Full Catalog 3 Wheelers Thread

[Marshall]

Because of the dramatic shortage of cats and dogs at the time?

No, A selfish public liked a "pet" that required no attention or effort.

 

[WilliamH]

No, A selfish public liked a "pet" that required no attention or effort.

I always thought it was because they didn't want anything that would take the attention away from them.
The "Look At Me", "Look At Me" generation.

 

[TCBronson]

There definitely is a series of conditions that left the 3 wheeler out of the mix. In the early days of the automobile, it was about the cost as much as anything. And the power and speed was not as important. As we can see by the postings, small cars and three wheelers were widespread. Just about any garage jockey thought he could start a company. And many could and did.

By the 60's power and speed got bigger, companies got bigger, expectations got bigger, and at the same time the perception of a do-it-all vehicle became common place. The post WWII had the ideal of a 4 person family at minimum. Open top vehicles, exposed to the elements were out. And in America the highway system seemed to encourage a land-yacht mentality.

The OPEC ordeal of the 70's only put a slight bend in it for smaller cars. Technical innovation enabled the re-invention of the economy 4 seat automobile. But 3 wheelers were not revisited. (except for the DIY/Kit world, there was motion there) Moving past into the 90's, America went super-sized into SUV territory.

In some ways the pre-50 and pre-40 autocycles were too successful. The public was a bit tired of that being 'my only car' and up scaled their desires. And as a manufacturer, why would you sell less of a car, when you can sell more? At the same time government regulation, insurance, corporate marketing etc, pushed the autocycle to the fringe. And cars have become more expensive and more complex.

Many people with a hankering for a retro vehicle had moved to motorcycles, even if this is not a cheap vehicle, with the latest exception of Chinese scooters.

So now, at this point in time a hole has been left open. So long as one realizes, it's OK to buy a car that isn't for all-in-one use. But today in America, the old autocycles with only urban speed capability won't do it. You need safe freeway capability, AC and enough power. And it needed to be cost effective, for it to make sense. Large investment only big companies could make was required to start such a product, and there is no viable motivator to do so.

You can see how this works when looking at the adoption of the Smart Car sized platform. No American distributor would sell that, until they felt they need to. Smart car even trying was very much the exception. Once SC did it for a number of years, that got the others interested.

So only after Elio is successful, will there be any motivation for a larger manufacturer to attempt an Elio layout and pricing structure. As long as Elio is able to keep the price low, others will be very reluctant to even try. On the other hand if EM gets very profitable, even if only though options and add-ons, others will get very interested indeed. But by then EM will have a 3-5year head start.

I think what you said makes a lot of sense. My thought as to why the big automotive manufacturers haven't tried is because of profit margins, the less expensive a car is the less profits there are and the opposite holds true on the more expensive a car/SUV, Truck, etc the higher the profits. So I stand by my statement, "we are all witnessing automotive history in the making"!

 

[outsydthebox]

The big 3 have merely been making what their major shareholders want them to make. Hmmmm, I wonder how many of the big oil companies are major shareholders?

 

[AriLea]

COOL ITALIAN ELECTRO-TRIKE FROM 1941

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=494892694044318

Thanks David! I really liked that car. It did have a very poor turning radius. Front end was a little plain. I'll bet the range sucked, but adequate for round town in those days. Other than that it was ahead of it's time. Makes me wonder what the relative pricing was.

 

[floydv]

Just ran across this article:

http://compass.ups.com/article2.aspx?id=25769804325&WT.mc_id=OutbrainTrafficMobile

 

[DmScar]

This is something I stumbled upon, Hopefully it's not been posted before.
These trikes are called Vanderhall Languna's and they have a 1.4L turbo 4 cylinder from a Chevy. I can't remember from which Chevy car tho. They say this trike is just for cruising because its not fast, however for a cruising trike it costs $75,000.

 

[AriLea]

OK I have new one to add. It's custom, but worth a spot here as it seems to be someone who has really thought out the design in reference to historical design as well as new engineering.
The article claims it's camouflaged, but no, I think it's taken the Velorex ideals to heart. That is, a fabric over a wire frame. Very easy and inexpensive way to get a style form built.
It appears to have a Honda/Toy or Nissan FWD unit, as I see no rear drive belt or chain in the video. Just a very hunky disk caliper.
It has wipers and being in Utah likely AC as well, LED headlights. It's lightly sportscar like, but very simply implemented.

 

[AriLea]

Actually, after a day of reflection, I suspect this could very well be a simple version as a first implementation. That Porsche image didn't come from nowhere. I must add too, if this had any intention of high MPG's, they should have a covered rear wheel and smoothing in other areas of the body. Even covering the front wheel openings and an underbelly panel(or air dam at least).
Concepts like this often end up with 50mpg in city, 75 highway, and up 100mpg or so in super-mileage test runs.

 

[Darren Cruse]

Fuel Vapor Technologies Ale
View attachment 10169 View attachment 10168

Stumbled on some interesting videos about the FVT Ale:

http://www.fuelvaporcar.com

The second link refers to a Discovery Canada program covering the Ale team's entry own the X Price X Car competition - unfortunately I can't find that anywhere online.

The third link is their web site - unfortunately both from that site and from googling one gets the impression the project stalled as there seems quite a bit of old info but nothing recent...