# What British Car Is This? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856 "2005-04-11T21:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856/21 "2005-04-12T20:41:49Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > A tricycle rider can lean his/her body into a turn. A car body cannot. [This one can.](http://www.3wheelers.com/gmlean.html) > [@](#): > > Actually, 3-wheel vehicles with two front wheels (like the early Morgans) are very stable. The kind with one front wheel is not as stable. This is because cornering force is towards the front of the vehicle. The rear axle is fixed and points to the center of the turning circle, so the center of turn is towards the rear of the vehicle, and centrifugal force is directly away from that point. Yeah, that’s primarily the design I was thinking of, since I’m more familiar with the mechanics of [Bucky fuller’s car](http://www.thirteen.org/bucky/car.html) than I am a Reliant or a Corbin. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856/22 "2005-04-12T21:17:53Z")
- - - Three-wheel cars seem to be more of a Euro thing, and mostly a British thing, that I have seen. The Reliant Robin was very-much an assembly-line-built product, but there is a long history of 3-wheeled kit vehicles in the UK. They can often handle (turn harder) slightly better than 4-wheel cars, because [in aggressive driving in a car with a firm suspension] braking into or accellerating out of a turn, a 4-wheel car will have one wheel off the ground anyway. - The GM lean machine was never produced and sold as a consumer product. The practical problem with leaning trikes is that the “leaning” and the “front wheel turning” must be kept mechanically separate (as they were in the Lean Machine), and then operating them manually becomes a hassle. Computer/automatic control is financially feasible now, but the vehicle’s safety is dependent upon the leaning mechanism never failing, so the potential manufacturer liability involved is not attractive. If you mechanically link the left-right motion of the front wheel to the leaning aspect, then the vehicle’s steering loses its dynamic stability. ~ ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856/23 "2005-04-12T21:31:44Z")
[These guys](http://www.rqriley.com/) sell a number of kits and plans in the US on how to build a three wheeled car. The Lean Machine always struck me as a rather impractical design, anyway, since it was a single seater, so I doubt that there would be much demand for them, even if they had been mass produced. Even with a motorcycle you can have a passenger. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856/24 "2005-04-12T21:33:49Z")
On the topic of three wheeled cars, what was Sam Lowery (Jonathan Pryce) driving in the movie Brazil? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856/25 "2005-04-12T21:40:07Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > On the topic of three wheeled cars, what was Sam Lowery (Jonathan Pryce) driving in the movie Brazil? IIRC, that was a Messerschmitt. Though knowing Terry Gilliam, it could have been something he had made special for the film. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856/26 "2005-04-12T21:45:28Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > IIRC, that was a Messerschmitt. Though knowing Terry Gilliam, it could have been something he had made special for the film. I just looked at some pics. I think you are correct, it does appear to be the same car, but the one in the movie had a little add-on, the thing that kind of looked like a small jet engine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-british-car-is-this/298856.md?page=1)