blog GAMIL: an insider look at design » 3 wheelers http://www.gamil.com elements of inspiration and moments of distraction from a small design firm Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:41:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 3 wheels more fun than 4? http://www.gamil.com/2008/01/20/3-wheels-more-fun-than-4/ http://www.gamil.com/2008/01/20/3-wheels-more-fun-than-4/#comments Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:25:39 +0000 aly http://gamil.com/2008/01/20/3-wheels-more-fun-than-4/ Well since we’re on the subject of vehicles, I have to comment on something most basic: how many wheels are right? 2 wheels can be tippy and require balance, but 4 wheels seems to require special balancing and differentials to keep axles from snapping off. Which brings us to the 3 wheeler. As a budding designer and engineer, I was wowed with the GM Lean Machine- and thought that surely this would be the future: a vehicle that lets you sit back like a car but lean into turns like a motorcycle. Lean Machine

The specs were quite impressive, including 80 MPG. I remember turns that could be handled at more than 1 g of force.

Lean Machine Specs

The idea has had some kind of staying power, since BMW seemed to copy it directly with their low emissions CLEVER car:BMW Clever

The turning mechanism looks identical:

BMW CLEVER mechanism

Then there is the lovely Sparrow by Myers Motors – an all-electric 3 wheeler that might be the non-performance runt of the family, but is the one that made it to production.

Myers Motors Sparrow

They eventually bankrupted, but I see that you can get one at Hammacher Schlemmer now for $25k.

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