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"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge

Two-Wheeled Ground Car  
  A gyro-stabilized vehicle like an enclosed motorcycle.  

"Thank you, Danny," Samms said, as appreciatively as though he did not know exactly where his ground-car was.

He got in. The door jammed itself gently shut. The runabout--a Dillingham eleven-forty--shot smoothly forward upon its two fat, soft tires. Half-way to the exit archway he was doing forty; he hit the steeply-banked curve leading into the lofty "street" at ninety.

Nor was there shock or strain. Motorcycle-wise, but automatically, the "Dilly" leaned against its gyroscopes at precisely the correct angle; the huge low-pressure tires clung to the resilient synthetic of the pavement as though integral with it.

Technovelgy from First Lensman, by E.E. 'Doc' Smith.
Published by Fantasy Press in 1950
Additional resources -

Compare to the gyrocar from Two Boys in a Gyrocar the story of a New York to Paris motor race (1911) by Kenneth Brown, the Gyro-Hat from An Experiment in Gyro-Hats (1926) by Ellis Parker Butler, the tumblebug from The Roads Must Roll (1940) by Robert Heinlein, the Gyro Two-Wheeled Truck from The Sign of the Tiger (1958) by Alan Nourse (w/Meyer), the Gyrocar (Gyro) from The Ring (1969) by Piers Anthony (w/R. Margroff) and the smart bike from Distraction (1998) by Bruce Sterling.

Thanks to Winchell Chung (aka @Nyrath) for this item.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from First Lensman
  More Ideas and Technology by E.E. 'Doc' Smith
  Tech news articles related to First Lensman
  Tech news articles related to works by E.E. 'Doc' Smith

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