http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20141121-the-art-of-sideways-drift-triking-with-local-motors The art of sideways: Drift-triking with Local Motors Jim Resnick 23 November 2014
[images http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/976_549/images/live/p0/2c/8s/p02c8stf.jpg Local Motors Verrado electric drift trike. (James Resnick) http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/464_261/images/live/p0/2c/8s/p02c8sts.jpg http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/464_261/images/live/p0/2c/8s/p02c8str.jpg http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/464_261/images/live/p0/2c/8s/p02c8st6.jpg ] Ever since Fred Flintstone learned out how to steer the family pedicar, driving sideways has been thrill-seekers’ catnip. From dirt-track racers to Group B rally-racing monsters to the latest Ken Block gymkhana video, sideways driving has long been held as a form of automotive nirvana. A new design paradigm How Local Motors made mass-collaboration work Design-by-committee rarely works well, so why would Local Motors, a company that crowd-sources much of its engineering and design expertise via the internet, make such a maligned practice its modus operandi? It so happens that the collaborative virtual workplaces created by Local Motors work, and work well. Ideas are submitted and voted on by the community. Those that graduate past this preliminary evaluation stage are then prototyped, small manufacturing plans are drawn up and, finally, the product goes to market. Local Motors' Rally Fighter is the prime example. The company started seeking designers in 2007 to submit micro-manufacturing design solutions for a niche on-and-off-road vehicle – and for a share in sales revenues. The community then helped engineer the car. After plenty back-and-forth, out came the Rally Fighter. Engineering solutions were tackled by both an in-house team and the online community. Registered in the US under similar rules that govern kit cars and home-builts, close to 100 units of the Rally Fighter have been produced and sold around the world. —JR Fun, however, has its limits. Until recently, gravity propelled the small cult of the downhill drift trike: a tricycle designed explicitly to flap its tail sideways. Quite literally, drift-trikers faced an uphill battle: how to return to the crest after drifting sometimes a mile or more downhill? Enter Local Motors, the Arizona-based, open-source carmaker. Powered by a 1,000-watt, 36-volt hub electric motor and operated through a motorcycle twist grip, the company’s Verrado is a drift trike that takes the slog out of the picture – and even enables long, languorous drifts on level ground. The key to sideways life with the Verrado is super-smooth, durable, inexpensive PVC pipe that wraps around the rear tires. Starting with flat rubber, inflation expands the tires and grips the PVC in place. The trike essentially operates in silence, good for keeping the wraps on impromptu contests. Though based on a downhill drift trike that the company has already brought to production, the powered Verrado went from design prototype in December 2013 to fully funded Kickstarter campaign in April 2014 to customers’ hands in July. The new Verrado is capable of 20mph (32kph) in a straight line, though some tinkerers are said to net even higher speeds. Local Motors engineer and spokesman Matt Jackson, whose background includes Baja off-road and dune-buggy racing, as well as mechanical engineering and design at a nuclear powerplant – tried many hub-motor configurations, battery capacities and chemistries before arriving at the unit in production. The Verrado also uses disc brakes on the front wheel, regenerative braking to recover energy lost as heat during braking, and a removable rear axle. The latter component was designed to unbolt along with the battery pack as one unit, for design cleanliness and ease of use. Charging of the onboard battery lasts between 45 and 60 minutes. The Verrado is proportioned for an adult because – surprise – it is adults who spend $1,699 on a glorified child’s toy. Jackson says that the greatest danger to a rider’s body is not falling off, but rather burning the inside lower leg with the front tire when crossed up. The key to calf longevity is to float your inside leg off the peg while counter-steering. This works the quadriceps group nicely, too. Synchronised drift-triking: coming soon to a Summer X-Games near you? 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