Update 7/6/11 – The car has been relisted here.
Happy 4th of July everyone! To celebrate this special occasion we have a firecracker of a car for you! We doubt you have ever heard of this one… The 1982 Badsey Bullet. This creation could be the supercar of three wheelers. The Bullet made big news during the 80’s with its unique design and impressive performance. This Bullet has been in storage for a few years and the owner has decided to list it on eBay.
This Bullet is powered by a Suzuki GS1100 motor and has two transmissions. That’s right this three wheeler has two separate gear boxes, a 5-speed manual and a 4-speed automatic for a total of 20 forward gears. You can see the engine is mounted between the driver and passenger, creating separate cockpits for each.
Obviously three wheelers aren’t by any means a new idea, but when Bill Badsey designed the Bullet in ’79, he reinvented what a three wheeler could be. The Bullet was blisteringly fast for its time. In fact, Mario Adretti took one up to 165 mph!
This Bullet appears to be complete, but does have a few problems. The seats look to be shot, the carbs are gummed up, and there are some chips in the fiberglass. These things wouldn’t take much to fix though. We have no idea what this thing will go for as there were only eight ever built and maybe four still in existence. We are positive that the new owner will have some fun with this though.
Never heard of one. That is cool. I always like things a little out of the box.
Very interesting – bet it gets good mileage too ! It seems that this could get some interest if it was produced today.
WOW! this is a awesome find, some people have all the luck, please keep me updated on this find.
looks like the speed racer car :)
thats cool, seems like they kind of ARE produced today…Its called a T-rex!!
The T-Rex is probably a bit safer. In the late 1970’s when the Bullet debuted in South Africa, it was tested at 159 mph … terrifyingly fast. I nearly bought the prototype but was narrowly beaten to it by someone with deeper pockets.
Instead I built a Tri-Magnum which was not a patch on the Bullet. The second transmission, A Ford 4 speed box, was used to reverse. So the beast had 5 Forward and 5 Reversing speeds. The Ford box was put on fourth gear for forward motion.
badsey fun machine was the blue electric 3 wheeler in the youtube video. i have it. i powered it with a honda goldwing. it is going on ebay shortly.
These were VERY fast. I test drove one in the early 1980’s in Santa Ana , Ca on the freeway and around a large parking lot. It was like driving on rails. I haven’t driven anything like since. They were asking $15,000.
I purchased the Badsey electric reverse trike after Badsey died from his brother. Mounted a Honda goldwing instead of electric power video on YouTube