Peugeot 20Cup

Designed in-house by the Peugeot Style Centre, the offbeat design study is essentially an amalgam of car and motorcycle, and is said to pioneer several technological advances that will eventually be seen on the marque's future offerings.

Cryptically, Peugeot says the three-wheeler also provides clues to its plans to forge "a presence on the racing circuit". This is a telling statement, as the company pulls out of world rallying at the end of this year, and may instead focus on touring-car racing as a means to garner competitive exposure.

Perhaps more relevant to us is the fact that the 20Cup debuts the new four-cylinder turbo engine jointly developed by PSA Peugeot Citroën and the BMW Group. The engine capacity hasn't been revealed yet -- we're guessing it's about 1.6 litres -- but what we do know is that it has 16 valves and develops 125kW and 240Nm.

Apart from powering future Peugeots and Citroens, this unit will also propel the next-gen Mini Cooper S. In the 20Cup concept, the force-fed four-pot is mated to a sequential six-speed manual gearbox with steering-mounted paddleshifts. Expect this technology to also feature in upcoming production models.

To say the 20Cup is compact would be a masterpiece of understatement. It measures just 3.6m long, 1.7m wide and has a wheelbase of 2.3m. The two-person cockpit is split by a central divider, and the occupants sit virtually level with the floor to preserve the car's low centre of gravity.

It weighs under 500kg, which means its power-to-weight ratio is not dissimilar to that of a Ferrari F430 -- very healthy, in other words.

The front suspension is believed to be by double wishbones, whereas the single rear wheel is suspended by a motorcycle-like mono-arm. Steering is by power-assisted rack and pinion.

Hmmm... three wheels looked decidedly dorky on the Reliant Robin (the car that regularly falls over in Mr Bean episodes), but the 20Cup proves that a ménage à trois can indeed be sexy.