Looking at a triangle and a rectangle should be enough to make a very accurate assertion of which of the two shapes would provide more stability for a vehicle during a corner, but sometimes nothing beats an animated video representation. Take the video at the bottom, for example.
The world has several three-wheeled vehicles to choose from at the moment, from the classic Morgan Three-Wheeler to the motorcycle-like Can-Am Spyder. But for a really sporty experience, your best bet is the Polaris Slingshot.
With a dry weight of 1,660 pounds (753 kg) and a 2.4-liter DOHC naturally aspirated gasoline engine delivering 173 hp at 6,200 rpm (which leaves you another 800 rpm to the red line), it’s the closest you can get to what a KTM X-Bow offers minus one wheel.
That’s right, for some odd-ball reason, Polaris decided to make the Slingshot into a trike and give just the one wheel at the back. That makes the... vehicle considerably more special, but also more unstable. Especially if the driver is alone and he or she is pulling a hard right turn.
Or a left one, as this clip below shows. The funny part is that when the inevitable happens and one of the front wheels lifts off, the Slingshot’s design allows the vehicle’s belly to scrape the asphalt, as if saying “don’t worry, son, that’s the least of your problems right now.”
The driver here actually pulls a nice save, with the Polaris Slingshot stopping just short of hitting one of the protective barriers. But imagine the same thing happening on a public road with the added inconvenience of oncoming traffic and we’ve got ourselves a problem. Especially since the Slingshot doesn’t really need to be going all that fast to lose control - just a sudden jerk of the steering wheel and your trike technically has just become a motorcycle. Technically.
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