Jeff has a pair of great looking reverse trikes (I’ll post his Indycycle soon), and few vehicles I’ve posted here are as rare and special as his Phantom Vehicle Company Turbo Phantom. This is definitely a kit I’d never expected to see in the wild!
The Turbo Phantom was unveiled at the 1978 LA auto show, and then produced in the early 80s, although no more than three were made due to their high cost. The designers were Ron and Lee Will, Ron working at the time at GM as one of the designers of the Corvette (he tested the Phantom in the GM wind tunnel) — after working on the Phantom he joined the staff of Subaru where he was the main force behind the Subaru Outback. This very wide (around seven feet) trike was powered by a Honda Goldwing, had VW front suspension and MG steering, and had a 0-60 time of about 6 seconds, a top speed as high as 140 mph, and turned at 0.82g. The body was built using a urethane foam and fibreglass sandwhich (like the RQ Riley designs such as the Tri-Magnum) and had an integrated steel roll cage. When the canopy opened, the steering column and dashboard lifted along with it.
Anyway, as I said, at most three of these were made — more likely just two — and one of those was destroyed doing high speed testing on the salt flats. When Ron Will died a few years ago, his estate sold the molds for the body to a fiberglass shop, which produced two bodies. One ended up in Virginia (sold at the time for $3,000) and the shop kept the other one — Jeff picked up the Virginia one for $1,000.
He’s designed his own frame using Pontiac Fiero spindles, custom A-arms, coil-over shocks from a 2007 Suzuki GSXR 1000, a modified Porsche 911 steering rack, and a driveline from a 1989 1500cc Honda Goldwing with reverse. It’s not finished yet, but when he’s done with it, it’ll have heat and air conditioning, a rear back-up camera, a safety glass windshield with wiper, and other goodies. I’m dying to see where this amazing project goes. The last photo is of one of the prototypes, and the rest of the pictures are of Jeff’s Turbo Phantom body and chassis.
I LOVE this thing, it has that early 70’s Sci-fi look I dig yet timeless in design in another way,
It makes me want a tad pole trike but with this basically being the only one I guess that wont happen,
I remember drooling over this in Popular Mechanics when I was much younger. I’d been looking for info on it but couldn’t remember the name, and any description I gave got me returns of trivettes or tri-magnums, but not this sweet scary machine.
Will no more bodies ever be made? are the molds destroyed?
Rick this body was made about 3 years ago. One of two that was made at the time. The body shop kept the other one And i don’t know if they are planing on making more. I don’t know who has the mold i bought the body from guy in virginia. Do you still have the popular mechanics magazine? Im trying to find a copy of that. Theres not much info on the web for the turbo phantom. Iv found at the most three sites with info. Jeff
I attended the 78 Auto show in LA when I was a student at Otis Art Institute in downtown LA. I remember when I first laid eyes on this vehicle–it was something I had never seen before and I just kept thinking, that if I drove something like this Phantom, I’d get pulled over consistently by LA’s finest. I loved the lines of it though! I had also seen the unveiling of the Lamborghini Miura which was another masterpeice of automotive design.
i bought the molds from the org. designer 3 yrs ago —took them to someone to make a body for himself and for me —the molds have disapeared and i never got the body —-they will show up some day and i will get my fair share of revenge —i promise you
Cool looking body, but I believe the front axle is too far back, this sitting on top of the axle design will be dissapointing and gutshaking like driving a cabover truck. This was probably the downfall of the original project.
Kevin the location of the frount axle is one of the reasons this trike handles so well. In this style design the more the driver is over the frount axle the better it handles and gives better center of gravity. And the reason the original didn’t take off is because production cost was to high. A well designed reveres trike will out handle almost anything on the road. Inculuding high dollar sports cars. Jeff
If I understand what Kevin was meaning is that in this trike the front axle in a position that will make for a less than comfortable ride,
I would say yes, this trike when driven on the street while will handle great will feel a lot like a Cab over truck as far as comfort goes,
Jeff, I believe you are getting a bit confused as to placing more weight ( to a point ) on the front axle of a tadpole design trike will improve handling,
I would say you are correct but only up to a point, what any vehicle wants for best handling is close to a 50/50 bias, in general that is, and that would make the center of gravity better not overloading the front axle,
A well designed tadpole trike will out handle almost anything on the street, a tall order to find one really that well designed, or with the powered required to even keep up with some VW based kit car, in an autocross situation,
But yes, for their class they are incredible.
Perhaps one of the top end exotic car builders will try a tadpole design until then I believe in most cases even a Camaro or Mustang well tuned has little to worry about,
I don’t see why a tadpole trike would have to be high production costs,
They still sell plans for home built from scratch tadpoles I know a fellow building one, it will be super nice when he gets done but I really dont believe he will have much $$$ involved just lots of hard work,
It will be stunning for it’s HP and weight class, plus being able to say he built it from scratch is priceless.
@ Jeff, re: the PM article
I lost many of my old Popular Mechanics mags due to a basement flood ten years ago, and the rest from a lost storage unit during my divorce:( I had *years* worth of back issues I’d saved, mostly for the utralight and kitplane articles, to see what promised products of the future never arrived, or of concept cars that were old daily drivers a decade or so later.
The T-Rex reverse trike is a stunning example of a well done trike. With a top end in the mid 150 mph range and able to produce near F1 cornering forces. Sure it costs nearly what you would pay for a new Vette but the performance is amazing.
The main reason for a forward weight bias is roll over protection. Since you are “short” a wheel in the back the front has to provide all that . Check the link and see what I am talking about.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpkVzH1ltw0 like the saying goes “This isn’t your dad’s reverse trike ” lol. I know my Trimagnum won’t go as fast or corner as well but mine is all weather :) and I am doing it myself.
Jeff’s Phantom should out run mine by a fair margin in both cases. And it’s cool as hell to boot .
Rich
link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpkVzH1ltw0
Just an FYI, the original designer of the turbo phantom, Ron Will, is not dead. He’s a close friend of my fathers and friend of the family overall. I regularly correspond with him. Prior to a cross country move, he sold off the phantom molds a few years back.
Its a shame to hear they’ve gone missing.. I have always loved that turbo phantom.
Glad to see the blog soldiering on Shannon!
Any progress on the world’s best project car? ;)
thanks for keeping the Dream alive…
John Mellberg I am the owner of this body. Im glad to hear Ron Will is alive. I got some bad info from that then. I am trying to get as much info of the originals as possable but there is very little info on the web. If you would could you contact Ron and ask if it would be ok for me to contact him. So i could get some more info about the Turbo Phantom? I would very much apreceate if you could get me in contact with him. Thanks very much. Jeff
jeff—–i am the one who bought the molds from ron will —i had one body made and sold it to a guy in va.—the molds than where taken to another state and another body was to be made but the shop closed up and i can not find the molds—i will someday —thanks —dennis
Any progress on tracking down the molds? I’ll resort to fabrication -but a slick fiberglass mold would save six months…
wanna sell yours?? laughs out loud…
Love this body…my project is a frontwheel drive custom frame 150 horsepower limited slip for mountain weather-
I flew Phantoms for the Corps, and this has that B-2 badass look with retro fighter intakes …I have aircraft gauges modified for the car and ejection seat stuff for the seats…
I’ll pay american dollars for detailed specs and dimensions plus any info you have.
Thanks “Coyote”
I just found this great website!
I am the guy who sold Jeff the body in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
I ran into some hard times and needeed the money. I was trying to sell more bodies at the time, but all I got was alot of questions and no buyers.
I then decided to keep the body as the only one and build it-but hard times set in.
It is possible that R.Q. Riley could design a set of plans for sale based upon the photos supplied to him.
Afterall, Riley’s XR-3 somewhat resembles the phantom as does the trimagnum.
Now imagine obtaining complete plans to build your own phantom!
I too read that magazine article years ago and got hooked.
Great job Jeff-I AM WATCHING YOU!!!!!!!!!!
Mark
Hi all: I’m very glad to hear that I am not dead, at least not yet. I always wondered what happened to the molds after I left Jersey to head west to Arizona. The original Turbo Phantom is now in my new garage waiting for some repair. The top was damage in a previous move. I’m grateful for Jeff England keeping the Turbo Phantom design alive. It looks like he is doing a nice job. Jeff can contact me thru the phone listings for Fountain Hills, AZ.
I’m also sorry to hear the molds have gone missing. Fiberglass shops come and go and the molds left behind are often destroyed. I hope this is not the case.
There were never 3 bodies made by me. There were a lot of parts made for Phantom # 2, but it never happened. A Phantom was never tested or destroyed at the Salt Flats. (I wonder how that story got started?) The TurboPhantom was tested out at Edwards Air Force Base by the government testing the stability and safety of three wheel vehicles during the last fuel crisis. The car came out phenominal way ahead of the competition. I have movies of all the testing, skid pad, braking, balance etd.
So we are alive and well hoping to see Jeff put Phantom # 2 on the road. Regards, Ron Will