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« Jesse's Limo CarDomain Blog Home Groups Are Back! »
August 24, 2007
Performance and 92 MPG?
By John
Community Editor
This hyper-efficient fuel vapor car came up in the discussion on Rob’s favorite forumhmm… wonder what that could be?and while there were some concerns about safety, and more than a few snarky comments about the appearance, overall, the reaction was positive. At SEMA last year, the prototype was actually parked next to the CarDomain booth, and the guys there were kind enough to let Greg and I sit in it. Personally, I love a blend of high-performance and fuel-efficiency, but I do have one big problem with this ride. What’s my beef? Well, it’s the three-wheel thing. If you look around in nature, you seen insects and animals with even numbers of legs. If something has an odd number of appendages, it’s generally not on purpose. What do you think about three-wheeled vehicles? Hot or not?
Comments
pishposh
Oct 13, 2008 at 4:23 am
During the 80′s there were a lot of three wheeled contraptions that didn’t fare to well. Their problem was that they took a front wheel off and left two rear ones. That would certainly help you get off the line faster given you have more traction at the drive wheels but with only one wheel in the front it left almost nothing in the stability department. With these new style three wheelers you see lately with two in the front and one in the back theres a reason for it. First off to debunk the stability myth they’re are incredibly stable, some in fact more stable than many high performance cars designed for cornering (if you thought about nascar then turn you’re computer off). The second reason is for aerodynamics. Most of the aerodynamic drag in object moving through air is at the rear, the front hardly makes a difference really. So having only one wheel in the rear it allows for a nice aerodynamic taper therefore better aerodynamics and therefore better fuel economy.
Anonymous
Aug 26, 2007 at 1:14 am
looks like a couple of queers riding in a giant dildo.
Ted
Aug 24, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I love 3 wheelers. my son has one, and my daughters did, too when they were younger.
and yes, they flipped.
imagine taking an office chair. pretty stable. now cut off 2 of the 5 rollers. to compensate for the fewer wheels, the design is and has to have a low center of gravity, but I’m sure it’s still got handling issues. Not a best choice for autocross, but for sane drivers it might be good enough.
kap0w
Aug 24, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Well all I know about three-wheeled things is that they tend to um… flip over. I suppose some blend of ESC could compensate, but I think there is a definite safety issue when used on a daily basis. I assume anything three-wheeled in the automotive world is also doing it to get around safety concerns, so there’s always that too…