Click on the image for more shots of the GG Quadster

Take a look at the GG Quadster, a machine which is designed with four wheels but powered by a motorcycle engine. The 1200cc liquid-cooled inline four cylinder design comes from BMW's range of K-bikes. This particular machine features 167 horsepower, which is enough to propel the lightweight vehicle to sixty miles per hour in no time at all. While these are very impressive acceleration statistics, for the purpose of this post, we don't care about that. We're more interested in the actual design and layout of the vehicle. Because this machine has four wheels, it cannot be classified as a motorcycle in the United States. That would make a machine such as this next to impossible to register as a road-legal vehicle. This fact raises an interesting conundrum: are vehicles like the GG Quadster really less safe than a motorcycle? If not, what are the rational reasons that it cannot be registered as such?

The engine powering the GG Quadster is quite modern, featuring electronic fuel injection, catalytic converters and all the electronic gadgetry necessary to pass emissions tests. While this particular beast was not really designed with efficiency in mind, it will likely return fuel mileage which is much better than most cars on the road. Many new vehicle designs, like that of the Aptera, are using three wheels to get around safety requirements. We are not suggesting for a minute that safety is not of utmost importance, because it is. But with all the motorcycles, including those with sidecars, circling our roads, what makes a vehicle such as this any less worthy of the same?


[Source: Faster and Faster]

Triazuma, Quadrazuma (click here for Autoblog coverage) and GG-Quad (here for Autoblog)? What do they all have in common, besides the sorta-funny names? These are all vehicles which are based on motorcycles, but with more than the standard two wheels. None of these machines leans, and it is clear that other major automakers and bike builders have considered the idea as well. The benefits to such a machine are good fuel economy, outstanding performance and relatively low price considering the first two points. Negatives are pretty strong ones, though. Such as needing a motorcycle license and the helmet and gear to go along with it.

Personally, I have always liked ideas such as these. If nothing else, some are innovative with two wheels in the front and one in the rear. Piaggio takes another step towards motorcycles with the leaning MP3, but it has a rather small engine for highway use. Small manufacturers have been building trikes for a very long time now, and sidecar bikes (or hacks, rigs etc.) are available from manufacturers such as Ural and Harley Davidson. Would you ever consider commuting in a vehicle such as this?

[Source: The Kneeslider]

Neiman Marcus has finally released its famed 2006 Christmas Book of exotic holiday gifts. Not many holiday catalogs offer as wide a range as NM. You can spend $24 on a tin of NM Exclusive Candied Corn, or turn to page 32 for a $160,000 pen. Or if you really want to get your friends something no one else has, just turn to page 87. There you'll find that $1.7 million will buy a ride for 6 in Virgin Atlantic's SpaceShipTwo soaring 63 miles above the Earth.

It's nice to see that the folks over at Neiman are showing off a little clean and green this year. The 2006 Book offers an exclusive edition Twike. We brought you news of the little electric-powered/pedal-assist capsule a while back, but that was just the $26,000 base model. The NM version sports leather seats, velour carpeting and British racing green paint. The mechanicals stay the same still offering a top speed of up to 55 mph and a 90 mile range. The added amenities will run the vehicle's price up to $40,000, but hey, it's the holidays.

Other vehicles to make the Book were the GG Quad ($56,000) and the 2007 Neiman Marcus Limited Edition BMW M6 convertible for $139,000.

[Source: MSNBC]