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| Both the Can Am Maverick X3 two- and four-seaters have the class-beating Fox 3.0 Podium RC2 HPG shocks. |
GOING on current trends, I expect most of my smarter grandchildren
will scoff at the very idea of owning a car.
All that depreciation! All that looking for parking! And especially
all that parking!
Instead, they will hop onto a version of the small robot buses
being tested around the world (five at the last count) or rideshare an electric
scooter similar to the ones Gogoro is testing with Coup in Berlin,
Germany.
But I do hope there will be at least one grandchild who takes after
his ole grandpappy, with a yen to be barely in control of a powerful conveyance
while trying to chase down the horizon.
It is for rebel grandchildren like these that Valene Motors built
the Black Mamba, a roll cage bolted to a three-wheeled, electric supercar that
does zero to 100 km/h in 4,2 seconds and whips around corners too.
My problem as a futuristic granddad is this powerful trike has only
two seats. Where to put the grandkiddies?
In the back seat of our new Maverick X3, says Can-Am, which
recently released a four-seat version of its popular Maverick X3. Pretty this
four-seater ain’t. In fact, it is so ugly it may just dethrone my beloved Fiat
Multipla as the fugliest car ever. Can-Am calls this look an Ergo-Lok cockpit
with “unmistakable, future-forward exterior design”.
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| Take a roll cage, add wheels and a drivetrain, cladding is optional and a bit cissy. |
Basically, its a light, strong race car built on the principles
Gordon Murray predicts as the future of car making — start with a solid roll
cage, bolt on your choice of off-the-shelf drivetrains, suspension and seats,
and add personalised steering. Windscreens and cladding for the cage to keep out
the elements are optional and — frankly — a bit sissy. If you want to avoid the
weather, take one of those robot buses.
The off-the-shelf goodies Can-Am chose for the X3 four-seater
include a new turbo-charged and intercooled Rotax Ace engine that jumps the car
in under five seconds from zero to 100 km/h. A small QRS-X continuously variable
gearbox keeps the revs in the optimum range and a four-link
TTX suspension with
about a foot of travel keeps the rubber aimed at the ground, however far down it
may be. When the X3 does land, class-beating Fox 3.0 Podium RC2 HPG shocks “are
special enough to star in their own studio photo”, says Can-Am.
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| This, mind, is also a safe, four-seater family car. |
Other boasts read like poetry for petrol heads — unparalleled power
transfer, virtually no bump steer, precise steering response and no turbo
lag — everything a super car promises. But the real beauty of pipe cars like the
X3 is their price — some R386 833 before taxes and Zuma-sparked depreciations to
the rand. Even Neil Woolridge Racing, where they build racing Ford Ranger super
trucks in Pietermaritzburg, will be hard pressed to beat this price.
