I've been exchanging info about Elio Motors with a good friend who has degrees in both mechanical and electrical engineering .... he's also owned/driven motorcycles for well over 40 years, currently owns 2 nice Harley cruisers .... as a result of me asking him to look into it, he sent the following :
"IMHO it should have been designed to drive the rear wheel and keep the front end light enough to lift one of the front wheels in a hard turn. Put the trunk in the front engine over the rear wheel. With some caution (I could be wrong) I believe this design is going to drive like a square fronted boat. With three wheels something has to shift in a turn. With 4 wheels the weight shifts and the platform remains parallel to the ground. With three wheels the same weight shift causes a lean over the single wheel, you can't fix that so you have to go with it and allow something to roll over. Otherwise you need an acre and a half to make a flat turn without the roll.
Three wheel design = drive the single wheel and allow the front end to take up the roll required to make a turn. Morgan has this right."
I have gone back and looked at every YouTube Elio video that I can find and I haven't seen any which show it in a sharp turn .... in thinking about it, the Elio is designed to be a commuter vehicle which usually doesn't require traversing a slalom course .... that said, I have no doubt that some folks are bound to give it a try .... I'm looking forward to a test drive, hopefully that will be possible next year
Jim
"IMHO it should have been designed to drive the rear wheel and keep the front end light enough to lift one of the front wheels in a hard turn. Put the trunk in the front engine over the rear wheel. With some caution (I could be wrong) I believe this design is going to drive like a square fronted boat. With three wheels something has to shift in a turn. With 4 wheels the weight shifts and the platform remains parallel to the ground. With three wheels the same weight shift causes a lean over the single wheel, you can't fix that so you have to go with it and allow something to roll over. Otherwise you need an acre and a half to make a flat turn without the roll.
Three wheel design = drive the single wheel and allow the front end to take up the roll required to make a turn. Morgan has this right."
I have gone back and looked at every YouTube Elio video that I can find and I haven't seen any which show it in a sharp turn .... in thinking about it, the Elio is designed to be a commuter vehicle which usually doesn't require traversing a slalom course .... that said, I have no doubt that some folks are bound to give it a try .... I'm looking forward to a test drive, hopefully that will be possible next year
Jim