by: Colin Goodwin Oddball, but fun Up to £30,000 Grinnall's fortes Dry out? Try it out

Three-wheeled cars are perceived as oddities, or rather, their owners often are. Rather like Morris dancers. It's all a bit daft and comical, but behind the eccentricity one has a sneaking suspicion that a lot of fun is being had.

Twelve years ago I remember having a awful lot of fun in a three-wheeled vehicle called the Grinnall Scorpion. Built by a gifted young engineer called Mark Grinnall who started in the car business wedging Rover V8s into Triumph TR7s, the Scorpion was (and is, because they're still selling) powered by a four-cylinder BMW motorcycle engine. With two wheels at the front and a powered one behind it was both stable and a hoot to drive with plenty of performance. The Scorpion looked a bit unusual, but neat and distinctive.

Audi 1.8T engine powers IV

Even back then Mark Grinnall was muttering about adding a fourth wheel to the Scorpion thereby adding social acceptability and, more importantly, more sales.

It's taken a while, but at last the new Scorpion IV is with us. And some machine it is, too. The original idea was to fit the mid-engined roadster with the five-cylinder turbocharged engine from the Fiat Coupe, but unfortunately the whole deal turned into a bit of a nightmare and Grinnall lost not only the engine but two years of development time. Its replacement is Audi's 1.8-litre turbo engine as fitted to the TT. It's a trusted and tried powerplant that takes kindly to a bit of serious tweaking.