In my area there are quite a number of self-serve junk yards. I occasionally like to walk through them, just to see what cool things are being thrown away. Limos, old bank armored cars, and a surprising number of MG Midgets. This leads me to my pipe dream, wild hair-brained idea.
Yesterday I came across something a bit odd for this area. An old-school Mini Cooper. No, not the modern one, the one made famous by the movie "The Italian Job". It's rough, to put it mildly. However, one little idea popped into my head. A FWD Trike. Basically, my wild idea is to mount the front end of a Mini Cooper (unsure if I'd use the engine) to the rear of a scooter that's also in the salvage heap. No, this isn't a serious bike, but I would be tempted to register it for street use.
The engineering seems fairly strait forward, all the "go, stop, turn" functions would be built into the Mini front end. I'd just run a throttle and brake cable back to the scooter. Not 100% sure how I'd do the steering wheel yet though. Oddly, I'm not sure if this would count as a motorcycle, or autocycle (3-wheel car) under my state's laws. After all since it has scooter seating it technically doesn't have "saddle seating" which would make it a motorcycle. It might depend on if I have a gas pedal or handle throttle.
With the lack of vintage Mini parts in the area, I may end up powering this thing with a 40HP engine from Harbor Freight. That alone would solve the issue of a fuel tank as it's built into the engine.
Okay, any thoughts on this, admittedly silly, idea?
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