http://peoria.craigslist.org/mcy/3261935754.html


Anyone know anything about these?

That things pretty cool. Variable speed belt drive? Were they using CVT setups on industrial engines that far back. I thought that was fairly recent.

History
Leonardo DaVinci sketched the first CVT in 1490 First patent for the CVT Transmission was made by Daimler & Benz in 1886.

in 1910 Zenit motorcycles built a V2 motorbike that was so successful in hill climb events that it was banned from the events to give other motorcyclists a chance at competing.

In the late 1980's Subaru launched a car called Justy in Tokyo with a continuously variable transmission which was electronically controlled which was made by Fuji heavy industries which owned Subaru back then. The justy was the first production car in USA to offer the CVT Transmission. Although the car didn't make much success Subaru continued to use the CVT Transmission.

In Early 1990's Nissan introduced CVT to their Nissan March which had the same principles as the Subaru Justy CVT Transmission. Nissan designed it's on CVT Transmission which was designed to handle more torque and also had a torque converter. In 2006 Nissan Designed a CVT Transmission to match their 3.5L V6 Engine that was mostly found on the Nissan altima. Nissan to date has the most success with CVT.


Toyota also offered a CVT Transmission called Multidrive for models such as the Toyota Avensis.

In 2005 Ford introduced a chain driven CVT Transmission for their higher powered cars such as the Ford Tauraus, Ford 500 & the ford freestyle. The transmission was designed by German automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen.


Present day : Nissan is still continuing its development on the CVT Transmission for a higher power output car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous ... ansmission

Thanks Hoser! Good read.