The more I surfed the net while trying to uncover the Tango's ultra-slim electric car as a media hoax or April Fool joke, the more facts I uncovered to verify its existence.
It was designed and is assembled by American company Commuter Cars in Spokane, Washington but isn't just another convenient urban car - it claims to be the fastest, too.
The Tango T600 is just under a metre wide - that's about 13cm narrower than a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. It's powered by two advanced 23cm DC electric motors capable of more than 1350Nm at each rear wheel. From standstill, the Tango claims to accelerate to 100km/h in about four seconds, cover a quarter-mile in around 12 and max out at around 250km/h depending on gear ratios used.
So, not only is it incredibly fast and eco-friendly (zero emissions) but it's also exceptionally convenient. At 2.5m long, the Tango can park perpendicular to the kerb. Perfect for Camps Bay.
It takes two people fore-and-aft in racing bucket seats with four-point harnesses and, according to Commuter Cars, can legally drive side-by-side - two abreast - in most lanes... motorcycle style. Great for easing congestion.
The T600 sells in America for the equivalent of R865 000, sold in part-assembled kit form that takes less than a day to finish. Two other production models, T200 and T100, are in the pipeline but lack of funding has prevented the company from meeting federal requirements on crash bags and crash testing.
The T600, however, has been built around a racing-type roll cage and is claimed to be four times safer than a typical SUV in side-on collisions.
It looks like the car's very top heavy and might easily topple over while cornering but that's taken care of - there's more than 900kg (mostly batteries) under the floor to lower the centre of gravity.
Some celebrity tabloid websites have reported actor George Clooney driving a Tango around the set of his latest movie. The all-knowing Wikipedia site reports that Clooney took delivery of the first Tango kit in 2005 when Commuter Cars was hoping to produce cars at a rate of 100 per year.
However, a fall out with the group's UK manufacturer forced the company to take over manufacture so the second unit wasn't shipped until February 2008.
- For more information about this radical congestion-easer visit the Commuter Cars website. - Star Motoring