How it worked

Why a spinning flywheel can hold a car up

A heavy flywheel, a hydraulic ram and a tilt sensor did the job a motorcyclist does with their body.

Where everything went: the flywheel just behind the front wheel, the engine at the back. The small parking wheels hold the car up until the flywheel is up to speed.Drawing: our own, simplified and not to scale

One big flywheel

The Lane Motor Museum describes a single 22-inch, hydraulically driven gyroscope. Lane Motor Museum

It was one vertical flywheel in a round housing just behind the front wheel. Octane gives it as 113 kg and 508 mm across. Octane, 2026

The flywheel spun at a steady speed, in the opposite direction to the front wheel, and a hydraulic ram could turn it left or right inside its housing. Octane, 2026

Most car engines have a flywheel too, though a much smaller one with a different job: see flywheels on our sister site about engines.

Turn it one way, lean the other way? No: the same way

Precession: turn the spinning flywheel left and the car leans left.Drawing: our own, simplified and not to scale

Turning a spinning flywheel produces a push at right angles to the turn, called gyroscopic precession. So turning the Gyro-X’s flywheel to the left made the car lean to the left, and turning it right made it lean right. Octane, 2026

A tilt sensor and control system kept adjusting the flywheel, like a tightrope walker with a pole, to hold the car upright. Fed with speed and steering, it could also lean the car into corners like a motorcyclist. Octane, 2026

The engine

The prototype used a BMC A-series engine in Mini Cooper S form. Drive went to the rear wheel by chain, through a four-speed Mini gearbox, and two hydraulic pumps powered the gyroscope and its controls. Octane, 2026

The museum lists the engine as a water-cooled 1,275 cc four-cylinder of 80 hp, mounted at the back and driving the rear wheel. Lane Motor Museum

For the production version, the plan was to drive the rear wheel hydraulically too, so that a coasting car could spin up the gyroscope: an early form of regenerative braking. Agency Impianti

The heavy flywheel spun at 3,000 rpm and stored a great deal of energy, which was a hazard in itself if something went wrong. Agency Impianti

Where sources differ

Engine power: The museum lists the engine as a water-cooled 1,275 cc four-cylinder of 80 hp, mounted at the back and driving the rear wheel. Lane Motor Museum Octane puts the Mini Cooper S engine at 76 bhp. Octane, 2026
Flywheel size: The Lane Motor Museum describes a single 22-inch, hydraulically driven gyroscope. Lane Motor Museum It was one vertical flywheel in a round housing just behind the front wheel. Octane gives it as 113 kg and 508 mm across. Octane, 2026

Driving it today

Starting it takes patience: the gyroscope must reach its working speed of 3,000 rpm, which takes about five minutes, before the parking wheels can be raised. Octane, 2026

Octane found that when everything goes smoothly it tracks straight, stays bolt upright and leans smoothly into corners, but gusts, bumps and sudden inputs bring twitches, lurches and wobbles. Octane, 2026

In 2017 Lane admitted it did not yet work well above 25 mph: the controls were not precise enough to keep it stable at higher speeds. WIRED, 2017

Hüby has driven it in Nashville traffic and reached 55 mph on a private track. Octane, 2026

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