Tuesday, June 06, 2023

Tricycle with a food-truck body in my hometown Porto Alegre

Among those vehicles that may look too odd from a 1st-world perspective, sure this Chinese-made trike would be highlighted. More often featured with a flat-tray made out of sheetmetal or a cargo box made out of fiberglass, this one was fitted as a stand to be used as a mobile food stand. The engine is a 200cc water-cooled single-cylinder, modified from those random copies of the Honda CG 125 so widespread among Chinese motorcycle manufacturers, It resorts to an auxiliary reverse gear which in theory can be used with all the 5 forward gears, and a driveshaft, so no chains to adjust once in a while. Its rear roof is raised when stationed, enabling the operator to stand while handling something inside, and a window on the right side enables the vendor to serve customers on the curbside, usually to the right in a right-hand traffic country such as Brazil.

Thursday, June 01, 2023

Brazilian replica of the Porsche 356 Speedster

It's not so uncommon to see replicas of the Porsche 356 Speedster in Brazil, most locally-made with a fiberglass body and based either on a dedicated tube-frame for newer ones or on the floorpan of some early Volkswagen.
This one is fairly recent, made by a company named FerCar and better known by its beach-buggies.
Quite accurate, yet those headlamps gave me a clue that it was more likely to be a replica.