This is one of those times when I enjoy coincidences. I have been listening to the Shift & Steer podcast through iTunes. One of the presenters is Aaron Hagar who has some good genes: Sammy is his dad, a rocker and known car nut. In flipping through some of my old podcast contents I came across one about Tanom Motors – and there was Sammy Hagar providing input to their cars!
So, Tanom has produced one the funkiest and (in my view) desirable sports machines to drive: the Invader – not a rehash of the Gilbern Invader – but a 3 wheeler similar in format to the Polaris Slingshot. It is deemed a motorcycle in most of the US although in many of the States you can drive the coupe without a helmet. Tanom Motors is based in Virginia and produces several versions of the vehicle:
The Invader TC-3 Coupe is the “base” model and is a two seater with a roof (no doors though), two 18″ wheels up front with a massive 20×16″ wheel at the back! In-between, and powering the car, is a Suzuki Hayabusa 1300cc mated to (I think) the original bike gearbox – it is certainly chain driven to that enormous rear tyre! The 190hp motor and 700kg weight provides for fast acceleration: 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and it is certainly compact and should be a rocket. Top speed is up to 160mph, this all depends on the gear ratios purchased!
Then there is the TC-3 Red Rocker (this is where Mr. Hagar comes in). What do you get extra? His choice of glorious Red with chrome wheels, premium audio (as you would expect from a rockstar) and other technologies. But wait there’s more …. you also get a box of Sammy Hagar CDs, a Les Paul Guitar and a signed badge for the car!
For the more adventurous, there is also the TR-3 Roadster without the canopy, however, if you are up for more fun (aka speed) then you could get the Type-R Stage 1 or Stage 2 both of which have uprated power, steering, brakes and suspension units. As you can imagine Stage 2 is more focused than Stage 1!
Over the years there have been several sports cars that have used motorbike engines and the Hayabusa engine is a great one to use. It is a 16 valve, 4 cylinder motor with double overhead cams and fuel injection. In its original form it produced around 170hp although I’m sure that was mid range – the bike, at 260kg, is capable of 180+ mph, so they probably put some limits in it!
The Invaders aren’t cheap – however the smile per mile must be huge. I have to get back to the US and get my hands on one….
I was just looking for something else and came across this story. Checking out their respective websites Tanom is going well. And it seems Spartan are about to launch with their production model – judging from their photo they have made some pretty smart styling choices since the original prototypes; see http://spartanmotorcompany.com/www.spartanmotorcompany.com/News.html
Yes, you do need that whole thing for the link to work – obviously websites are not an interest – as soon as they can see the pics they are done, bad luck for the details!
G’day Stephen,
Lovely, but how about writing about the Spartan? Being produced locally by a couple of Ducati nutters. See http://spartanmotorcompany.com/www.spartanmotorcompany.com/History.html.
Oops, it turns out they abandoned the 1198S version in favour of a Honda.. Oh well, you get that! They brought it along to the DOCNSW Concourse De Elegance on 18/09/11 with the Duke donc in it. Looked pretty good back then, but seems it has taken ’til now to get the thing into production. Go get us a story on that one please?
You can see their earlier story here: http://hunterdog.org.au/DiscussionBoard/index.php?topic=773 which I have just gone and added some pics to – feel free to copy them as you will for any such article.
Thanks Vince!
Looks like a road trip is coming up. 🙂