Triking
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
based manufacturer of the 3-wheeled Triking Cyclecar, located in Marlingford, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
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History
Trikings are essentially a modernised version of the 1930s MorganMorgan Motor Company
The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by Harry Frederick Stanley Morgan, generally known as "HFS" and was run by him until he died, aged 77, in 1959. Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003...
3 wheelers. They are also in practice a cross between a sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
and a microcar
Microcar
A microcar is the smallest automobile classification usually applied to standard small car . Such small cars were generally referred to as cyclecars until the 1940s. More recent models are also called bubblecars due to their egg-shaped appearance.-Definition:The definition of a microcar has varied...
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Former Lotus
Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics...
employee Tony Divey built the first Triking in the late 1970s in response to being unable to acquire a Morgan.
The original Triking featured a steel space frame
Space frame
A space frame or space structure is a truss-like, lightweight rigid structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas with few interior supports...
with an alloy panels and glass-fibre bonnet, and was powered by a Moto Guzzi V-twin motorcycle engine. This proved popular and production eventuated. In 1990 Divey redesigned the Cyclecar with a new tubular front end and a one piece glass-fibre "body".
An employee of Divey's, Alan Layzell, built his own supercharged Triking, giving prodigious performance.
Telegraph writer, Andrew English, commented of the Triking driving experience: "The intimacy is both profound, delightful and, for the claustrophobic, disturbing. Everything is so contiguous with the driver; you could have sex at a greater distance than this."