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From sidecar to slidecar

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Big Al:
Ah, the tilt body has been done. I was trying to think of something that had not. Not knocking it mind you. I like it.

We came via sidecars, so a staggered wheel arrangement seemed to be inclusive. A basic principle would be the standard sidecar set up. Save on cornering the driver goes outboard with the controls and the passenger ends up where the driver was. Clearly that can be improved on.

Moving the front wheel across to do the same sort of thing. Not sure how you could do that, but yes. An interesting alternative.

Two wheels at the front is more stable. I was looking for a way to overcomplicate the single wheel at the front, as I said, I never said it would be a great car!

Glad to see a bit of free thinking out there. Its good for the brain, you know.

In my minds eye the controls would need to stay in position relative to the driver. Of course if you use a front engine like a Bond Minicar this presents few problems. Indeed you could argue the rear of the car is steering away from the front portion. At what point would that be true? Should you go electric then the frond wheel could be an induction disc with a high powered magnet field round it. No friction, a donkey engine and inertia capture, fuel cell at the rear. Indeed if the drive units were mass produced, one at each corner for three wheel drive.

AndrewG:
I think one of the cleverest three-wheelers was the American Trihawk, because it was so, so simple - to my mind, real genius is working out a simpler way to do something.

OK, it's a three-wheeled Lotus 7 wannabe and was only really created because US rules allowed a three-wheeler to avoid most of the legislation of four-wheelers, but it's still got a lot going for it.

Using a low powerplant (Citroen GS) and a low seating position made not only lateral stability but longitudinal stability very good. 

Having the engine cantilevered the other side of the two-wheel axle from the passengers meant the centre of gravity is close to the two-wheel axle, so the loss of stability from not having a fourth wheel is slight and the low CoG means there is no chance of tipping the car over the front axle in braking (doing a stoppie).

Using a front wheel drive powerplant means there are two driven wheels to transmit power and being front wheel drive means power understeer not oversteer.

It's no microcar but it did use modest power in a small vehicle to make something sporty, which I like.  Perhaps I should have bought a Berk T60.

Big Al:
I always think, three wheeled Formula Ford.

Yes, a good one. Yes, simple is best. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to these 2cv derivatives. They work to well and it reduces the challenge of driving them. The engines good, rarely fails, once the coil system is sorted out. They are pretty quick, but economical. Most fail on weather protection, but that is not why most folk have them. If you want to go faster with the better chassis you can switch to a bigger engine.

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