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The Campagna T-Rex
2023 Campagna T-REX RR
Country of Origin: Canada
Design Info: The T-REX is a two-seat, three-wheeled sports cyclecar. Its single chain-driven rear wheel propels the car, while the double wishbone suspension in front facilitate handling like a conventional car. Fiberglass body panels attach to a tubular frame chassis, which also acts as an integrated roll cage providing safety and rigidity. The car operates with a motorcycle-derived sequential six-speed transmission, though unlike motorcycles has a reverse gear. The car rides low enough to the ground that Campagna employees have joked that one could file their fingernails while driving by simply reaching outside and dragging their fingers across the pavement. The entire car weighs just shy of 1100 lbs.
Engine Info: Through the run of the T-REX, motorcycle engines from 1.1 to 1.6 liters from Suzuki, Kawasaki, S&S, and BMW have been used for power. The current T-REX RR uses a 1.4 liter Kawasaki inline-four which makes 208 hp at 10,000 rpm, which is good for a 0-60mph sprint of about 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 144 mph.
Type: The T-REX is a road legal, three-wheeled sports car, similar to vehicles like the Morgan Three-Wheeler or Polaris Slingshot. However, the T-REX has a significantly higher power-to-weight ratio than either of these, owing to its lighter weight.
History: Daniel Campagna was both a mechanic for Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve and a Formula Ford driver in the late 1970s, but by 1980 had decided he would rather design fun, fast cars than race himself. After working on various vehicles for the better part of the 80s, Campagna founded Campagna Motors in Quebec in 1988.
Campagna’s Concept 3, also finished in 1988, was a simple design, mostly lacking bodywork, though already the DNA for the T-REX was clearly visible. The three-wheeled car was meant to combine the best aspects of conventional sports cars and motorcycles, including lightweight nimbleness, quick acceleration, and planted handling with a low center of gravity.
In 1994, Campagna hired Paul Deutschman, former designer at Rover and the man responsible for the body of the Callaway Sleghehammer (as well as other Callaway cars) to design an aerodynamic but stylish body for his three-wheeled sports car. A prototype was completed the same year, and by 1995 Campagna was hand-building a small number of customer cars, powered by Suzuki engines that Campagna acquired by purchasing and disassembling entire motorcycles. By 1996, Campagna had begun limited mass production of the T-REX.
The design went through several iterations and evolutions, initially only available in Quebec, but entered the US market in 2001. Financial difficulties lead to outsourcing license production in 2004, and in 2008 Campagna sold the company to a competing trike company, Cirbin Motors, owned by André Morissette and David Neault. These partners rebranded their own model, the V13R, as a Campagna, and continued to sell both. A partnership with BMW lead to a run of six-cylinder T-REXs in the mid 2010s, and other trim levels like the SP and a special 20th Anniversary Edition in 2015 helped to build the T-REX’s image as a more serious, higher performance vehicle compared to its competition.
The company once again faced financial hardship in the late 00s, and declared bankruptcy in 2019. However, by July of that year, with new investors, the company had once again risen from the dead, with the T-REX RR replacing the BMW-powered 16SP. While the RR’s Kawasaki plant is smaller than the outgoing BMW inline six, it is also substantially more powerful than the old 160 hp unit, making the T-REX RR the most powerful Campagna model yet.
Why it’s cool/unique/significant: The first ever automobile was the three-wheeled Cugnot steam tractor, and sports trikes have been around at least since Morgan built one for competition in 1912. This is to say that, even though not widespread, tricycle cars have been an enduring part of automotive history since the literal beginning.
That being said, the idea of the sports trike had largely died out with the end of production of the Morgan F-Series in the 50s, and Campagna’s desire to improve and modernize this idea, creating a high-performance vehicle to combine the attributes of both sports car and motorcycle, is largely what led to the rebirth of the niche, and a variety of sports trikes available today.
