The morning had that surreal distant quality of a lucid dawn. The stage and its props (to borrow a theatrical analogy) were familiar enough: busy commuters drove nose to tail along crowded roads.
But the plot was bizarre and the players outrageous. Driving out of Neil’s Auto Repair Shop, just off a main road, was a sight that would have been unusual even on the corporation boating lake.
In a quiet backwater of Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton people rubbed their eyes.
Look! Out there. On the road. Is it a bike? Is it a trike? No, it’s Tritanic.
Tritanic was gawped at by everyone and announced its presence with a perfectly tuned raspberry at social grace.
What people queuing for bus felt as I sailed by, weather beaten and grinning, wasn’t sympathy - but envy.
This is a creation that certainly doesn’t draw its appeal from the dubious ethos of the designer marque - though obviously an overwhelming sense of style has invaded the psyche of creator Neil Turner of Codsall who lovingly cobbled it together.
Ancient Mariner Neil is keen to point out that Tritanic is not so much a ‘bitsa’ as a ‘flotsam and jetsa’ - so all hail to eccentricity: especially in these days of road pricing, tracker gismos, and sat navs (there’s not a sextant in sight here).
You’ve got to hand it to architect Neil - subtlety is not in his vocabulary. He understands what transportation is all about and he’s not hidebound by categories.
For one thing, it’s about daring to be different - about taking an original, or even bizarre concept, and seeing what comes of it - good or bad.
And when the result turns out to be very good indeed it certainly reinforces the old adage ‘variety is the spice of life’.
That is why Neil deserves credit for developing a concept that is innovative and exciting. The Tritanic is a three-wheeler with a difference that is outrageously aimed to thrill.
It is based on a Reliant Robin three-wheeler chassis with a speedboat hull grafted on.
Driving any unusual vehicle these days one has to run the gauntlet of comedy bandbox routines - and let’s face it, vehicles don’t come much more unusual than Tritanic.
Is she a beauty? I hear you ask. Well, I have to tell you that only a beast would think so - which is why householders batten down the hatches when this triple wheeled wonder wafts by.
If Jaws caught sight of this craft he’d choke on his own gnashers because this beast is one pleasure craft with the sting of a thousand box jellyfish in its tail - as I found out cutting along at well over 80 knots.
Power comes from a Reliant four-cylinder motor buried deep within the engine room and gives enough zest to let you shoot away from a standstill at a cracking pace.
How safe is she? You’re bound to wonder, with the name of Tritanic. Does she handle like a rowing boat, or is it a serene pleasure cruise?
Big handlebars act like a tiller, offering all the leverage need to correct any deviation from the plotted course and Tritanic is well able to hold her own when negotiating heavy traffic.
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