For $1,000, Have A Ménage à Toyota

When you were a kid you probably rode a bike, and while mastering that you rode with training wheels. Before even that, you likely rode a trike. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe MR2 custom appeals to your inner child, but will its price have you asking, are you kidding?

Your inner child was having nothing to do with yesterday's 1980 Porsche 928. That seemed to be less due to the golden oldie's Chevy mill and more because of its overly adjusted for inflation price. In the end it was stung with a remarkable 90% Crack Pipe loss, perhaps proving that when you're paying for filet mignon, you won't find satisfaction in a Quarter Pounder with cheese.

Today's candidate offers no obvious gastronomic simile, although its presentation could be considered alfresco. Toyota's first generation of the MR2 sports car (AW11) was known for its origami styling, light weight, and Lotus-inspired handling. Today's 1985 MR2 custom trike may be even lighter, but it has traded toss-ability for the chance of a premium parking spot at Peter Fonda's house.

Your first reaction to this custom Toyota trike may be what in the hillbilly hell?! That's understandable, as is the demand to know what sort of Meth bender is required to imagine such a creation. Here's the thing of it though – if you look up MR2 Trike in your search engine of choice you'll find this isn't the only one out there. In fact, there's a butt-load of MR2s that have received the Hassan Chop conversion into three wheel choppers. It may be because these mid-engine Toyotas are showing up in the U-Pick-Em yards with greater frequency. Or it's that, aside from engine cooling, everything is neatly contained in back – and that old VW Beetle chassis are more valuable under old Beetles these days.

Whatever the reason, this three-wheel chariot of fire will guarantee that no animal in your path ever gets a fair shake, and that heroic maneuvers to avoid them will result in handling behaviors usually reserved for circus bumper cars. That propensity to be a tippecanoe and tyler too is somewhat ameliorated by the seller's statement that he has lasted seven years since creating this trike. That seems like he's really stretched the odds there.

The seller also claims that the engine is a V4, but a poke under its hood indicates the same in-line 4A-GE that powered the vehicle pre-amputation. That 1,597-cc DOHC four was good for 112-bhp in stock trim, and with a good deal of the MR2's 2,350-lbs removed, performance of this thing should fall into the category of life threatening. Putting the reins to all that are the MR2's disk rear brakes,and what looks to be a single drum in front, possibly stolen from a little girl's coaster bike. An automatic transmission should make driving the contraption a little less like trying to dress an octopus, and for those of you who are at this moment posting that you were fully on board with this until you found out it was a slusher- really? I mean, seriously?

Oddly, with half of it missing, this MR2 is actually more capacious – featuring three seats to the factory's two. Yeah they don't look all that comfortable, what with the ape-hangers and the passengers' knees having to vie for space with the driver's butt, but still it'll qualify for pretty much any HOV lane you can imagine. That alone could make it worth the looks you'd get while riding it there. And keep in mind that it's able to licensed as a motorcycle (heh, heh, stupid law) in most places, so you could ride it in those lanes solo as well. Or, while wearing nothing but a rainbow fro-wig and a tule skirt, should that be how you roll.

It might also make it worth the $1,000 price the seller is requesting. That's double LeMons limits, and there's not a lot of stuff you could potentially sell off of it save for your dignity while riding. But that would make for some loony LeMons action. So what do you think, is $1,000 a price that would make this a trike that you might like? Or, is that as whackadoodle as is its execution?

You decide!

San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears. H/T to gnivri for the hookup!

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