[VladRussian2]

i kind of hate to put myself at risk of overturning at 80mph on mild windy day on mild turn on 280 just because 3 wheeler (motorcycle) is easier (read cheaper) to certify than 4 wheeler (car). Of course that is also because i can afford to pay additional money of "car price", and i'd probably thought differently if i couldn't.

Not saying that such a vehicle don't have its place. Though i have hard time imagining it. If not highway - than cities - European cities are well populated either by small 4-wheel cars or just scooters. Doesn't seem like there is niche for car size 3 wheeler without full benefits of a car.

[hingisundhorsa]

I looked up the point you are making. The data backs you up, 3 wheelers suffer from inherent instability on turns. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8 "When the single wheel is in the front , the vehicle is inherently unstable in a braking turn, as the combined tipping forces at the center of gravity from turning and braking can rapidly extend beyond the triangle formed by the contact patches of the wheels. This type, if not tipped, also has a greater tendency to spin out ("swap ends") when handled roughly." What a pity. I was quite excited about the prospects.

[dragonwriter]

> "When the single wheel is in the front, the vehicle is inherently unstable in a braking turn [...]

There is probably a reason that this vehicle has the single wheel in the back. While I think in principle this results in similar instability in accelerating turns as the one-in-front configuration has in braking turns, this is greatly mitigated by the fact that wheeled vehicles generally brake much more quickly than they accelerate.

[kennywinker]

Not to disagree, but I believe many of the problems with three-wheeled vehicles are solved by putting the single wheel at the BACK. e.g. the Peugeot HyMotion3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ZT8adga1E

[VladRussian2]

The main point of HyMotion3 is motorcycle-style whole vehicle body leaning inside the turn - completely different game.

[amalag]

When the two wheels are in the front it behaves completely different from asian scooters which have two wheels in the back.

[VladRussian2]

this is why i said 80mph not 30mph.

To inherent instability of 3 wheelers one also need to add inherent instability at speed of low-weight small vehicle with high height to width ratio (an issue arising from aerodynamics) what 3 wheelers are. The best one can get is a T-REX like (http://www.campagnamotors.com/). Now, if somebody managed to sell T-REX at $7K instead of $40K+ - that would be something :)

[amalag]

Wow, now that is a sexy 3 wheeler.