Safety on three wheels

The Canadian company Bombardier Recreational Products
Inc. (BRP) is a leading manufacturer of jet boats, ATVs and
motor sledges. After the snow, the water and the Off-Road
terrain were mastered, BRP decided to open the road and
came up with the idea of designing a three-wheel recreational
vehicle, combining the dynamics and open air feeling of a
motorbike with the comfort of a sportscar. The result is the
Can-Am Spyder. Series production began in Fall 2007.

The V2 motorbike engine with 990 cc displacement and
106 HP is made by BRP’s Austrian subsidiary Rotax. It
enables the Can-Am Spyder to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h
in 4.5 seconds. Like a motorcycle and sidecar combination,
the vehicle always stands upright. The front axle is equipped
with electronic power steering that works according to speed –
the slower you drive, the easier it is to work the steering.

A decisive development target was to make the three-
wheeler as stable to drive and as safe from overturning as
possible. Bosch Engineering GmbH took up this challenge
and developed a vehicle stability program specifically
tailored to this three-wheeler and based on the Electronic
Stability Program ESP®plus. This comprises an Antilock
Braking System (ABS), a Traction Control System (TCS)
and a driving dynamics control system preventing the
vehicle from oversteering or even overturning.

Bosch Engineering GmbH accompanied the project from
the first study right up to series production – an individual,
tailor-made complete solution.