V8 Twin Turbo Trike

Picture that’s worth a thousand words!

But there’s more behind the picture.

Already of the drawing board this project was to be designed for maximum reliability, strength, road holding, handling and driver experience in mind.

Also the philosophy while building custom choppers is: as little as possible visible fasteners, cables, pipes and brackets. Most if the cosmetic components have to be as shiny as possible. In the real world though sheen can be dangerous especially in a sunny day – the glare is blinding. An alternative is the brushed stainless steel finish.

The design task was rather difficult considering there are not many professionally built trikes around for a reference. The Rulebook for building trikes is still to be written.

Trike is a different kind of animal altogether – the three wheels suggest that it can not be leaned into the corner bike style. One wheel in front supplies no roll resistance whatsoever – it’s all controlled through the rear suspension.

The front fork is a uniquely designed for this specific purpose – chopper style looks and race car lateral load bearing abilities. The side forces are immense especially with the cast iron Chevy V8 Twin Turbo Engine this close to the front fork.

The feedback to the driver is a vital part altogether with the grip and self stabilizing effect at high speeds.  Careful selection of the castor angle was required.

Built-in anti-dive geometry using the braking torque generated by the caliper is also not something one can copy or buy. So it was designed to have a variable geometry for fine tuning in real road conditions. Simulation work was done with a CAD.

At the rear end it was a similar situation – combining roll resistance, comfortable ride with short suspension travel and big load difference for the rear springs with driver alone and with two passengers.

Added to this is the massive torque this engine is generating, trying to twist the axle and to compress the rear end upon hard acceleration.

Therefore the design had to incorporate an anti-squad geometry, massive sway bar, air springs with adjustable pressure and triangulated space frame to employ all of this.

The main chassis is a space frame built in 50mm Stainless Steel tube 304, cosmetically finishing every visible weld.

The total weight of the frame is 56 kg.

The packaging was a nightmare – limited space for the neat appearance had to conceal powerful air compressor with the controls and the lines, electrical water pump, a cooling system with industrial capacity, fuel system capable of feeding 400+ horses, full size electrical system, oil cooling system and all the auxiliary components.

Design and built from scratch. And all had to look good too.

A lot of attention was paid to the brakes starting with the static and dynamic weight distribution.

There’s a single Wilwood master cylinder operating the brakes while maintaining the designed brake balance.

Four piston Wilwood caliper clamps cerametalic pads against the 32mm wide 305mm rotor at the front.

The rear set up retains the original Falcon brake system with the parking brake built in.

With the rear weight of the trike less than a third of the Falcon’s rear end – it’s more than adequate.

Mentioning also deserves the engine cooling system. Two radiators at the back benefit from the turbulence and partial vacuum suction behind the trike as it drives and two electric fans take care of air flow while going slow in traffic. Electric water pump circulates the coolant at a constant speed of 120 L/min. preventing unnecessary increase in energy consumption with the elevated engine RPM.

This set up also allows for reversed cooling – introduction of the cooler liquid first to the heads preventing detonation when under boost and then flowing down to the block keeping more uniform temperature distribution around the bores.

Automatic gearbox with a quick shift kit allows the driver to have firm hold of the handle bars at all times.

All of this put to the ground through generous amount of rubber - 295/50/15 rear tires and 185/85/15 front tire.

The result – sledge hammer blow served in a velvet glove.

Tame and civilized cruiser with the potential to restart a dead planet and with the control to do so.

The cornering limitation comes from the ability of the driver to remain on the seat while cornering.

It’s probably economical too if driven reasonably, but we haven’t tried this yet.

We also don’t know what the maximum speed is…still looking for a driver that can take it there.