Patent ID: 8256561

Claim:
A vehicle, comprising: a vehicle body; a set of front wheels and a set of rear wheels, each of the front wheels and rear wheels comprising a left wheel and a right wheel on respective left and right sides of the vehicle body; a seat positioned substantially midway between the front wheels and the rear wheels; and a power unit arranged such that at least a portion of the power unit is disposed in a space below the seat, the power unit comprising: an engine including a crank shaft and a rotational mass fixed for rotation with the crank shaft; and a transmission to which power is input from an output of the engine through a first power train, the transmission including a plurality of drive shafts and a plurality of driven shafts; wherein at least a portion of the transmission is arranged in a space directly below a swept area of the rotational mass, the swept area of the rotational mass being defined by a maximum outer diameter of a rotation path of the crank shaft and the rotational mass, such that each of the plurality of drive shafts and the plurality of driven shafts are arranged at a position lower than the swept area of the rotational mass; none of the plurality of drive shafts and the plurality of driven shafts overlap each other in an up/down direction of the vehicle; the plurality of drive shafts include a first drive shaft and a second drive shaft and the plurality of driven shafts include a first driven shaft and a second driven shaft; and the first drive shaft is coupled to the crank shaft, the first driven shaft is coupled to the first drive shaft, the second drive shaft is coupled to the first driven shaft, and the second driven shaft is coupled to the second drive shaft.