Read Online Virus: The Day of Resurrection by Sakyo Komatsu - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sakyo Komatsu
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made in West Germany had been considered the favorite to develop the industry standard; as for cracking the wheel problems, the likely contenders had been the Rolls Royce hovercraft and the Curtiss-Wright aircar from America, which had brought about fundamental change in the way that cars ran.
In the midst of all this, however, Italy’s Alfa Romeo, an automaker famous for its sports cars and racecars, had unexpectedly unveiled its Barca Volante—a gas-turbine car with a maximum speed of two hundred forty kilometers per hour. The world had caught its collective breath at the sight of its myriad new features. The first thing that caught the eye of the press was its incredibly lightweight Fiat Virgo gas turbine. In city traffic, the stream of hot, rapidly moving exhaust from the turbine blew mostly downward against the ground thanks to a turbulence plate, but out on the highway, where speeds exceeded two hundred kilometers per hour, it blew directly from the rear, giving a boost to the car’s speed, just like a turbo prop. Because the blades of the low-pressure turbine were fitted with the epoch-making changeable pitch device, the shift in output from zero to full power was truly smooth. Equipped with Goodyear’s heat and abrasion resistant, elastic fluororesin tires, internal anti-slip plates, an optional autodriver that could be used both in city traffic and during high speed travel, automatic switchover to power steering, numerous new features for protecting the driver, plus a radar alarm and night vision for foggy nights, this high-performance automobile was touted as having stability of speed and drivability equal to a motorboat at two hundred twenty kilometers per hour.
Beaten to the punch, the other automakers were naturally on the lookout for opportunities to nitpick and criticize the new vehicle.
Barca Volante’s fully loaded deluxe model had just been announced in early March, and only three had as yet been sold to private citizens in Europe, among whom was Tonio, who—in recognition of his international fame and the skill he had displayed in the former Le Mans auto race—had been enjoying a test drive, as it were, at half the regular price.
PLAYBOY DRIVER IN FIRST TURBINE AUTO CRASH was the headline splashed over front pages all across Europe. The R&D and sales departments at Alfa Romeo went white in their collective face, and an investigation was launched into the cause of the accident. Had it been some flaw or defect in the automobile? Or had it all been the driver’s fault?
Witnesses all claimed that in spite of the straight road, Tonio hadn’t been going all that fast. Ninety kilometers per hour, maybe less. The traffic accident experts who investigated the case said the same thing. The most eloquent testimony of this came from the car’s speedometer, whose needle had remained stuck at eighty-five.
The odometer showed that the car had not yet gone fifteen hundred kilometers. Taking that into account, what could the cause have been? For it to have crashed so soon and at such a low speed—was there some fatal flaw in the steering system? And what had happened to the driver protection system they were so proud of, said to be on par with that of a Mach 3-capable jet?
Each and every bit of information that came in seemed to be nothing but bad news for Alfa Romeo. On top of that, hearsay began to surface that sounded at first blush spectacularly bad for the company. The eyewitnesses were in agreement with one another, saying things like, “It looked like Tonio had lost control of the steering wheel.” Also, people who had seen Tonio driving from various spots along the sidewalk averred that, “Tonio had this incredibly glamorous woman sitting right beside him, but it was like he was taking the test for his driver’s license—he was clinging to the wheel without batting an eye at her.” Even the guy who had topped off his kerosene at a petrol stand in Civitavecchia said he was “driving extremely
In the midst of all this, however, Italy’s Alfa Romeo, an automaker famous for its sports cars and racecars, had unexpectedly unveiled its Barca Volante—a gas-turbine car with a maximum speed of two hundred forty kilometers per hour. The world had caught its collective breath at the sight of its myriad new features. The first thing that caught the eye of the press was its incredibly lightweight Fiat Virgo gas turbine. In city traffic, the stream of hot, rapidly moving exhaust from the turbine blew mostly downward against the ground thanks to a turbulence plate, but out on the highway, where speeds exceeded two hundred kilometers per hour, it blew directly from the rear, giving a boost to the car’s speed, just like a turbo prop. Because the blades of the low-pressure turbine were fitted with the epoch-making changeable pitch device, the shift in output from zero to full power was truly smooth. Equipped with Goodyear’s heat and abrasion resistant, elastic fluororesin tires, internal anti-slip plates, an optional autodriver that could be used both in city traffic and during high speed travel, automatic switchover to power steering, numerous new features for protecting the driver, plus a radar alarm and night vision for foggy nights, this high-performance automobile was touted as having stability of speed and drivability equal to a motorboat at two hundred twenty kilometers per hour.
Beaten to the punch, the other automakers were naturally on the lookout for opportunities to nitpick and criticize the new vehicle.
Barca Volante’s fully loaded deluxe model had just been announced in early March, and only three had as yet been sold to private citizens in Europe, among whom was Tonio, who—in recognition of his international fame and the skill he had displayed in the former Le Mans auto race—had been enjoying a test drive, as it were, at half the regular price.
PLAYBOY DRIVER IN FIRST TURBINE AUTO CRASH was the headline splashed over front pages all across Europe. The R&D and sales departments at Alfa Romeo went white in their collective face, and an investigation was launched into the cause of the accident. Had it been some flaw or defect in the automobile? Or had it all been the driver’s fault?
Witnesses all claimed that in spite of the straight road, Tonio hadn’t been going all that fast. Ninety kilometers per hour, maybe less. The traffic accident experts who investigated the case said the same thing. The most eloquent testimony of this came from the car’s speedometer, whose needle had remained stuck at eighty-five.
The odometer showed that the car had not yet gone fifteen hundred kilometers. Taking that into account, what could the cause have been? For it to have crashed so soon and at such a low speed—was there some fatal flaw in the steering system? And what had happened to the driver protection system they were so proud of, said to be on par with that of a Mach 3-capable jet?
Each and every bit of information that came in seemed to be nothing but bad news for Alfa Romeo. On top of that, hearsay began to surface that sounded at first blush spectacularly bad for the company. The eyewitnesses were in agreement with one another, saying things like, “It looked like Tonio had lost control of the steering wheel.” Also, people who had seen Tonio driving from various spots along the sidewalk averred that, “Tonio had this incredibly glamorous woman sitting right beside him, but it was like he was taking the test for his driver’s license—he was clinging to the wheel without batting an eye at her.” Even the guy who had topped off his kerosene at a petrol stand in Civitavecchia said he was “driving extremely
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