Citroen Brings us the C-Buggy

This is a cool little buggy. I wonder if this will ever see the light of day. Either way it is still a neat idea.

- Unveiled at the 2006 Madrid Motor Show, C-Buggy is a fresh take on the leisure supermini.C-Buggy is Citroën's vision of a small off-roader with a strong personality. A car that makes no concessions, it places the focus squarely on performance, modern design and its environment.A car of original architecture, C-Buggy combines a high-performance chassis and engine, with taut, flowing body lines.C-Buggy is the cheerful, go-anywhere sidekick to C-Airplay, a car to which it bears a clear resemblance. C-Airplay, unveiled last year at the Bologna motor show, is a neat and friendly urban runabout, while C-Buggy is for those looking for freedom and adventure. The architecture of this two-seater is very much open to the outside world. The absence of a roof and windscreen provides new sensations of total freedom. The occupants are in direct contact with the air and the elements. They can take full advantage of the vehicle's environment, since their field of vision is unhampered. Rather than conventional doors, C-Buggy features wide openings on the body sides. The objective is to bring passengers a new visual perspective, in direct contact with the ground, so that they can better understand its characteristics. These cut-outs in the body sides also make it possible to integrate sills for easy vehicle access.Essential on-board information is placed directly in the driver's line of vision, with fixed central controls on the steering wheel. The instrument cluster, of graphic modern design, groups the speedometer, rev counter, fuel gauge and indicator lights.A digital personal stereo, placed at the front of the gearbox console, is connected to loudspeakers positioned under the dashboard using Bluetooth technology. Passengers can thus listen to music on board or take it with them when they set out on their explorations.


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3 Wheeled Piaggio MP3

This is a cool motorcycle looking ride. If it catches on it may be a good alternative with these raising gas prices.

- Piaggio launched the first Vespa model — and with it the scooter phenomenon — in the spring of 1946. The scooter revolutionised personal transport, giving Europeans a sense of utter freedom.
Sixty years on, Piaggio has come up with another revolutionary product: the PIAGGIO MP3, a totally innovative three-wheeler with two front wheels. The PIAGGIO MP3 provides safety, road grip and stability levels that no two-wheeler can match. Power, performance and ease of use make for a very entertaining ride.

The two front wheels of the PIAGGIO MP3 re-define the very concept of ride stability to provide an unprecedented riding experience

The front assembly, with two independent tilting wheels, is far more stable than any scooter. The PIAGGIO MP3 grips the road even when tailing other vehicles, providing top performance in total safety.

The full extent of this three-wheeler’s stability can be tested on wet asphalt or tough riding conditions that would sorely challenge a traditional two-wheeler.

In town and city traffic the PIAGGIO MP3 has no equal in terms of safety. It takes on cobblestone streets, patchy asphalt and tram tracks with the greatest of ease, remaining safe and stable all the while.

With its compact super-scooter size and exceptional manoeuvrability, the PIAGGIO MP3 is at home in town traffic. It’s a cinch to park: an electro-hydraulic suspension locking system means there is no need to put the vehicle on its stand.

The PIAGGIO MP3 requires far less braking space than any scooter — the three-disk braking system and exceptional front-end road holding reduce braking space by 20 per cent compared to the best scooters.

The PIAGGIO MP3 comes into its own when heading out of town. Its road grip, cornering safety and tilt angle are unprecedented for a scooter, adding to the pleasure of riding different road surfaces at high speed.

The PIAGGIO MP3 offers unique and unprecedented riding pleasure. This innovative vehicle marks the start of a new personal transport revolution from Piaggio.

Cycle parts

The cycle parts are the key element of the PIAGGIO MP3 project. Innovative technical features and top-grade components make the PIAGGIO MP3 a truly unique vehicle that re-invents the entire scooter concept.

The PIAGGIO MP3 frame in high-tensile steel tubes is the result of the best CAD technology and computerized FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis. Elements such as frame strength and weight were precisely defined and tested from the initial phases of the project, with the suitability of each solution checked at every stage. The innovative parallelogram suspension, an original Piaggio design, is anchored to the frame. The tilt mechanism is composed of four cast-aluminium control arms with four hinges fixed to the central tube and two guide tubes on either side of the parallelogram, connected to the arms via suspension pins and ball bearings. The tubes on the right and left enclose the steering tube in a classic singlearm setup.

The PIAGGIO MP3 uses three 12" wheels with large tyres — 120/70 front, 130/70 rear. Together with the revolutionary front suspension, the wheels provide a tilt angle of up to 40 degrees while riding like any normal two wheeler and simultaneously ensuring better road grip on any surface, especially slippery tracks. The parallelogram suspension also ensures increased stability at high speeds: the PIAGGIO MP3 grips the road firmly, with no wobbling, even when tailing large vehicles.
At the rear, the cycle parts feature a singlearm suspension with two dual effect hydraulic shock absorbers, a helicoidal spring and four-position preloa

Besides its exceptional stability, the PIAGGIO MP3 also provides brilliant braking thanks to three powerful linked brakes, 240 mm in diameter, and the parallelogram suspension. The result is record deceleration (about 8 m per second) with braking space reduced by over 20 per cent on normal road surfaces and as much as 24 per cent on slippery roads compared to a traditional two-wheel scooter.

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