VANDENBRINK CARVER - THE LEAN MACHINE
As anybody who's been humbled by an eight year old at a go-kart track will attest, there are ways and ways of taking a corner. As long as you've got a steering wheel in your hand, none of them involve a great deal of leaning which, when you pause to consider it, is a trifle odd. Put us on skis, on a bike, on a snowboard or even in a pair of running spikes and we soon realise that the quickest way to negotiate a corner is to lean well into it. Put us behind the wheel of a car and we seem to disregard this basic nugget of physics. Until now. Vandenbrink, a Dutch engineering company who have a distinctly unconventional take on the fact that motorcycles and cars represent separate entities, have released the Carver, a three-wheeled, twin seat tilting vehicle.
Having been fascinated for some time by the concept of Man Wide Vehicles, Chris Van den Brink and Harry Kroonen started experimenting in the early nineties with a three-wheeled narrow-bodied vehicle. By 1994 they had developed a vehicle control system they dubbed Dynamic Vehicle Control (DVC), which automatically translated 'car-type' steering input given by the driver into 'motorcycle-type' tilt of the chassis. With the rear pair of wheels staying flat on the floor with the engine nestling between, this creates a solid platform around which the passenger cell and thus the front wheel can freely pivot. Further developments to the prototype honed the hydraulic tilting mechanism and the steering system.
The finished product is definitely not for the shy and retiring. Elvis would attract less attention were he to streak across the pitch at the FA Cup Final than a pair of Vandenbrink Carvers negotiating the streets of South London. The response is typical. You spot a look of amused curiosity on people's faces as the Carvers approach that then gives way to slack-jawed befuddlement as the cabin tilts over as much as 45 degrees and scoots around a corner at a speed that none would credit. Experienced pilots can wind down the windows and trail a (gloved) hand on the tarmac at maximum lean - it's that extreme.
But what's the experience like for those of us whose last experience on two wheels was the day before they passed their driving tests? Few vehicles I've driven feel so intimidating at first, especially when the firm's managing director has parked himself behind your hamfisted attempt to pull away. Fortunately after the first corner it all becomes a good deal more intuitive. After a handful of corners you begin to feel like Valentino Rossi and get the impression that the door mirrors must be scraping the tarmac such is the magnitude of your angle of dangle.
