Yup, I did ask Ed why his cars were small. He told me less materials, less body work, less storage space and easier to transport to the shows. He hauled the Beatnik Bandit 2 in a very small encl trailer and pulled it with an S10
Thank you both! EDIT: Thanks for all the great pics too. Sorry I can't help with the quest for more documentation on the trikes to repay all this.
More pictures from George. Ed’s “toys” going to the Kustom kulture show View attachment 6459238 View attachment 6459239 View attachment 6459240
In the beginning of post talk was about how small Ed’s vehicles were. He did learn smaller was ok! Did not need big to garner looks ! But we all know about the mysterion and its two engines that eventually was so heavy that during its many show trips the frame eventually gave up and fell apart. The rotar was so wide to ship to me they had to cut one wheel and fender to get it into the shipping trailer that you can see inner body, wheel mount and fender had to be glassed back on. I will include shots that show it was so wide when I trailered it to the kustom kulture show the two wheels are on the trailer fenders and they had to remove the doors to the laguna beach art museum! Made it by a hair!
Here are a few pics while I drove the globe hopper all the time. One run at bikers for babies! And a garage shot of candy wagon and asphalt angel and going to store in rotar LoL
George, what is it like driving (riding?) these trikes? Do they handle well, or are they a handful on the road? I ask because there have been a couple mentions of them being involved in accidents in this thread.
Good question! No problems that I have ever heard of with any VW powered trikes crashing. I have never driven myself a v8 trike other than the Calif cruiser but only a short distance as front end was old, worn and not aligned well. When got it it had been around the block a lot!!!!! The closest to a v8 trike was when I had the asphalt angel v6 trike. It went real well but was a hand full, grip on handle bars plus mental control. You had to be well awake and aware of how fast it could go as it was a beast, you were actually sitting on top of a car with 3 wheels, wide tires on back and a v6 with auto trans between your legs. Wish I still had it! I have heard stories of trikes , v8 ones mostly having some problems but I think from the stories it had more to do with crazy drivers, probably going too fast and got out of control. Plus there were quite a few not Roth trikes that may not of been built as well as ones Ed had his hands on. I heard a story of a v8 trike that got out of Control and tried to climb up a wall ? Back in the day pics, videos, and eye witness accounts did not occur like today! No Fox News back then LoL I have no first hand knowledge of the accident stories or seen one in person, just stories that float! Maybe some watching here has some first hand accounts with pictures of broken parts!
You've mentioned the trike " climbing the wall". Didn't Reno Roth mess with one of his dad's cars as a child, and it ended up doing that?! I hope this isn't a dumb question...the Rotar. I know it was in similar vein as Barris's XPAC car; did Rotar just float/ lift, or could you drive it like a hovercraft/ car mix?
Howdy Sounds like something I heard but was not there and there were always lots of stories from that end of “town”. Rotar was not as successfull as planned. It tried to hover but one of the fan blades was way larger and heavier than the engine shaft in one of those bike engines could handle. The crank shaft end snapped and along with blade flew up in the air at a car show while spectators were watching the show, it hit the ceiling light and crashed down and hurt one or two spectators. Injuries fixed and never heard of any lawsuits back then. That was the end of the competition between barris and Roth on who could fly the highest! When I got it yes , broken shaft and one missing fan blade.
When I bought Rotar from George, the fan was missing and the crankshaft was broken. I made a new fan for it but just mounted it to the engine for looks only. Roth told me that Rotar would hover at 1 foot off the ground and go forward at 60 mph. I did not believe it for a minute. there were small openings in the floor of Rotar for the air to rush through and directional flaps, but unlike other hover machines there was nothing to keep the air cushion under it. There is no way that it ever worked. As far as the Xpak 400 Barris machine it had hydraulic cylinders that were hidden by the skirt that pushed down against the floor and lifted it. so that one never worked either... that's show biz!!!
The Jalopy Journal
