I Drove a Polaris Slingshot for 5 Minutes and It Was Weird

Three-wheeled car-cycles aren’t a new idea by any means, in fact, Morgan has been building them since the early 1930s. These oddballs were initially built as a loophole for people who wanted to drive a car while only holding a much less expensive motorcycle license.

The Polaris Slingshot is a far cry from the wooden-framed three-wheelers of the 1930s though, sharing only the philosophy of open-road driving with a motorcycle that won’t fall over.

The angles and lines of this tricycle are science-fiction-esque and you can have it in your favorite highlighter shade. Having no doors means you just hop in over the tubular space frame, the seats are bolstered nicely and the seatbelts cross your body from right-to-left — the opposite of the traditional method — which is one of many clues that this is not a traditional driving experience.

The driving position is interesting, but not uncomfortable. The steering wheel is positioned slightly higher than normal and at a slight angle, but this allows for easy hand-over-hand maneuvers. For a low car without a windshield, the expectation is to be sitting really low to the ground, but in actual fact, you feel quite high up, and it’s not hard to see the front corners of the car. The rear corner(s?) are a different story, but again, your mind fools you into thinking this is a regular car experience.

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Hitting an apex is much easier when you don’t have to worry about your rear wheels cutting across the line. You just put your front wheels on the edge of the bend and don’t worry about what’s happening with the rear. Dart into a corner and the front end understeers slightly, but that can be solved with a little bit of throttle, which you wouldn’t think would work because of the single rear wheel, but it corrects it nicely and gets you through the corner. Even with traction control on, it lets you have a little fun, and you can get a rear end swing on if you keep your foot in it.

Although fun, there are some drawbacks to being both a motorcycle and a car, chief among which is that in some states, you will be required to wear a motorcycle helmet and have a motorcycle license, and I can imagine it’s hard to avoid potholes with a wheel in the center of the road. On the small track I drove it on, however, the handing really shines, and taking it to a larger track would be a hoot. All in all, the experience is a unique one for sure, and if you ever get an opportunity to drive one, I suggest you do so.