The Fan Belt from Germany

Okay, okay, here we go.

On this week’s Car Talk, my brother and I, the internationally ignored Click and Clack, present another one of our historic, folkloric, possibly even automotive puzzlers. Picture this: it’s 1936. Europe’s about to blow a gasket, and in some secret room in Germany, a bunch of very serious officers are staring at the blueprints for their brand-new personnel carrier.

Everything’s perfect. The engine, the suspension, the cup holders, probably. Then one officer stands up and says, “Vhat about ze fan belt?” It’s a flat rubber belt, looks like something you’d hold up your lederhosen with, and the engineer proudly announces it’ll last 30 to 40,000 kilometers.

“Not good enough!” says the officer. “Ve need 60,000! Our soldiers cannot be out dere in ze middle of battle tinkering mit ze fan belt!”

Now, one wise guy suggests, “Hey, it’s flat. Just flip it over.” Nope. Unacceptable. And they’re not allowed to change the material either. No Kevlar, no space-age polymers, no nylon stockings. Same belt.

So the engineers huddle for about two minutes, scratch their heads, adjust their slide rules, and come up with a clever design change that magically doubles the belt’s life to 60,000 kilometers without changing what it’s made of.

And that’s the puzzler, dear listeners. How’d they do it?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Frozen Nightmare

Puzzler time.

This one was sent in many years ago. It goes like this.

"On the hottest day of the summer, my mother was driving her decrepit 88 Toyota Corolla from New York City to Philadelphia with her significant other.

They were going to a wedding, and the bride had asked them to courier a shipment of gourmet frozen sorbet centerpieces from a little known sorbet Emporium in Queens, believe it or not, sorbet center pieces are considered quite the thing at wedding receptions.

They loaded a crate packed with sorbet centerpieces into the backseat of the car. The merchant warned them that they had three hours before the sorbet would begin to melt.

Philadelphia is two hours away.

Flushed with the urgency of their charge, they set out.

Yeah, all went well until they ran into bumper to bumper traffic heading over the 59th Street Bridge. At this time, her significant other began showing symptoms of cardiac distress, and Mum changed course to New York Hospital.

The next thing she knew, a policeman was reviving her. She had lost consciousness and crashed into a guardrail, but was miraculously uninjured.

She recovered sufficiently to drive her significant other to the hospital. A full cardiac workup showed no medical problems, so they set out again, having lost an hour.

Now they're in trouble. Significant had a few more rough moments as they passed through the Lincoln Tunnel, but he seemed to have recovered on the Jersey Turnpike.

They made it to the wedding with moments to spare and without further incident. The sorbet was a smashing success."

And the puzzler question is, what happened here?