VIDEO: How to successfully drive the Monotracer E

For newbies, it can be difficult to drive the MonoTracer E. In fact, last fall, Susan Carpenter, a writer for the LA Times, tried to pilot one but ended up tipping over. You can tell the folks over at Translogic were fully aware of this when they got to try out the MonoTracer E for themselves. They start their write-up as an attempt "to become the first media outlet to successfully pilot the MonoTracer E." Do they succeed? Certainly.

Translogic's Bradley Hasemeyer went to the Richmond International Raceway in Virginia and got a lesson in the machine from Jim Lorimer of 21st Century Motoring, the official North American agency for the MonoTracer. Once Hasemeyer got the hang of the thing – and he, too, had some difficulties – he realized that acceleration is "crazy fast" (offiicaly 0-62 time is 4.5 seconds). When you're not going quite that fast (under 15 miles per hour), the safety-minded outrigger wheels automatically deploy.

If you want to get behind the wheel of one of these things for yourself, the good news is that the 300 mpge Automotive X-Prize-winning X-Tracer (as the MonoTracer E was called during the competition) will be coming to market, hopefully later this year. The bad news is it will cost around $90,000 (hey, that's down a bit from previous predictions). Whether that's too much money for you or not, you can check out the video after the jump for free. Oh, and note the training wheels.

[Source: Translogic]

The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.