Well and truly Phueled

"The inspiration for the Type 1 originally came about from a frustrating drive to Martha's Vineyard out of Boston, Massachusetts," said Zack. "I was stuck in a lengthy traffic jam for about an hour, fairly common on the weekends."

"While I was sitting in my car, motorcycles were constantly passing me on either side using a technique called 'splitting lanes'. The whole experience made me want to ditch my car on the side of the road and consider a motorcycle.

"A better alternative would be to have two bikes which were connected to resemble a car's overall size, but could then be split and reattached at will depending on the traffic conditions."

Zack says the Type 1 offers the narrow footprint and fuel efficiency of a bike, along with the safety and functionality of a car. It allows the user to choose a faster, less congested path -- including transit lanes.

It's powered by a Yamaha 600cc liquid-cooled engine with about 67kW and the front wheels are opposed to each other at an angle of 60 degrees, as are the rears. But the real clever bit is trick linkages that allow the body to tilt through corners while all four wheels remain planted.

The Type 1 was inspired by Japanese Manga-style animation, as well as the speeder bikes that featured in Star Wars epics, says Zack. The project took seven years to complete and was achieved with the help of digital modeling programs and real-world modelling. Amazingly, most of the fabrication was performed by Zack using common workshop tools.

The prototype has been successfully tested and ridden, says Zack, but he says there are no plans to put the Type 1 into production. He says the next step is to modify the frame to allow for the option to link up with a duplicate Type 1. This would result in a three-passenger vehicle (with the addition of a portable center passenger sling).

Weird, wacky... but very clever.