"The Dale"
 

Here is one for you guys:

Who remembers “The Dale”.

It came on the heels of the ’73 oil embargo and the recession that followed. I was just a kid – but I remember it was the darling of the media. A three wheeler - that was supposed to get amazing gas mileage and was going to be cheap to buy. The whole project was a fraud and a scam and ended in tears.

Reminds me of all this talk of electric cars, solar and wind power..

A guy at another building in my company has some three-wheeled electric car. I can't see how it would be stable.

And the "woman" who ran the company was actually a cross-dressing guy.

I remember that whole sordid story from when I was a kid.

There was an excellent Car and Driver article at the time, maybe written by Yates. I'm fairly certain it was reprinted in their 50th anniversary book a few years ago, but I'll take a look when I get a chance.



http://www.3wheelers.com/dalead1.jpg


http://www.3wheelers.com/daleadbs.jpg







Tim

This doesn't give a lot of detail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_(automobile)

They changed the name of it to the "Pat" after he came out.

I remember it well. My buddy and I went to their corporate office in Encino, CA to check it out. We were about 15 years old at the time. The place was pretty sparse, with a greeter in the lobby. They gave us some promotional literature and thanked us for coming by. A few months later the scandal broke and they were gone. The CEO "woman" was named Liz Carmichael if I remember right.

Earnhardt?

How could anyone ever forget the Intimidator?

I remember the Dale. Wasn't the "woman" who built it named Liz Carmichael? That is a great car trivia question. What do I win?

Sorry...I just saw that someone else already came up with the name. But I really did know it!

That episode of Top Gear was hilarious. He is a pretty tall guy & he looked ridiculous in that car driving on the road surrounded by "huge" (i.e., normal-sized) cars...driving on the sidewalk...driving through the office.

I love that show. That car is amazingly small.