How do you overcome the cornering issues with 3 wheelers (2 front 1 rear) as I am toying with an idea (Formula ford conversion)

Great idea , I have a soft spot for 3 wheelers, my 1st car at 16 was an BMW Isetta .

I would guess keeping the C of G low helps a lot , and wide track at the front, I imagine 2 at the front 1 at the rear is the most stable configuration.

As cheeko says, wide track at front and i would suggest a wide tyre at the rear. Should be fun!

the whole idea of no diff to suck power and a much lighter setup at the rear really appeals.....
the research continues, if anyone can point me at good info please feel free.

Those JZR (or whatever) V-twin bike powered trikes are pretty quick, plus theres the other trike that uses superbike engines and the Avon which now uses VW beetle power.

Do a search for a car called the Malone Skunk. They seem to have it pretty well sorted. They use a wide car tyre on the back and motorbike tyres on the front. Got very good reviews when it was launched and believe it is still about.

Ben.

how about the Grinnall scorpion 3, the one on http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/grinnall.html is 350 kg and 300 bhp

The cornering issues with a 3-wheeler with 2 front ,1 rear wheel is really simpel.

You need very low CG (center of gravity), wide front track- And the most important: As much weight in the front as possible!!

The balance (over/under steer) is decided of the weight distribution (front/rear).
Front heavy: Understeering (but you can easy power oversteer ) = easy to control!!
Rear heavy: Oversteering everywhere - Not good!!

Take a look at my website. There is very much interresing to read!
MRIDE.SE











[Edited on 11/12/05 by Micke Fredriksson]

Hi Micke is well founding in his comments in that he has buillt a trike/tri-car and its performance is visable on his web page.

A trike/tricar will always trip or roll over but as Micke as stated keeping the C of G lower and a large % of weight over the front wheels with as little upspring mass as possble will limit the possibility of roll or lift.

But again its all a compromise with performance a tricar weighing 350kg with 160bhp and geared correctly will definetly match the high end track cars begin 0-100 mph sub 5 sec and with my software 0-100 in 4 secs is possible but no doubt a tricar would not be able to match the cornering capabilites as the same as a bike can, but a tricar can accelerate and brake much effectively than a bike.

I wonder how the tilt-steering of the Aprillia Magnet works? That could be interesting as well

There is some discussion of 3 wheeler handling here:
http://www.rqriley.com/3-wheel.htm

The guy claims that correctly designed a 3 wheeler can corner better than a 4 wheeler due to a superior yaw response rate. No idea if it's true/practical/complete bobbins, but interesting stuff. There is also some discussion of how leaning designs handle.

3 wheelers can be made to handle very well indeed. A low CofG helps but the essential thing is that there is no high weight over the single wheel - hence why Reliants fall over. I drove a 1100 Mini engined 3 wheeler years ago which would have knocked spots off many modern "performance " cars for both handling & speed - the big problem with high power outputs & only 1 wheel driving is the lack of traction.