# If It Has a Motor I'm Looking!



## rake60 (Mar 15, 2010)

Has anyone else noticed the French built Lumeneo Smera?

To me it is a scary looking little electric, uh car.  scratch.gif
A top speed of 80MPH ??? ??? ???







It's even spookier in motion.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwLu9b1iCQI[/ame]

Maybe it's just my age showing. In my growing days anything mechanical was
better if it was bigger. I guess times do change but I would be very wary of 
sudden cross winds.

Rick


----------



## Metal Butcher (Mar 15, 2010)

WOW Rick! I think you just found your next purchase! 

You would look real sharp cruising around town in that car! 8)

Looks like a chick magnet for sure! ;D

So... did ya place your order early to avoid the rush? :big:

-MB


----------



## Philjoe5 (Mar 15, 2010)

Rick,
Just think 4 wheel motorcycle with more protection 

MB's right - chick magnet for sure ;D


Cheers,
Phil


----------



## ksouers (Mar 15, 2010)

Lets see...

Narrow track.
Short wheel base.
Looks like a fairly high center of gravity, certainly a high center of pressure.

Yeah, looks real stable to me :

Bet you can just feel the pucker factor when you get on a rutted interstate highway and then passed by a semi.


----------



## 1Kenny (Mar 15, 2010)

Wonder if it emails you when it's battery needs charging.

Kenny


----------



## rake60 (Mar 15, 2010)

Too small for me!

I'm a pick-up truck kind of a guy.
I'm looking at a _*Wild Fire WF650-T Truck*_.
We do actually have a Wild Fire Dealer here in this little town.
The vehicle maintenance man at the machine shop I used to work for had
one of those pick-ups. He said the outboard back wheel coming off the pavement 
during a sharp turn did take some getting used to. 

Alright, maybe I'm too old for that kind of excitement as well!
I'll just fix up my old Chevy Tracker. It's not a BIG step up.

Rick


----------



## Metal Butcher (Mar 15, 2010)

rake60  said:
			
		

> Too small for me!
> 
> I'm a pick-up truck kind of a guy.
> I'm looking at a _*Wild Fire WF650-T Truck*_.
> Rick



Pick up? Nah!

Update you image with the snazzy Lumeneo Smera!

You would be the "Man" about town!

And remember; "Chick magnet!"

They dig sexy cars!

-MB


----------



## rake60 (Mar 15, 2010)

Metal Butcher  said:
			
		

> And remember; "Chick magnet!"
> 
> They dig sexy cars!
> 
> -MB



Small town here.
The chicks don't notice and the hens know better.
 Rof}

I don't know about the Lumeneo Smera, but the Wild Fire vehicles
are registered as motorcycles in the state of Pennsylvania.
If you don't have a motorcycle operators license you would have
to test in it. That could be embarrassing. I do have a valid motorcycle
license, but would still be embarrassed to be seen driving one of them. 

Rick


----------



## vlmarshall (Mar 15, 2010)

I'm not getting in any tiny car with a name like "Smear -uh".


----------



## Maryak (Mar 16, 2010)

rake60  said:
			
		

> I would be very wary of sudden cross winds.



At that size a sudden cross wind in your undies could be pretty devastating too. ???

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## Twmaster (Mar 16, 2010)

My fat ass would not fit comfortably in either of those... things.

Yea, the tree huggers will hate me. I'll keep my big ole 5400 pound Silverado for a while.


----------



## bentprop (Mar 16, 2010)

Chick magnet?Where would you put the chick?Would she have to run after you? ???
Anyway,I would be afraid of being hit by anything bigger than a pram :big:


----------



## potman (Mar 16, 2010)

Uhhh,  What if I have *two* bags of groceries?

Watching the video I just couldn't help but wonder what it 
would look like with a 4' X 8' sheet of 3/4 ply tied on top.  ;D

This typifies my favorite expression,
J_ust because you can
Doesn't mean you should._

earl...


----------



## tel (Mar 16, 2010)

Hmmm .. doesn't appear to be available in Oz - bugger


----------



## Twmaster (Mar 16, 2010)

Ok, I have to admit after watching the video of that, um, car looking thing...

That's kinda neat. I'd bet the batteries are way low in the chassis to aid in keeping the CoG lower.

Something like that would be perfect to zip around town in. Providing I did not want to haul anything else along...


----------



## Blogwitch (Mar 16, 2010)

Rick,

Up until a few years ago, the three wheeler was very popular in the UK.

Because they could be ridden with a bike license, even big beefy bikers used to use them. The bike was out during the summer, and the three wheeler in the winter. I had a succession of different models during the 70's and early 80's. Great fun on a motorway at anything over 70mph (I would call it suicidal and hair raising), and going along sideways in the snow, front wheel and one back wheel in one rut, the other back wheel in the other rut. You could take your hands off the wheel and the car would just follow the rut.

60mpg, low road tax, and low insurance. There are still a few of the old ones running about even now, they stopped production about 10 years ago. Many were stripped out for the back axles, which, being lightweight, are perfect for making trike bikes, and the all ali engines were the mainstay of the fire service. They were mounted on a cradle and used as mobile water pumps, they could easily be carried by two people to wherever the water was. The 700cc version of the engines were also able to be highly tuned and were used in a formula class of motor racing. I know, I used to live just down the road from the main tuning agent, and it just so happened one of my Reliants ended up with slightly tuned one in it. I was once flagged by the police to slow down on the motorway after doing just over 100mph, I don't think they would have prosecuted me, as no one would have believed them that one could go so fast.

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...zilla:en-GB:official&gbv=2&ndsp=21&tbs=isch:1

Great times were had by all.

Bogs


----------



## John Rudd (Mar 16, 2010)

Remember the Bond Bug anyone?


----------



## rickharris (Mar 16, 2010)

Bond Bug - Oh ye,s owned one for 9 years 1969 to 78 did over 180,000 miles in it all over the place.


----------



## Metal Butcher (Mar 16, 2010)

rake60  said:
			
		

> Small town here.
> The chicks don't notice and the hens know better.
> Rick



Good one Rick! :big:
I racked my brain all morning and can't top that!

-MB


----------



## itowbig (Mar 16, 2010)

I want one


----------



## rickharris (Mar 16, 2010)

I bought it new in 1969 - £480 - OEB245H if anyone knows where it is. 

At one stage I belonged to a car club who did a mileage marathon - not too scientific just top the tank to the brim and drive 100 miles refill to see how much fuel used.

The Bond Bug did 110 MPG at an average of 36MPH!! Not bad even by today's standards.

They are still around but in running condition will cost you about £2000!!!! Wish I have kept it. Only about 5000 sold in the UK though with Holland a tad behind that.

I understood the body design was done by an apprentice designer working for Bond cars at the time as an exersise originally intended to have a hillman imp engine in the back. When Reliant took over Bond they changed the design to fit the reliant regal chassis. I can't find any corroboration of this though.

 Nice to drive in a straight line - not too good corners, lifted an inside wheel many times. Top speed around 80 to 90 MPH depending on how long a run you took to get there. It turned blue and then lime green after those photographs were taken, I could hand paint it in a day easily.

Not mine here picture frmo web


----------



## wes (Mar 16, 2010)

I'll stickto my ford F350. You can fit the chick, the 2 bags of food in the bed and still have room for me in the middle. May be a rust bucket, But with a few patches, new paint job, strait pipe, and V8 engine that gets 25 a gallon,chick magnet? Oh yeah! :-*


----------



## rake60 (Mar 16, 2010)

It is a pretty cool little engineering feat.

Small as it is, it can carry a passenger.






Looks a little too cozy for me.
Or, with the back seat removed you have all that area as cargo space.






You might fit two grocery bags in there. 

_*Lumemeo's Web Site*_ has all the specs on it.

It has been entertaining to look at anyway.

Rick


----------



## kustomkb (Mar 16, 2010)

I built this tadpole trike, the chasis is free to lean into corners like a bike;

A steep learning curve but once you have the hang of it its a lot of fun;














[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e50gyTJl5A&feature=channel[/ame]


----------



## Cheshire Steve (Mar 16, 2010)

The picture of the 'Men in Black' in the Smera thingy cracked me up Rof}

Looks like a cross between the Quasar (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar_%28motorcycle%29), and one of those Smart cars (www.smart.com) that has tried to get through a gap that was just a little too narrow. There might just be room for a big V twin in the back though - that should perk it up !


----------



## rake60 (Mar 16, 2010)

Cheshire Steve  said:
			
		

> The picture of the 'Men in Black' in the Smera thingy cracked me up Rof}
> 
> Looks like a cross between the Quasar (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar_%28motorcycle%29), and one of those Smart cars (www.smart.com) that has tried to get through a gap that was just a little too narrow. There might just be room for a big V twin in the back though - that should perk it up !




Shhhhhh LOL

*"A couple of days ago, we received an email from Lumeneo's PR rep Isabel giving us the business about the all-electric, leaning Lumeneo Smera we brought you. She claimed the car was not as our American eyes could clearly see, a single seater, but in fact a two seater! 'Impossible!' we said, 'Prove it with a picture.' And so she has. Seated inline, inside that tiny little car are father Daniel and son Thierry Moulène, President and Technical Director respectively."*


----------

