At $10,000, Is This 1983 Trihawk 304 A Trike You Might Try?

Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Trihawk is one of fewer than 100 Citroën-powered trikes ever built, which makes this one a rare bird. Let’s see if you’d have to be a Dodo to pay its seller’s asking price.

If you go to warehouse stores like Costco or Sam’s Club, you’re probably someone who appreciates the implied bargain of buying in bulk. On an ounce-to-ounce basis, two giant bottles of catsup must be a better bargain than one, right? Plus, who doesn’t want an extra jar of five-bean salad gathering dust on a pantry shelf when the twofer is just so darn cheap?

That was the situation we faced with yesterday’s vote, which was on the package deal consisting of a pair of AM General HUMVEEs. One of those was said by its seller to have been refurbished and up to the task of driving on the daily. The other was a parts vehicle, but the seller claimed it could be made to run with little effort. The pair’s $17,900 price didn’t have too many of you racing for an extra-wide shopping cart, however. That fell in an undeniably decisive 62% No Dice loss.

It’s been averred that ‘birds of a feather flock together,’ however, when it comes to driving today’s 1983 Trihawk 304, there’s very little chance of seeing a single other one on the road, much less any sort of flock.

This is one of about 100 FWD trikes built initially by the now-defunct Design Lab Inc. company out of Illinois, founded by an entrepreneurial engineer named Lou Richards. Richards wanted to create a lightweight sports car akin to the original Lotus 7, but was stymied by the enormous volume of regulations required to get even such a simple car on the road. Discovering that three-wheelers were exempt from most regulations as they were considered motorcycles under Federal and State guidelines, the two-seater was revamped to be a trike. The Trihawk received plenty of good press upon its debut, including a Top 10 award from Car and Driver for its skidpad performance. That didn’t help much with sales, however, as the market for cars so basic that they lack a fourth wheel is pretty small. Within a year of launch, Design Lab, Inc. was renamed Hawk Vehicles, Inc. and moved operations to Dana Point, California.

The company’s poor finances, coupled with Richards’ own health issues, forced the sale of the enterprise in 1985, with Harley Davidson taking ownership. The motorcycle maker’s own financial struggles prevented it from doing anything with the Trihawk, and it shuttered production shortly thereafter.

Now, you might think that the Harley connection would mean there’s a V-twin thumper under this Trihawk’s hood, but that’s not the case. Not needing to meet automotive emissions standards opened the door for any number of fitting powertrain options, and the one that Richards settled on was an air-cooled 1.3-liter flat-four from a Citroën GSA. That produces 67 horsepower and drives the front wheels through a four-speed manual. Various Citroën and Renault parts make up the rack and pinion steering, disc brakes, and coil-over suspension. With its meager weight and wide stance, that all imbues the Trihawk with unexpectedly good handling.

That’s not to say that taking this trike to its limits wouldn’t be a potentially terrifying experience. After all, one of the primary reasons the Trihawk only has three wheels was to sidestep most automotive safety requirements. In a nod to some of the basics, though, the trike does have a reasonably tall roll-over bar. Three-point belts are attached to that.

This one presents in what appears to be its original yellow paint and black cloth and vinyl interior accouterments. Taking the concept of ‘three is enough’ to extremes, the Renault-sourced alloy wheels are mounted with a trio of lug bolts. A second set of like-lugged wheels comes with the car, but will probably require a second vehicle for their transport, as the Trihawk has pretty much zero cargo capacity. Overall, this car (oops, trike) looks to be in excellent condition. According to the seller, it “Runs and shifts well.” It also remains as basic and weird as when it was new. And like new, it has a clean title and wears current tags.

It should be noted that, while initially meeting the requirements to be sold as a motorcycle, the goalposts to do so today have been moved. Any modern trike or ‘cyclecar’, as some regions classify them, is required to have a centrally-mounted headlamp, not the Trihawk’s twin bug-eyes. Of course, adding a third light, possibly in front of the engine air intake, would add to this trike’s three-is-better approach.

Obviously, the Trihawk is a weekend warrior, very much like its British sports car progenitors, not something intended for daily driving use. It should prove a fun vehicle for doing so, too, as well as a question magnet at any car show or fuel stop. For someone with a bit of an extrovert’s flair and a penchant for the obscure, this could be the perfect opportunity to drive something completely different.

This weird bit of automotive history comes at an asking price of $10,000. You now need to decide whether or not that’s a fair deal. What do you say, could this extremely rare and capable sports trike be worth ten large? Or, does that price clip this Tri-Hawk’s wings?

You decide!

San Francisco Bay Area, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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