trikes

Perhaps the engine was not backwards (that'd be pretty tough to do with a front-wheel-drive setup, I think, unless someone is making a kit) but the engine was forwards, with just the radiator at the rear?

The radiator at the rear would get more airflow than just behind the driver.

Dave

It can be done... But you need sufficient air flow to keep the engine / radiator cool.

Check out these groups for a start:

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

I never thougth of that but you are right, the engine was probably forward, just the radiator backward.

What would keep that set up from popping wheelies at 70mph????

I had a neighbor once who cut the frame rails of an Olds Tornado right behind the rear torsion bar supports, leaving the cruise controls intact, also the air cond. system, he added a set of front forks of billet steel (instead of tubes) to have some weight to keep the front on the ground but when complete, but not yet fully finished, he still could "blip" the throttle lightly and raise the front wheel. I moved away before it was totally complete but looked to be a really awesome trike in the making. Where he finally put the radiator I don't really know, it was still in the shaking out stage when I left.

I would look for a Pontiac Fiero if I was going to build one. The V-6 especially, can be dressed up and built to make decent power. It was basically a front wheel drive drivetrain with the steering "locked" straight and plunked in the back of the car. I don't remember for sure, but I think the whole engine/transaxle package came out on a sub-frame like the later Grand Prix.

I was thinking "unreliable" and then remembered I owned the inspiration for the Fiero in the form of the Fiat X/19... Now that there is unreliable.

Went perfect with my Opel GT (first car) and Humber Super Snipe that never ran.

I always wondered if you got an old Ford 351 for marine use that rotated in the opposite direction whether you could simply drop it in a car and have a

That would make for an interesting trike platform to begin with... Just build it backwards...

A long heavy front end , and seating for the driver well ahead of the motor/transaxle set-up . There's a guy lives near Memphis (Tn) that's built more that a couple . Last one was pretty cool , used a fuel-injected Volvo (IIRC) FWD power unit . It had wheelie bars ...

Think "Big"

p.s.- Forks? We do'ne need no stinking Forks!

You can move the radiator just about anywhere it will get enough airflow (scoops and ducts count), and if you use an electric fan instead of an engine driven one it's easy.

For radiator hoses you make up hard lines out of mandrel bent heavy wall steel tubing (think muffler shop) or brazed copper pipe. Then it only takes a short chunk of straight radiator hose (Gates Green Stripe) at each end to connect the hard line to the engine block and the radiator.

The big problem on a trike is keeping the center of gravity in front - it's hard. You have to put all the weight you can toward the front - the battery, fuel tank, etc.

Put wheelie bars on it to make sure you stay out of the hospital, at least temporary ones till you are darned sure they are not needed.

And you can reverse the power train, but a reverse ring and pinion gear or other dodges have to be available from a parts source.

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Build a Morgan-style trike instead.

And when you find a shaft-drive motorcycle that's economical to adapt and has a nice looking engine to hang out the front of a car, let me know, eh?

if you want a "morgan style" trike, why not just buy an old morgan? then you get the "really really cool" factor plus you get your trike...

I have a morgan +4 (a 4 wheeled variant), and I assure you it brings all the misery that a true sports car should bring, while allowing you to drag your knuckles on the ground at freeway speeds. It's the only car I've ever driven home with a broken crank shaft - on the other hand, it's the only car I've had that broke a crank shaft.

Then there is the OTHER way of making a trike.....

"Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us today. Now the useful idiots can be found in the chorus of appeasement, reflexive anti-Americanism, and sentimental idealism trying to inhibit the necessary responses to another freedom-hating ideology, radical Islam"

Bruce C. Thornton, a professor of Classics at American University of Cal State Fresno