Scarab Three-Wheeler

egkelly

I'm looking for info on the late "SCARAB" sports car-it was a kit car, based on a motorcycle-three whell chassis. i believe that it was manufactured in Milpitas, CA, sometime in the late 1970's-early 1980's. It was a really striking design-does anybody know what happened to them?

Mr_Shiftright

sorry, never heard of that one, and I've been through all my books...it must have been short and sweet.....there were, of course, many different Scrab cars using the name, and even a kit car built I believe on a Datsun 240Z chassis.

dgraves1

The Scarab I remember wasn't a kit car, it was a kit for putting a small block (I think big block was an option also) Chevy in a 240z.
The three wheeled car from that time frame that I remember was the TriHawk, which I think was mad in CA but I'm not positive.

Mr_Shiftright

I think you're right on both counts, dgraves...I drove in some type of 3-wheel motorcycle kit, but it was more modern.....awful thing...about all it was good for was eyeball....it did get attention and was not unattractive in a "Back to the Future" sort of way...with this one, you bolted the body onto the front wheel of the bike, and then installed the rest of the motorcycle rearward as I recall...giving you some kind of tandem seat 3-wheeler....basically you took a $5,000 motorcycle, added a $15,000 body kit, and ended up with a lousy car and a lousy motorcycle.

I've seen the Tri-Hawk...there's even a club I think....for me, it was the answer to the question that nobody asked....BUT...if you hunger to be different, that's one way to go.