Remember your three wheel bike aged 6? You could cock a wheel up and pedal with one wheel in the air - and that with almost an almost equal sided triangle for a wheelbase...
Dwell on that for a second - then on the Reliant and so on.. then imagine something tall, elongated and with a rear wheelbase as wide as a bathtub. With a high centre of gravity..
Heading between the Hotel and a bakeshop in the Far East, I spotted this..
It`s tall, looks old and somehow gets around without doing barrel rolls.
Perhaps it`s driver should be recruited as a Formula 1 driver? given the wide wheelbase 4x4`s you see in our UK scrapyards that have been rolled by incompetants.
Well.. how does it corner?
www.oilrag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tac1.jpg
www.oilrag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tac2.jpg
All the best ;-)
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What the.....
The spoiler..... the windows....what it is it made of???
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Brilliant
For some reason it makes me think of that TV advert for Peugeot 207 where the Indian guy took an old Hindustan-type car and kept bashing it against the wall until it turned into something else
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For some reason it makes me think of that TV advert for Peugeot 207
www.youtube.com/watch?v=50A9wjJ40Dk
(it was for the 206)
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>>as wide as a bathtub
Oi!
I may be a little overweight, but I don't go around insulting you! ;>)
If the front wheel steering pivot is ahead of the wheel, then when going round a left-hander the wheel will move to the right of the car, helping stability.
I believe Laurie Bond used this on the Bond 875.
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What a fantastic machine - straight from the star wars parking lot.
I presume the pilot uses "the force" to anticipate the need for cornering...
either that, or an incredible sense of balance.
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Pretty cool looking motor.
let's face it, four wheels are one more than you need to stop it from falling over.
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Close observation of the front tyre suggests either that it is run too soft, or that particular three wheeler leans into corners and wears the outer edges of its front tyre.
Surely not.
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Given the prevalence of "English" script the scenes must be of American colonial heritage, the Phillipines or Hawaii?
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well built contraption
love the windows
wonder if its a fall out vehicle for top brass in that region if the bomb dropped
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I agree with bb, handsome devices.
How fast can they go oilrag?
250cc? 75 given a bit of run-up?
Edited by Lud on 25/09/2009 at 01:28
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On the rare occasion I've driven a three-wheeler I have, apart from one exception in a Reliant, I've made sure it had two of the wheels at the front.
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It seems to be made of the same material as the old Jeeps that have been re done with stainless steel panels.
Didn`t hang around to ask questions as it was a bit of a risk pulling the G600 out to take pics at 6.00 am. Tacloban in the philippines. I will post a locating shot below.
I suspect it has a simple chassis and the driver cocks it onto two wheels to take corners.
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Tacloban
www.oilrag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/loc2.jpg
The latest traffic/pedestrian rule
www.oilrag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/loc1.jpg
It`s now `Jaywalking` if you cross a street outside the yellow lines and a 500 Peso (80 to the £) fine.
Edited by oilrag on 25/09/2009 at 08:06
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Just a further comment on the three wheeler.
It`s a lot taller and narrower than it looks in the photos, around 6` tall and with a rear track of around 2` 6" A head on shot would have revealed something with much more similarity to an enclosed bike.
Edited by oilrag on 25/09/2009 at 08:27
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I think it's what Michael J Fox would have been driving had they shot Back to the Future in the Far East
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Tacloban
I was going to say it's in Phil., but wasn't sure where, the PNB sign and background hoarding give it away. Got marooned without transport there some time ago. Fantastic. I wish I was there!
Look at the forks on the thing! Also, it seems to have galvanised iron panels.
Just up the road from the San Juanico bridge (which you're not supposed to stop on...).
Edited by FotheringtonThomas on 25/09/2009 at 14:21
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You can`t make out the bridge in the above shot - but the string of lights over the bay in the background are on it.
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Here is a shot of the same area that I made a few years ago, but taken from the harbour, with the bridge in the extreme distance beneath the sun going nova... It`s a fake sun actually.....
www.oilrag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/1.gif
Edited by oilrag on 25/09/2009 at 15:10
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Beautiful shots oilrag.
I've just taken another look at the wonderful three-wheeler. Whoever made that body is an ace tin-basher. Like the bodywork of a WW2 fighter plane.
Not surprising really coming from the cradle of the Jeepney in all its varieties, some of which you have shown us.
I can't help feeling that those Filipino carrossiers have yet to find their true outlet. Something good will come from them.
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Thanks Lud.
There were many new double cab pickups too with typically stainless rollover bars and tinted glass. Heavy tints all round that is - impossible to see into the interior at all.
As you do - I was glancing at the chassis on these as I walked past and without exception there was no rust at all on the newer ones and only slight corrosion on those around 15yrs old.
All the Oriental marques were there (Toyota, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Nissan and so on) all the same, no rust on the chassis at all, to speak of.
I thought GB might be interested in that. With reference to the heavily rusted chassis pics I posted a while back on a 3yr old UK Double Cab.
Tacloban is on a peninsular, 32c heat, 100% humidity ( condensation all over the cars early morning despite being +25c at dawn) Torrential rain in the afternoons - yet no real corrosion.
It has to be salted roads in the UK doesn`t it? I wonder too, whether all that `table salt` of recent winters penetrated or stuck more to the UK models chassis and did more damage.
It seems that a quick blow over of black chassis paint over mild steel is more than adequate for anywhere without salted roads then.
Incidentally, I mentioned our Wind Farms and (DPF unfit for purpose city cars) for saving the worlds climate and people laughed their heads off.
As in our visit to China, people see the UK as about as significant as a pimple on an elephants bottom - but then, as said, it is of course an ex American colony.
That said, viewing the world on the local world maps which are centred on the Pacific Rim and with the UK appearing off the upper edge - much as we may view the top of Greenland... You can understand their perspective.
Things are slowly moving though in the Philippines. City tricycles have been banned from having two stroke engines. The problem is though that it`s culturally normal to ride tricycles around the City when you could walk to your destination in a few minutes.
The horror of the trip was a pot bellied street fruit vendor trying to sell me her daughter "you want a girl? it`s 21"
Fortunately I`m still capable of Flank Speed and have long legs.. I can still hear the sound of her flip flops gradually receding behind me and disappearing into into the sound of Jeepney engines and the roar and patina of street life in South East Asia.
Edited by oilrag on 25/09/2009 at 16:34
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It has to be salted roads in the UK (rusting things) doesn`t it? I wonder too whether all that `table salt` of recent winters penetrated or stuck more to the UK models chassis and did more damage. It seems that a quick blow over of black chassis paint over mild steel is more than adequate for anywhere without salted roads then.
It's the salt, and it doesn't matter whether it's table salt or "normal". The stuff dissolves and sloshes into all the crevices, and seeps into mud stuck underneath where it stays as a deliquescent metal-earing splodge of trouble.
The wheels fall off most cars[1] in Phil. before they rot, it seems.
[1] They do, too. Suspension is knackered in short order.
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I was on a tricycle on a mile or so run out of the City, that had a failing rear wheel bearing. Loud clonks and bangs - presumably as bits of bearings jammed and then forced loose. You grit your teeth and pretend not to notice - as to show concern dents your image ;-)
With it being the sidecar wheel and being sat straight over it, made it most apparent..
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I thought this thread was going to be about these little chaps - saw a load of them doing a cross country rally in the Czech Republic a few years back.
Fabulous things
tinyurl.com/y9hjc9t
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I like it a kind of 1950s scifi look.
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Built like early airframes with a waterproof canvas "body". Seeing them cornering at daft speeds around wet cobbled streets of a small town was a hoot.
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