the sedan -- simple.

And all that serious steel

means they've got some serious welding to do.

Glamorous.

Very glamorous.

The guys take a page from "Flashdance"

as the sparks fly.

And, slowly, the "Date Night" frame comes together.

You cut the muffler off of any car,

it sounds cooler.

The cars have got serious muscle,

but with the aluminum side bolted in,

and the other side welded on,

the frame should keep that in check.

So, all we need to do is get our cars on the flatbed,

and take it out to location and test this myth.

That's all they have to do.

But with the connected cars weighing in at 4 tons,

I think we got a problem here with this forklift.

that's not an easy proposition.

What's that?

It's making evil noises,

and it's kind of doing like this.

Who would have thought

this would be the most difficult part of the day,

just packing up the cars?

We haven't even started the experiment.

Well, there's something you don't see every day.

Eventually the double-wide is loaded up,

and ready for its turbocharged excursion.

See you there.

Later...

I've got no steering!

Will the "Date Night" driving

be double or nothing?

That's better than coffee.

But first...

In a few minutes,

we're about to make another little piece

of Mythbusters' history.

For who else, I ask you,

has attached square wheels to a car?

Since Jamie was just a baby, a circular wheel

has been the design of choice for a smooth ride.

But could a square wheel at speed

be just as comfortable?

Well, after squaring up a feat of engineering excellence,

the mythbusters are ready to roll on testing.

Let's get out of here.

And with a truck packing plenty of power,

they hit the road for a familiar testing ground.

I love this tarmac.

Nice day for a bouncy ride, huh?

Absolutely it is. Let's get started.

If these babies have any chance at all

of giving us a smooth ride,

how are we gonna know

beyond our own subjective experience?

We need an objective measuring system

for telling us how smooth our ride is.

And that's where Jason and Scott come in.

They work at LMS,

a software and hardware engineering company

that measures the vibration of all sorts of things,

from cars to airplanes to washing machines.

And they're going to measure our experiment.

Jason and Scott

position the sensitive sensors in three key areas...

Good to go.

to track the vibration on the suspension,

the steering column, and, of course, the passengers.

And with the test track set...

That looks festive.

they'll be put to use first in the round-wheel control.

In 3, 2, 1. Go.

Here we go.

Feels like a pretty nice ride so far.

As it should be.





And...60.



Feels pretty smooth.

I'm thinking we got a good measurement.

Bring it to a halt and head back to home base,

throw some square wheels on this puppy.

Unsurprisingly, the traditional wheels

provide a comfortable ride,

something's that's backed up by the sensors.

Hey, guys.

- We get anything good? - Absolutely.

So, we see you went up to about 60 miles an hour.

Steering column and the seat pad

are nice low levels of vibration, as we'd expect.

That looks like a really good baseline.

We expect this to go way up

with the square wheels, I'd say.

So do we.

All right, let's get it.

With the baseline set,

it's time for the weirdest wheel change

in automobile history.

This is so wrong.

And yet it feels so right.

The obscenity begins!

You know, I don't think you'd need

a parking break with these things.

No need to curve your wheels on a hill.

- No. - No.

Personally, I don't think we're gonna get a smooth ride

out of these square wheels.

But more than that, with all of them flat,

I seriously imagine that the first quarter turn,

the first turn the truck...

boom...and lands on that second part of the square.

The truck may look at that as an accident

and just shut down.

We might not even get

more than one quarter turn on this test.

Well, as the mythbusters' mantra goes,

"There's only one way to find out."

But that's a way that first involves a suit-up for safety...

because with the world's first set of square wheels

doing the spinning,

the mythbusters are taking no chances.

Let's do it!

- I'm ready. - All right. Here we go.

The moment of truth.

Square wheels, smooth ride,

all four wheels flat.

In 3, 2, 1. Go!

They're off to a bumpy start.

That smoothed right out!

But as Jamie accelerates, the ride seems to get smoother...

Dude!

I think -- whoa!

At least until it suddenly stops altogether.

Something's dreadfully wrong.

Yeah, we're sitting sideways.

We're sitting sideways, and we're not level.

I know.

Aw, crap, Jamie.

It's bad.

There's your problem!

What happened?

We sheared everything out of that wheel hub.

- All the bolts? - All of them.

Well, at least it didn't ruin the wheels.

I know. Exactly.

The term of art for that is "One hell of a ride."

That smoothed right out!

For about five seconds there,

it felt like we were actually getting

something approaching a smooth ride.

And then everything fell apart.

The fact is,

this is one of the most powerful trucks

we could get our hands on.

And driving with all four wheels flat --

just too much for it.

But even in that 15-second window,

the wheels did get up enough speed

to spin corner-to-corner.

However, do the sensors confirm that it was smooth?

All right, Scott. What do you got for us?

Well, you can definitely see some trends here.

As the speed goes up,

the vertical acceleration in the suspension

is definitely going down.

If I go to the steering column,

you'll see the same trend.

As the speed goes up,

vibrational energy definitely goes down.

Well, the data is pretty compelling,

and it actually seems to match

what Jamie and I felt in the truck,

which is that before it destroyed itself,

we actually felt the ride smoothing out.

There might just be something to this,

so we're gonna keep on testing it.

Absolutely,

because it ain't over until the square wheels spin

and don't fall off the truck.

Coming right up...

Hey, what are you doing? Get out of my way!

The conjoined car caper goes straight.

Ohh, no!

The mythbusters have got double the trouble

with a "Date Night" double-driving myth.

And after some ingenious automotive surgery...

Look, ma, no hands!

The conjoined cars are at Alameda

ready for the maneuvering mayhem.

So, we're testing a myth in the movie "Date Night,"

where two cars get in a head-on collision,

and they become linked together.

During this whole three-minute sequence,

they drive around and around, back and forth.

We're gonna start with the straight line test,

because potentially,

that is the safest and the easiest on the cars.

That's right.

They're breaking the scene into its elements --

the straight line test, the 90-degree turn,

and the 180 spin.

And first up, they're going straight.

With the cab in neutral, can the sports sedan

really shove it backwards at 40 miles an hour

from a standing start?

Well, once the cab gets its obligatory mythbusters makeover...

Now, that's a taxi.

It's time to find out.

Let's go.

It's our sports sedan.

It's fast, and it's got a lot of torque.

But you know what?

It's designed for a specific load.

And by connecting our taxi cab to this car...

Hey, what are you doing? Get out of my way!

Essentially, we're doubling that load,

and making it even harder.

And that means that all the torque that this car has,

it's gonna need all of that

to push this car out of the way.

Yep. The sports sedan may have the power,

but can it shove the weight of the 4,000-pound taxi, too?

And can this double act max out at 40 miles an hour?

- You ready? - Ready.

Let's do it.

All right. Putting it into neutral.

Parking break off.

Hands off the wheel.

In 3, 2, 1. Go!

Amazingly, just like the movie,

The sports car takes the taxi for a ride.

But there's a slight problem.

- I've got no steering! - 40 miles an hour!

- I've got no steering! - Brakes! Brakes! Brakes!

No steering! Brakes! Brakes! Brakes!

I've barely got brakes.

We went off course pretty fast.

Off course is an understatement.

The tandem cars only narrowly missed the fence.

So, we got up to speed,

and I guess you could call that a straight line,

but, man, that was scary.

The problem is that the turning axles

that control the steering on our tandem car

are actually in the middle.

And what used to be the rear wheels are at the front,

which means you have very little control over

where you're going.

And of course with the sports sedan pushing double the load,

the brakes have to work twice as hard,

and you need twice the space to come to a stop.

Who knows what's gonna happen

when we try to do this in reverse?

All right.



In 3, 2, 1. Go!



Look at that! We're already off course!

Once again, steering the 4-ton monstrosity

is almost impossible.



Ohh, no!

Yeah, we got to 40!

But the twin cars pull off the reverse.

Right now it's looking very good for the myth.

With connected cars, you can drive forwards and backwards

at high speeds.

You don't have much control, but it is possible.

Ohh, no!

Driving in a straight line may be confirmed,

But there's still plenty of double driving...

Start turning now.

and dating to come.

So, can we call it? Was that our smooth ride?

Well, it started to smooth out,

but then the truck broke, and the wheel came off.

Yeah, that was almost bone-shattering.

But it occurs to me,

what if instead of all the wheels being flat,

we offset two of them to a 45-degree angle?

Increasing the periodicity

of the points hitting the ground

might make the ride smoother and easier on the truck.

Yeah, that makes sense.

But I start to worry

that making things less symmetrical like that

might set up some sort of an oscillation

and a certain orientation

that would end up flipping the truck.

And that would suck.

You're totally right.

That then says to me

that we want to do some small-scale testing --

try different wheel orientations

and see which one we feel is both safest for us

but also might be easiest on the truck.

- I agree. - Okay.

After a bone-shaking ride

with all four wheels in the same orientation,

it's time to experiment with some different configurations.

Now, this is the orientation we had our wheels

for our most recent ride.

And a bumpy ride it was.

But this is not the only orientation

we need to have our four wheels.

We could mount two of our wheels

at a 45-degree offset to the other two,

thus doubling the frequency

with which one of the points of the squares

hits the ground for every rotation.

Or we could offset each wheel

by 22 1/2 degrees for every rotation,

thus quadrupling the frequency

with which one of the points hits the ground.

Which one of these is gonna give us the smoothest ride?

I haven't the slightest idea.

That's why we're about to test this in small scale.

And for that, they'll need a set of wheels.

So Adam brings this out of the woodwork.

I think that's a good start.

Then it's time to tune up the treadmill

to give it a run.

All right, let's try this.

First off, a little recap of why four in-sync wheels

are so uncomfortable.

But will offsetting the wheels by 45 degrees

decrease the jolt factor?

Much better.

I didn't expect that to be so nice.

Let's ramp it up. All right.

Two wheels offset diagonally at 45 degrees

is a clear improvement.

But will the 22.5-degree combination be even better?

The way this works is that one's always flat,

one's always at 45,

and the other two are in the middle.

Okay.

That's the oscillation I was worried about.

That's what we don't want to do

because that's what is gonna flip the truck at speed.

A closer look at the 22.5 proves that the chassis

is bouncing up and down and side to side,

making the 45-degree offset the most stable configuration.

Our small-scale tests showed that the best configuration

was to have two opposing corners

with their points down,

the opposite two corners with their flats down.

That balances things out the best,

and so that's what we're gonna do full-scale.

Do not try what you're about to see at home.

We're what you call experts.

Next, the mythbusters are going 'round the bend.

All right. You ready to do this on the street?

We're all gonna crash.

So far our two-car monstrosity works great!

But that's only in a straight line.

Now it's time to take it to a curve.

That's why we're here on an unmarked intersection

to see how well our cars do in a real city street on a turn.

Kari and I will be in the sports sedan.

Tory will be in the taxi.

Based on what I've seen so far,

I'm not entirely sure how well this is gonna work.

But, hey, if we hit the curb,

at least the taxi's leading.

Get off my cab!

In the movie, with the sedan providing the power,

the tandem cars take turns at speed.

But will getting double-the-trouble round a-90-degree bend

be that straight forward?

Taking it to the streets.

In 3, 2, 1. Go!

Grant gets the conjoined car up to 40 miles per hour

and then, with the corner approaching, yanks the wheel.

So, our turning radius is nothing.

But with the turning axles stuck in the middle of the cars,

it's not looking good for the myth.

This doesn't seem to be working.

After repeated attempts, the mythbusters and the cars

are still behind the curve.

Well, you know, we're fighting so many things here,

including traction.

Well, in the movie it was wet outside,

and we do have a fire truck on site.

So, how about we slip-slide around the corner?

By matching the road conditions of the movie,

the theory is that water will reduce the grip of the tires

and let the car drift around the bend.

Slippery way.

In 3, 2, 1. Go!

Once again the car gets up to 40 miles per hour...

but doesn't achieve the wet and wild slide.

And it's clear that water alone doesn't make a difference.

Dry road or wet road, we're still not making the turn.

But in the movie, although the sports sedan was brand-new,

the taxi, not so much.

So we're gonna replicate what you might see on a taxi

that's done thousands of miles of city driving --

bald rear tires.

Tory lays down some rubber.

And soon enough the tires

look like they've seen serious action.

So, this is our last-ditch attempt

to get this turning to work.

And we've balded the tires.

We're gonna have a wet road,

thus reducing the traction of this set of tires.

My prediction -- probably still not gonna work.

I mean, we might get a better turn out of it,

but, look, there's no way we're making a 90-degree turn.

Well, let's find out.

All right. Here we come.

Taking a corner.

In 3, 2, 1. Go!

Once again Grant takes it to 40.

Start turning now.

And then...

...nothing.

Not much of a difference.

Just like the movie,

the sports sedan does all the steering,

but they're still nowhere close to corner,

meaning there's only one movie variable left to try.

Now we're gonna switch it up.

This time we're gonna have the taxi pushing the sports car.

And we're thinking because the taxi is a two-wheel drive

and it has bald tires

that we'll be sliding more

and hopefully pivot around the sports car to make the turn.

It's the last chance for the myth.

If the taxi can't slip the corner,

then this "Date night" bend is busted.

Tory g*ns the cab, pulls the wheel.

The cars don't turn left.

Instead, 50 yards downstream,

they suddenly veer right.

Okay, stop! Stop! Stop!

By pure fluke,

Tory finally got the cars around a corner,

even if it was the wrong one.

We made the turn!

All right, maybe not the turn I wanted to make,

but it still made the turn.

So, why did we turn the wrong way?

Well, here's my theory.

See, the taxi is a regular rear-wheel-drive car.

When Tory yanked the wheel, the front wheels lost traction,

and that made the car unstable.

Because of the wet road and the bald tires, that instability

eventually resulted in the rear wheels sliding out.

They happened to slide out to the left,

and that meant the car turned to the right.

Driving the straight line forward -- confirmed.

Driving the straight line backwards -- confirmed.

Cornering -- busted.

We may have made the corner, but it was the wrong one,

which is pretty much gonna get you k*lled.

So, rhe real question is

Can we do the most spectacular maneuver

the 180 spin?

I, for one, cannot wait for this one.

After the break...

These tracks are very interesting.

They repeat about every 18 inches.

A truck with square wheels passsed this way

less than 20 minutes ago.

We've been testing how fast we need to go

in a vehicle that's got square wheels to get a smooth ride.

And we've determined already that it's not as simple

as just putting square wheels on your car.

We put some on our truck,

and we broke it.

Then we figured there might be other orientations

than just all four wheels flat

that will give us a smoother ride.

So, we tried a bunch of those out in small scale,

we've got the pattern we think is gonna work,

and we've come back out here to the Alameda runway.

We're gonna try it again.

Our lives have officially become a cartoon.

With the wheel hubs back in shape

after their last outing,

it's time for the truck to get square.

There it is.

And this time two diagonal wheels

are offset by 45 degrees.

Our creation, she is ready to take life!

But will that configuration make all the difference?

Square wheels, smooth ride,



In 3, 2, 1. Go!

Yeah!

Come on, baby!

Oh, that's not bad!

Faster!

To begin with, the offset wheels are smoother.

Holy @#$%…

And as lead-footed Hyneman gets the truck up to speed...

Dude, this is not bad!



Keep going!

Wow! Come on! Faster!

it continues to improve.

That is, until the wheels can take it no more.

That was intense!

That wasn't half bad

when you got up to 20 miles an hour.

I got no brakes, though.

I think the truck didn't like it too much.

I don't think it did either.

Did we lose all four tires?

I think so.

Although one of them just sort of stayed on the track

And just not on the wheel.

Once we were up to speed,

once we were up to the fastest speed we could get,

which turns out to be about 18 miles an hour,

I have to admit

that I am impressed with how smooth that ride was.

It was smoother than I thought it was going to be.

Let's put it that way.

So, how does the data look?

Well, here's your speed in red.

And you can see where you kind of slowed down,

and there's a lot of vibration.

As you sped up, the vibration in the steering column

really starts to trend off.

Well, that's pretty much just what we felt in the cab.

- Yeah. - Awesome.

The ride was progressively smoother,

But it was also progressively destructive

with the tires and brake pads coming off completely.

Well, that was one of the worst things

that ever happened to that car.

It was fun, though.

Absolutely.

It does make me think, though.

You got an idea?

I do.

Awesome.

At the other end of the runway...

You ready for the fun maneuvers?

Oh, yeah.

the tandem car trio

are taking the "Date night" myth for its final spin.

So, we have one more test to perform,

and this is the finale of this sequence.

Now, in a desperate attempt to finally get the two cars free,

one driver turns the wheel in one direction.

The other driver turns the wheel in the other direction.

And instead of breaking apart, they spin around in a circle.

But before we attempt that with this two-car freak show,

what we need is a little practice.

A little practice with practice defensive driver

Alameda county sheriff Marvin Rough.

You ready to teach me to drive dangerously safely?

I am ready.

The guys will get to grips with the 180 spin technique

on a normal car first.

Hand on the gearshift. Spin the wheel.

Only when they've mastered this...

Nice and smooth.

will they unleash their two-car beast.

Look at your focal point.

Snap and roll, baby.

And just like that, school's out.

So bring on this myth's grand finale.

All right, water engage.

My big concern on this next test is flipping the cars.

I mean, we've done this maneuver with one car,

and it felt like it was gonna flip.

Now that we have two, that's a lot more weight

that could potentially cause these cars to roll.

Flipping out is a very real possibility for this test,

particularly because this time

the cars are going to peak at 50 miles an hour.

Okay.

This is "Date night" spin-around.



For the last time, Tory puts the pedal to the metal

and pushes their conjoined colossus up to speed.



Then the moment they hit the wet patch,

Tory and Kari turn their steering wheels

in opposite directions, and...

Oh, yeah!

That's what I'm talking about!

What do you know? A 180 spin.

- Not quite as clean as the movie... - Oh, yeah!

But a 180 nonetheless.

That's better than coffee.

I think I popped my back tires.

It's true that both rear tires popped,

but they're the only things worse for wear.

It worked!

We got the cars to spin just like in the movie!

That was awesome.

I think we have to call that confirmed.

Well, we've done a little research,

and as it turns out,

in order to achieve this effect in the movie,

the special-effects artist

built one giant, single chassis for both cars.

All wheels had steering,

and they had castor wheels underneath to stabilize.

The actors weren't driving.

The driver was actually in the trunk.

And we achieved the very same effect

with nothing but good old bald tires.

Well, that was good fun.

Well, it ain't a date with a mythbuster

till the wheels come off.

So it was a good date.

It was a good date.

In the ultimate square wheel finale,

Jamie's got a dirty idea.

Coming up on "Mythbusters"...

We literally reinvent the wheel.

Maybe.

At the waste management facility in Altamont,

This is like the weirdest sport ever.

Aah, sorry.

It's like bowling towards a hoosier with witches' hats.

I don't know what you would call that.

the Mythbusters are making the earth move for Jamie's big idea.

It looks great from here, Jamie.

Good.

Let's face it.

there's a very good reason they don't put square wheels on cars.

Come on! Faster!

But you know that started me thinking,

maybe there are circumstances

where square wheels would be the best thing.

Like what if you had a really steep hill

covered with loose dirt that you wanted to climb?

That is where this comes in!

A smooth slope leading to an almost vertical wall

and filled with loose dirt.

This is the ultimate testing ground to compare the efficacy

of square wheels versus round wheels.



This ought to be fun.

this hill has exactly the kind of off-road conditions

for the ultimate test of the Mythbusters' square wheels.

Here's how this test is gonna go.

First we're gonna take the truck with its round wheels,

I'm gonna drive it up that slope as far as we can make it.

Let's say we make it about halfway up.

Editors, will you give me a dotted line halfway up the slope?

Thank you.

Then we're gonna bolt the square wheels to the truck,

and we're going to take the same slope

and see if we can make it farther.

If we can, we have literally reinvented the wheel.

Well, I think everything's in place.

Shall we suit up and do the round-wheel test?

- I don't see why not. - All right.

If we can't, we've just proven what we already suspected:

square wheels are stupid.

It's a simple plan,

You ready?

I am now.

and it all comes down to Jamie's theory

on why square wheels could work better on loose ground.

When it comes to soft surfaces,

the thing about round wheels

is that all of the weight of the vehicle

is right here where it contacts the ground.

The PSI. There is very high.

That means that it will easily sink through soft stuff and get buried.

Also, as it tries to roll forward,

it tends to plow that soft stuff ahead of it,

which makes it hard to climb out of things.

And that's why in things like sand or snow or loose dirt

And we're stuck.

you get stuck.

On the other hand, our square wheel

has this entire surface contacting the ground,

which means that the PSI is gonna be a small fraction

of what it would be under a round tire.

And then when you try to move forward,

instead of just plowing into the dirt,

it's gonna actually cut into it

and actually lever the whole vehicle ahead.

At least that's the theory.

That's the theory.

So it's time to get trucking.

Round-wheel, hill-climbing control test.

In 3, 2, 1.

You think that's as high as you can go?

I think so.

That's pretty darn high!

Halfway up the hill,

and the round wheels can't get a grip on the loose earth.

So the benchmark to beat has been set,

What do we do now?

I don't know.

Back down slowly?

Well, if I can.

which means the Mythbusters must return to the start line

That is intense.

and swap out the wheels.

It's on.

It's like one of those

"What are we doing?" moments.

Our round wheels got us about

halfway up the loose dirt on the steep part.

Now, we're never gonna get all the way up

because, well, it's vertical up there

and we just can't do that.

But the square wheels --

I think they're gonna get us most of the way there.

This is square wheels, the final hill climb.

In 3, 2, 1.

Go!

Oh, yeah. Come on, baby.

Yes!

Yes! Yes!

Go! Break that rope!

Break it! Yeah!

Come on! Faster! Go a little more!

Oh! No.

Just like the round wheels,

the spinning square wheels

can't get purchase on the loose ground.

All right. We're going up real slow now.

Hill climbing in square wheels.

Go.

So for take two,

the Hyneman goes for a slow and steady approach.

This is promising.

We're moving forward.

We are moving forward.

You know what?

What?

I don't think they're working.

I don't think they're working either.

We tied at best.

We touched the tape.

It seems the Mythbusters had to reinvent the wheel

to discover that square wheels are just too...

well, square.

Well, that was fricking spectacular.

We start climbing the hill. I'm feeling really good.

I can only imagine the volume rooster tail of dust we're kicking up.

We get up to the tape! We're touching the tape!

I'm thinking, "We're gonna break the tape!"

More! More!

And then we just stayed stationary.

We made it exactly as far up this hill

as we did in our round wheels.

I can't think of any better test to demonstrate

that there is really a specific advantage to the square tires.

Well, there you have it.

At best our square wheels

did the same job the round wheels did on this course.

I got to say I'm disappointed in it, though,

because I really think there's something to these wheels.

There may be other environments out there

where they would actually prove superior to round wheels.

But as of this point, they're not.

So, how do you want to call this?

Do square wheels give you a smooth ride?

Well, as ridiculous as it may seem,

I think we got to call that one plausible.

What about hill climbing?

That one, not so much.

The square wheels didn't provide

any kind of significant advantage over the round wheels.

Yeah, well, what are you gonna do?

You want to drive back to the shop?

No, let's walk. It's more comfortable.

OK, I think this is the last time we see square wheels.

Not by long shot.

Wanna know why we did what we did,

and didn't do what we didn't do?

Check out the after show,