I like the whole idea here. Being classified as a motorcycle it should be cheap to insure and $6800, 84 mpg is hard to argue with. Looks like it would be a fun little ride for beating around in. Being built in the US is a big bonus too. Kudos for thinking outside the box.
Being classified as a motorcycle aren’t you required to wear a helmet with this?
Elio has been obtaining waivers for helmet use from most states that require helmets. They should have all states on board by the time they go into production.
So I enjoy driving…
I would get 0 enjoyment out of driving this
“It can hit 60 mph (96.5 km/h) in 9.6 seconds”
that’s still faster than my defender was lol
This.
Being classified as a bike - what could you swap in it…
It wouldn’t need to be plugged in for inspection so pretty much anything you can get in there will work. 100 hp gives it the same power to weight as a new Mustang GT.
Are these out for sale yet or are they still taking deposits ?
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nevermind, clicked link
Reminds me of “The Howard”
The more I read/look at this the more I want one. I just wouldnt want to buy one without a test drive.
Wonder how long it will take for someone to boost it
Gay.
I wonder how it is in the snow
It’s a fwd car with one less wheel, I’d imagine most of the driving characteristics are similar.
Short wheelbase? Throttle lift over steer worse?
Cornering weight transfer is the one that I am having a hard time visualizing. Typical fwd the inside rear is always being unloaded. The Elio rear will always have a “consistent” load on it.
I saw this a few months ago and thought can I take a Sentra/Civic/etc. and add a swing arm, center the driver and steering wheel, move in the A-pillars and call it a custom motorcycle?
I’m picturing the back going everywhere and no traction or ABS.
Here’s the thing, let’s say that this has a typical fwd weight distribution of 60/40. A single rear tire will have the highest load on it vs. the individual fronts.
Two rears with half the load will perform better than one rear with all the load, but I don’t think it will be “all that bad”. I don’t know about owning it, but it would be fun to find the limits of this thing.
but it’s not just load, location on the chassis matter a lot when traction is compromised in any way.
I dont think people will be tracking the car.
Its a A to B cost savings vehicle.
we’re not talking about tracking, we’re talking about snow and ice, although it’s really the same issue.
Elio says the weight distribution is 33% on each wheel which would be perfectly balanced. They claim .9G on the skid pad. ABS and traction control are going to be offered. As far as handling in the snow, it could be tricky with the rear wheel running between the tracks. Production looks to start in about a year. FWIW, it looks like a lot more fun than a Prius for a quarter of the money with better economy.
I was looking for a track width calculator and see what would happen if you enter in a rear track width of “0” (probably track width would be equal to tire width). Deffinately a car with a rear track width equal to the front track width would be more stable. But, I don’t think that means the Elio is automatically “unstable”.
Load directly effects the lateral force a tire can produce. Weight transfer effects the dynamic reponse of the vehicle. “Bad” weight transfer one tire produces a lot of grip while another produces too little grip. The way the suspension works effects weight transfer.
It goes back to
Cornering weight transfer is the one that I am having a hard time visualizing.
. What is the roll center of the rear suspension? How flat is the tire footprint during cornering?
There’s a bunch of what if’s… I’d rather drive one than try to figure them all out.
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A skid pad is steady state cornering when the suspension has taken a set, it could put down good numbers there but be terrible in emergency lane change maneuvers.