Three-wheelers are lighter and less costly to manufacture. But when poorly designed or in the wrong application, a three wheel platform is the less forgiving layout. When correctly designed, however, a three wheel car can light new fires of enthusiasm under tired and routine driving experiences. And today's tilting three-wheelers, vehicles that lean into turns like motorcycles, point the way to a new category of personal transportation products of much lower mass, far greater fuel economy, and superior cornering power. A well designed three-wheeler is likely to be one of the most responsive machines one will ever experience over a winding road.
Superior responsiveness is primarily due to the three-wheeler's rapid yaw response time.
Yaw response time is the time it takes for a vehicle to reach steady-state cornering after a quick steering input. A softly sprung four-wheeler will have a yaw response time of about 0.30 seconds, and a four wheel sports car will respond in about half that time. Quick steering response has nothing to do with the number of wheels or how they are configured. It is a byproduct of reduced mass and low polar moment of inertia. A typical three-wheeler is lighter and has approximately 30 percent less polar moment than a comparable four wheel design.