A Big Toy For Big Boys

Remember how much fun it was riding a Big Wheel when we were kids? Sadly, we got too big to ride it when we turned 8 or so. But August Agner, owner of North Carolina auto parts manufacturer SFD Industries, has just the thing to help us recapture our youth – a motorized drift trike that looks and rides just like the Big Wheel we left in the back of Mom’s garage all those years ago. Equipped with a 26″ front wheel mounted on a “springer” fork and rear wheels encased in thick PVC, driving sideways with wild abandon is as easy as climbing aboard and twisting the throttle.

The standard Big Wheel Drift Trike, priced at US$2,000, features a TIG welded chrome moly frame and an 8.5 hp engine. A dyno tuned “high horsepower” engine with sport exhaust is available for an additional $500. Perhaps the most noticeable feature of Agner’s design is the high mounted foot pegs that straddle the front wheel. Other drift trikes place the pegs on the front fork where toes and spokes can sometimes become painfully intertwined.

So what is the Big Wheel Drift Trike like to ride? Let’s let designer August Agner tell us:

“The thing that really sets off our drift trike is the big 26-inch by 3.5-inch wheel,” August Agner, owner of SFD Industries tells Gizmag. “It feels super stable and is proportioned similar to a child’s Big Wheel to really make an adult look and feel like a kid again.”

Reason enough to buy one for yourself, don’t you think?

Source: Gizmag

EV West’s BMW M3 EV On The Dyno - VIDEO

With major automakers now churning out EVs of their own, electric car conversion shops have taken a backseat in the news. Well, most shops at least. EV West has continued to crank out some incredible electric cars, including the Pikes Peak-dominated BMW M3 EV. At the behest of the fellows at Drive, EV West put their electric Bimmer on the dyno, and you won’t believe the results.

Unlike conventional cars, EVs are rated in kilowatts rather than horsepower and torque. But what does the 400 kilowatts translate into on the dyno? Not as much horsepower as you might expect, but a ton of torque; 850 ft-lbs of torque, in fact, and 342 horsepower at just 600 rpm. Host Matt Farrah compares it to a Ford Super Duty pickup with a tune, and he’s not far off.

All that torque has trashed more than a few parts on the EV West Bimmer, losing parts like a clutch and differential to all that torque. Even on the dyno the beefed-up Powerglide transmission may have thrown a gear.

Building EVs doesn’t always have to be about going green; sometimes it is just about all that torque. Even so, host Matt Farrah seems skeptical about the future of electric racing. And that’s his right.

But after seeing a car like the EV West BMW M3 EV in action, I have to wonder how he can have any doubts that the future of racing is electric. Sure, the sound of conventional race cars is awesome, but the potential for performance in EVs hasn’t even been tapped yet. Just wait until the Formula E series hits streets and see what I mean.

Source: Gas2.0