Torq Carbon F1 Inspired Roadster

Saw this over on eBay US and just love the looks of the all black one. Plus it's 100% electric

Torq Carbon F1 Inspired Roadster

Bet it would beat a Twizy in a race lol

But in a Twizy you'd keep your licence and be able to race the next day!

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Would get my vote in an Ugly competition !!

I was thinking more chiseled than ugly

Just out of interest, has anyone driven a three wheeled track type car like the one in the link?

Not Del Boy's van lol.

What's the handling like?

You might need a medium to get an answer to that question Fordulike.

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You might need a medium to get an answer to that question Fordulike.

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Lol, you might be right flecc.

Was just wondering whether a vehicle like this was a compromise between a racing motorbike and something like a Caterham.

Or maybe it has an advantage over the bike due to better cornering and over a Caterham due to lighter weight.

I think the first is probably more right. From my past experience with the low and quite fast three wheeled Morgans and the like, the cornering was dangerous at best motorcycling cornering speeds, even back then when motorbike cornering capability was far less than today.

Fast three wheeler stability at the single wheel end is invariably very poor with a propensity to tipping. The alternative of designing to slide instead of tip won't work since the single tyre end will let go far in advance of the two wheel end.

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A friend had a Reliant Robin a few years ago and I drove it to see what it was like. It was surprisingly stable really, and although it did understeer as you'd expect, it was so light and stiff that you could throw it around corners pretty fast and it didn't roll that much. Braking was the main bugbear since it had a natural tendency to just keep going under heavy braking when the small front wheel let go.

The engines were lightweight aluminum ohc and were advanced for their day. I think they were used extensively in the 750 formula class at one time.

The engines were lightweight aluminum ohc and were advanced for their day. I think they were used extensively in the 750 formula class at one time.

That engine was originally a Coventry Climax fire pump alloy engine that I've used in that original guise in a fire pump trailer that was towed behind light trucks and Land Rovers.

When the Rootes Group designed the Hillman Imp as a twin engined air-cooled car intended as a Citroen 2cv competitor, they discovered the Mini was to be four cylinder water cooled at around the same price and they panicked.

Casting around for a suitable four cylinder, which had to be very light due to the overhang rear position, they came across the Coventry Climax alloy unit and got a licence to use it in the Hillman Imp, boring it out to 850cc. It was still rear heavy, hence the Imp's tyre pressures of 30 lbs rear, 15 lbs front to keep the steering in contact with the road!

Bond adopted the same engine for the Bond Bug, and when Reliant took over Bond they gained it too. The original Reliant three wheeler engine was the venerable Austin 7 one, a 1920s design!

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I didn't realise that engine was the Coventry Climax fire pump engine too. It's well known that the fire pump engine was adapted to become the famous Coventry Climax F2 engine. Later used as an interim F1 engine until the V8s were ready. It won in Monaco and the Nurburgring in 1961 in a Lotus driven by Moss.

It was a good engine in the Reliant which was very lively. The Hillman Imp was a very good car too and underrated.

I always thought it strange that a producer of fire pumps in relatively small quantities was a better engine designer than the car companies of the day, some of which seemingly didn't have a clue!

I liked the Imp too, but I've always regretted that the Rootes Group did not hold their nerve and produce the intended air-cooled twin cylinder. The 2cv was extremely successful over decades and others were also successful with the same formula. Honda's twin cylinder air-cooled N360 and N600 sold worldwide very successfully and launched their car making era. I owned an N600 for a while, and it was a real characterful surprisingly fast small saloon.

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I liked the 2cv as well, and it didn't suffer from the Renault 4 vice of blowing its head gasket if it was driven at 60 mph for any length of time.

I think it's a shame that car makers have become so prone to gigantism where every new model is bigger and more complex, and has more stuff packed into it than the last. In an era of diminishing resources we should have more simpler smaller and cheaper cars as we used to have. Instead we have all the manufactures making heavier faster and more complex ones.

Bigger margins on bigger cars of course.

I think it's a shame that car makers have become so prone to gigantism where every new model is bigger and more complex, and has more stuff packed into it than the last. In an era of diminishing resources we should have more simpler smaller and cheaper cars as we used to have. Instead we have all the manufactures making heavier faster and more complex ones.

Exactly my sentiments too. Comparing a Cortina mark 1 to the Mondeo, or the original Volkswagen Golf to the current ones shows how ridiculously far this process has gone in size alone. I suppose that's partly due to people getting taller and fatter, but it's at a time when road space is ever more crowded.

In the 1950s even a limousine like the Humber Super Snipe or a very fast sports car like the superb XK120 were just about 5' wide, but now even a small hatchback is commonly around 5' 7" wide and seems to be gaining an inch a decade. Meanwhile all our lanes and minor roads get no wider to cope and half the cars on the road won't fit into a high proportion of garages.

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Or parking spaces at the supermarket.

Indeed, the underground one at my Sainsburys is almost barred to all but the most capable drivers due to the pillars, small spaces and wide cars. Fortunately there's outside spaces at the rear for the average drivers or that branch wouldn't survive.

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