P17
As with the flying car elsewhere on Gizmag, this is a ridiculously stupid idea. There is an inherent stability with Trike's no matter how low the CoG or long the wheelbase. The headline claims don't mention any form of electronics which would allow the trike to turn safely by tilting the body. Tilting is the only way you can get a trike to remain planted on the road. This of course can be achieved by suspension linkages and lateral sliding arms. In the 21st Century, I'd expect all this to be managed by computer, especially in a trike with the performance capabilities listed above.
TheSplund
and I thought the PT Cruiser looked ugly...
Marshall Simmons
The delta wing is not a trike. It is a 4 wheeled vehicle.
Slowburn
@ The Master Yes the Reliant Robbin was a death trap that does not mean all deltas are death traps. The same nonsense was predicted about the DeltaWing racer and was proven false but that has not quieted "Deltas are dangerous, deltas are dangerous, deltas..." mantra
BigGoofyGuy
It reminds me of a bloated Trivette. I would find this more appealling if the reversed the arrangement of tires so the narrower set is in back; similar to a BMW Isetta. I think it would make it both more appealling and more stable, IMO.
http://www.gizmag.com/nissan-bladeglider-concept/29712/ I think this is way better looking than the one above.
Cédric Blanc
How can you get such an ugly street car from such a great looking race car. Why can't Nissan hire better designers? they have a great concept and such poor execution. Forget making it look like a normal car, that's missing the whole point.
Heather Bowman
Technology should work with not against the laws of physics, bad idea unstable in direction of travel. If you are going to do a trike or trike shaped vehicle the width needs to be in the front not the back. Never understood this idea.
Grunchy
I like the appearance of the blade glider better. Trikes make it hard to avoid pot holes: with a motorcycle you have a single track (wheel path) to manage, with a car there are 2 tracks to manage. These trike-shaped cars with 3 tracks are going to make it hard to avoid pot holes.
P17
@Slowburn US racing involves limited steering and reduced lateral forces on the vehicle by steeply banked curves. Thus steering isn't an important factor in the delta race car. It will be a massive factor for normal cars even on the wide freeways in the US.
Rt1583
@ Cédric - The one picture of the concept car looks like a badly executed photoshop project so an actual production model may not look this bad.
With that said, I don't think they can make a production model look any where near as good as the race version. The ratio between the nose frontal area against the windscreen frontal area/passenger compartment width is too far off to look appealing to most consumers.
The race car looks like a rocket sled (and how many car nuts, young and old, have dreamed up their own favorite version of a rocket sled) while the concept looks like a really misguided attempt to make an Altima more aerodynamic.