Ah, yes...I drove one of these in 1984, when I worked for Domino's Pizza in Kokomo, IN. The Triton TR 1, I believe it was called...a 30 hp snowmobile engine drove a rubber belt that powered the rear wheels forward and functioned as a rather crude CVT transmission. An electric motor provided reverse properties, as long as the headlights were off, anyway. It had a sliding canopy, tandem seating [the hotbox was behind the driver in our version], virtually zero ventilation with the canopy closed, and with that 30 hp and continuous belt drive, the acceleration was almost non-existent. The car was also very noisy.
We got ours as a promtional vehicle for the annual Haynes-Apperson Festival in 1984. Right away, there were problems...the drive belt broke almost immediately after the car came off the trailer. Several of the more mechanically minded employees worked around the clock to get it running for the parade. We barely made it, and the car was held together by bailing wire all weekend long. Every time I had to back up, somebody had to push me, and I had to turn off the headlights, which were in the leading edges of the fins that covered the rear wheels.
At the end of the weekend, one of our asistant managers was driving the car when the drive belt broke again, this time snaring the choke cable along with it and ripping the choke control right out of the dashboard, breaking it in half. We towed the car back to the store, loaded it on the r trailer, took it back to Ann Arbor, and never got our deposit back. Domino's dropped the Triton very quietly after that. I think there were plans to use Tritons at most Domino's stores as delivery vehicles, but they were notoriously unreliable.
The car pictured is in Domino's Pizza livery. Some built for private owners were more lavish, with AC, which this car really needed; and hopefully, more power, although driving one at highway speeds would have been terrifying...it only had 3 wheels, so it was legally classified as a motorcycle. It had rudimentary seatbelts, but the interior wasn't padded. The body was fiberglass, and rather thin, at that.
All in all, it was a nice toy.
Dan
