Who should make the next 3-wheeler?

"KylesPerGallon" (gentlemandriver) 05/19/2015 at 11:50 • Filed to: 3wheeler, morgan, photoshops

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(I’m calling it the BMW 1/2 Series)

It’s simple ‘subtract 1 wheel, add more fun’. Eat your heart out Colin Chapman. It’s a wonder more companies aren’t getting into the zany, highly irregular, minusculely small market that is 3 wheeled fun cars. While we’ve seen some fairly half hearted attempts at making a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , only one company has brought something good to the table. Of course I’m talking about the Morgan 3 wheeler. Widely lauded as the most fun you can have on 3 wheels. (not highly debated as it turns out)

The little car from Malvern has toppled regimes of companies built on eliciting pure motoring joy. Surely there exist other companies who built their brand on enjoying the simple pleasures of motoring.

Competition only leads to better products right? How many time’s has Alex Roy cracked the frame on his Morgan? I say we invite new manufacturers into this segment.

It begs the question, who will be the next name to jump into the 3 wheeled foray? Surely there’s room for one more ridiculous motoring machine in this world. Surely we have not grown tired of weird autos have we?

It begs the question, who do you wish made a 3 Wheeler?

If you like hearing a fledgling automotive journalist shoot clever puns at real automotive journalists you can follow me !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on twitter. Currently filing for a trademark on “Uptown Frunk”.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 11:53

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Hyundai, because then we could all start making Hyundai Accident jokes again.

Brian, The Life of > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 11:55

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These are fantastic! The BMW was very well done :)

Alfalfa Romeo > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 11:55

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BMW wouldn’t want people to get confused with something else they may or may have not made with the number 1/2.

They’ll call it a 9 series to avoid any confusion.

Milky > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 11:57

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Obvious answer.

and just because I designed for a class once ….

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 11:58

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Not sold on a BMW 3-wheeler, but +1 for 1/2 series.

KylesPerGallon > Brian, The Life of 05/19/2015 at 12:00

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The BMW was the first, they got progressively lazier as I only intended this to be a 500 word article. Hah. But thank you

KylesPerGallon > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 05/19/2015 at 12:01

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It seems like the vehicle lineup is smaller the number [series] the more fun it is, but they’re running out of room.

Justin Hughes > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 12:03

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If Subaru was still the quirky upstart from the 90s and early 2000s, I’d volunteer them. A three wheeler with a boxer rumble? I’d be all over that. But they’re too mainstream now.

Mazda, maybe? But they’d be afraid of such a beast cutting into MX-5 sales, especially after they put so much work into weight reduction.

Suzuki? They’ve pulled out of the US car market but bikes are as strong as ever. How about a GSXR powered three wheeler? As the Kool-Aid man would say, “Oh yeah!”

KylesPerGallon > Alfalfa Romeo 05/19/2015 at 12:04

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Z2!

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 12:04

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0-Series for a small hovercraft based on that system.

KylesPerGallon > Justin Hughes 05/19/2015 at 12:05

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Ohh man GSXR powered 3 wheeler sounds like my kind of fun.

KylesPerGallon > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 05/19/2015 at 12:12

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“Ohh no were a sporting brand still, have you seen our -2 series online? We make about 4 of them a year. This location only sells SUVs though.” -BMW dealers of the future.

KylesPerGallon > Milky 05/19/2015 at 12:15

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Those renders are great, I feel like I'd want a fight pilot like joystick shifter between my legs in something like that.

MultiplaOrgasms > Justin Hughes 05/19/2015 at 12:18

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Dammit Suzuki, one wheel too many

Canoebus-SCGv10 > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 12:37

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Chevy could do th fiero gt .75

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 12:53

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I could theoretically see a tandem-seat, canopy-covered variant, sort of like a Messerschmidt post-war 3-wheeled car, with a ventilation slide-opening warbird canopy that also hinges with some of the bodywork to open entirely for ingress and egress.

With a single-seat-width (single seat or tandem) cycle car, with a tilting front suspension could be very cool, too... and would lean like a motorcycle, which the Morgan, and even the CanAm reverse-trikes can’t do... but Tilting Motor Works already does motorcycle conversions to turn bikes into reverse-trikes with tilting front suspensions... the engineering could be adapted.

To modernize the concept... I would go with the tilting concept, and something more interesting in terms of drivetrain, like an CNG-burning wankel rotary or a small diesel generator with hybrid electric drive, and a direct-engagement cruising gear... and bodywork designed like the BAC Mono, or by Daniel Simon who did the design work for Tron Legacy and Oblivion.

Instead of a wide-front-wheel Light Cycle... more like a three-wheeled Light Cycle.

A design student did a concept for an Aprilia motorcycle powered and branded 3-wheel car with tilting suspension, called the Aprilia Magnet.... that was interesting.

There is the Robert Q. Riley designed XR3 3-wheeled canopy-covered side-by-side, mid-engined car:

The XR3 is obviously a modern revision of Riley’s earlier Tri-Magnum’s design.

And similar to the Turbo Phantom.

3-wheeled cycle cars are not new... and perhaps one of the last bastions of independent automotive innovation left... between 2-wheeled motorcycles, and the highly-regulated automobile.

With the advent of hardware available from the production-model Can Am Spiders... it will be interesting to see as those age and become a readily available source of spare parts, if new cycle-car design revisions come up based on those mechanical parts... On one hand the economy doesn’t support a lot of extra spending, but on the other hand, for the few who can justify the initial expense, some of these might turn out to be both economical, and fun to drive, and perhaps even supportable with spare parts supplies in the future, which “kit cars” haven’t always been.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 12:58

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I have said this since Morgan got back into the 3-wheeler business a few years ago...

I want to see one built by Triumph Motorcycles.

More specifically, I want to see a Morgan 3-wheeler with a Triumph Rocket III unitized engine and sequential gearbox, instead of a front-hanging V-twin mounted on a Miata gearbox that is almost bigger than the engine itself.

It would take some frame and body re-engineering but I think it could be done, and the front end of the 3-wheeler could look like an even smaller and lower hot rod, like a 30’s era Ford coupe, but with a single, hidden rear wheel under a tapered boat-tail rear fairing.

Two frame spars at the base, and one frame tube coming forward from the dashboard, over the engine like the triumph motorcycle’s frame tube, joining in a radiator support and grille shell structure at the front, as well as the front suspension control arm attachment points.

Leave the sides more open, the Rocket III’s engine is designed to look old-school, and be exposed, including it’s 3-cylinder header and exhaust heat shields.

Use the shaft-drive output to go back to the base of the rear swing arm, and integrate either a mechanical reverse gear engagement that uses engine input in 1st or 2nd gear and reverses that rotation when engaged, or otherwise an electric motor, like an engine starter or something, as an electric-drive temporary use reverse gear.

The front axle line and hubs could be in front of, or at least at the front edge of the engine, rather than the engine hanging off the front of the car.

Aside from that, I would keep the warbird fighter plane looks of the Morgan intact.

Milky > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 13:18

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Ha, well first off thanks. But the idea was all the benefits of a bike while being easy to drive like a car.

Tho I never finished the interior …. so not a bad idea.

66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 21:32

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This is not something I expected to see, but... ok.

gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun > KylesPerGallon 05/19/2015 at 23:57

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I, uh, downloaded those pics. For a friend...