Does the campagna t rex have what it takes to win the x prize?”
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 The T REX It takes something very unique to get a buzz going around The WANT AD office. We have seen all kinds of unique vehicles sold through our publications and thewantad.com, high end sports cars like Ferraris, Vipers and Lamborghinis, 6 wheeled ATVs that float, custom chopper motorcycles and trikes, dune buggies, you name it. But recently one of our sales reps had the pleasure of going for a ride in the Campagna T Rex. (Click the image below for a full size photo.) This thing is the street legal cross between a dragster motorcycle and a go-kart, with a top speed of 180 mph and very little between you and the blurred road beneath you. My first questions – Where can I buy it and how much? The answers… well you will have to wait for next week’s issue of Powered. You wont miss it, the T Rex is on the cover!
The Campagna T-Rex is a high-performance reverse-tricycle with a pair of front wheels handling the steering, a 1400cc motorcycle drivetrain with a single drive wheel out back, and a two-seat passenger compartment in between. OptaMotive has partnered with Campagna Motors to bring high efficiency to the formula without losing any of the high performance. How do they plan to do it? By chucking the gasoline-fueled drivetrain and creating an all-electric T-Rex to compete for the Progressive Automotive X-Prize. Specs are extremely vague for now, but the electric T-Rex should be powered by lithium battery tech with an expected range of more than 100 miles. Weighing less than 2,000 pounds and making over 100 horsepower, OptaMotive is targeting a sub-10-second 0-60 time, all while maintaining the electric equivalent of 150 mpg. Those are pretty lofty goals, but–when you consider the T-Rex’s bare-bones construction–also very achievable ones. Check out the video below to see the gasoline T-Rex
