Drill-Powered Future Trike
In MAKE Volume 26, we featured a drill-powered go-kart you can build at home. As
cool as that vehicle is, it looks positively retro
compared to the EX, a futuristic drill-powered
vehicle designed by promising young German
designer Nils Ferber.
Through their design process, they developed
a unique way of driving and steering the vehicle.
The driver lies down on the EX, forward-facing.
This creates “an exciting driving experience”
and allows the driver to operate the strange
“spine-shaped joint” steering.
To steer the EX, the driver has to employ
body weight to flex the six axles of the basically groin-mounted spine-joint, a sort of short
spinal column that’s used to flex and bend the
vehicle in the desired direction of travel.
Propelled by two Bosch 18-volt cordless
drill/drivers, the EX achieves speeds of 30
kilometers per hour (almost 19mph). And
given the position of the driver and proximity
to the ground, we can only image the thrill
ride offered by this ingenious crotch-rocket.
Let’s just hope that EX doesn’t take on any
unintended additional meanings.
Ferber’s work explores outside-the-box
thinking and the potential of design to “alter
reality,” he writes. The EX (a play on
eccentric, as in “deviation from what is ordinary or
customary”) sure meets these criteria, with
its sleek, Tron-worthy shape and its complete
rethinking of a steering mechanism.
Working with fellow designer/builders
Ruben Faber
Sebastian Auray, Ruben Faber, and Ludolf
von Oldershausen, Ferber and team started
out by prototyping designs in Lego blocks,
wood scraps, and finally steel. The final trike
is fashioned in stainless with many CNC and
specially fabricated parts.
—Gareth Branwyn
» EX Riders: nilsferber.de/ex.html
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