At the EICMA Show last fall, Scorpa had a quad concept on display that looked very neat but was nothing more than a concept. Well, funny how things work out because the engineers took the quad out on a test track in France and found it to be extremely capable and a lot of fun. The visitors at EICMA loved it and next thing you know, Scorpa starts thinking about building it. (Scorpa, you may remember, is the company sold by Joel Domergue who has since gone on to build the Wakan 1640.)
The concept had a 175cc engine, trials bikes do a lot with those little engines, and the prototype if sent to production will have something under 200cc. From what I can gather (I claim no fluency in Italian) this project is still moving forward.
Since I do not believe there is any sort of 4 wheel trials competition (is there?), this would be just for fun but it looks like it could be pretty cool. I’ve spent only a few minutes on a trials bike in a parking lot but it gave me a lot of respect for the guys who can do all of those crazy things like climbing up vertical walls and over 10 foot high rocks but this quad could give the less adept rider a little bit of the fun those pros feel and I bet more than a few folks would like to try. Very interesting.
Link: Scorpa Prototype via Motoblog.it
Link: Scorpa at EICMA
anon says
My first thought was: how good a rock crawler could it be without independent rear suspension?…but then I remembered that such limitations have meant nothing to generations of Jeep CJ enthusiasts. On the down side, such narrow spoked wheels might not react to well to lateral loads.
Gary Sacry says
Big spokes, and lots of them!! haha I think it’s a great idea!
Sean says
Looks damned cool, but the wheels look a little like bicycle wheels. I could see this turning out to be a lot of fun.
chris says
too bad it’s not road legal. can you imagine the looks on your co-workers faces when you rolled up on that?
Tim says
This might be extremely cool if the two-wheel-drive motorcycle concept were carried into this project to create an ultralight 4WD quad.
Douglas says
I want one. It looks like a wheelie monster