I say three wheels in the back instead of one.
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Two Rear Tire Instead Of One
- Thread starter Bret McCarthy
- Start date
I have owned Audi's in the past and purchase vehicles for the style, quality finish, engineering, and driving experience not the hood ornament. Could give a rat's butt about what people think. The BMW's are truly the ultimate driving machine......I've done hairpin curves at high speed and the BMW hugs the road.......my preferred car brand and the new i8....WOW.....if I could only afford that bad boy! However, I am personally buying the Elio totally for the driving experience!!!!! It will be a fun drive and I would compare it to riding or in Elio's case driving a motorcycle not a luxury car brand. I am thinking it may actually be a much more fun driving experience than the BMW. A different class of vehicle. The BMW would simply get me from point A to Point B too.
Are you one of the few who have driven or ridden in an Elio?
I'm guessing the Elio will ride like an Escort (purely speculation). I haven't heard or read anything about the ride quality of the prototypes.
It'll have the simplest and cheapest suspension components available. It is what it is. For me it'll simply be a point A to point B vehicle.
I'm doubting the fun driving capability for a coupe of reasons: 1. due to the single rear tire; only 1/2 the friction holding the rear in corners. Less rear weight does mean less push in corners, and less of a chance of the rear taking a tangential course .... but I still think the rear will be more than happy to kick out and take the lead; and 2. it's front wheel drive.
Like using a small squeegee in air cooled VW's. The defrosters sucked, unless you had a gas heater that hadn't yet failed and caught on fire.
bowers baldwin
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The defrosters sucked? hmm I had not heard that.. (insert sarcasm here)
Jeff Miller
Elio Addict
It may be apples and oranges to compare but I have a tadpole tricycle (people powered) with 2 wheels up front and a single drive wheel in the back and I guarantee you that it is VERY fun to ride. The only issue I have with rear wheel traction is due to it being the drive wheel; that is, it never slips on high speed maneuvering or while going through a quick turn. Elio's front wheel drive will resolve the issue of the rear wheel slip I get on my tadpole.
There are two challenging aspects to riding the trike. The first is that when turning the inside tire will lift during aggressive cornering requiring appropriate leaning to keep things on the ground. The other issue is that aggressive stopping will lead to a stoppie with the rear end coming off the ground. That said, I believe the front wheel drive, stability control, and weight will mean that the elio will not have these tendencies.
outsydthebox
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You may be right, or maybe not. Keep in mind the T-Rex is only three wheels and corners at 1.3-g's. There was also a prototype called the ALE' that was reported to also corner at better than 1-g. Much depends on weight distribution, low center of gravity (Elio looks pretty low) etc.
as for the "fun driving experience?"... The ride quality can't be much worse than my Geo Metro.And I can't imagine being the first one in town to have one, and not getting non-stop "thumbs-ups" and enthusiastic questions every time you stop. And getting pulled over by every cop, just so they can get a closer look. Yes it will be terrible for a while, probably a few years, until there are so many of them on the road that you just slip into obscurity.
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No I haven't had the driving experience. I base my anticipated fun of the drive on the fact that Elio is a narrow enclosed tadpole trike.......so for me it will be the 'feel' of driving a trike with reasonable performance for the size and weight of the vehicle. Performance and handling videos seem to reinforce my idea of fun. With that said if the actual test drive doesn't meet my expectation...........I won't buy the vehicle. I am a drive before I buy personality and have to like the style and driving experience..............to invest even $6800.
You have to look at the design intent, component and overall costing to compare T-Rex to Elio. At $40-60k vs $6800, not a good comparison. I'll be happy with it as a commuter, and I do think the Elio will be relatively fun to drive. I think the Elio will ride better than a Metro due to the longer wheelbase.