Vintage Thing No.100 - Tarkus
Tarkus is the title of a 20 minute Emerson, Lake and Palmer prog rock epic describing the three battles of a turret toting armadillo on caterpillar tracks by the name of Tarkus. But of course I knew nothing of this until recently, being a punk rocking gear head. To me, Tarkus was the grandaddy of all Citroen hill climbing trikes. The existence of the hillclimbing Tarkus had often been mentioned just within my earshot in hushed whispers as I stalked around the Cornish hillclimb paddocks and pits. It was always in connection with a fire breathing supercharged Citroen powered trike called Kermit . Gradually, I pieced the story together and discovered that Tarkus was the inspiration behind Kermit. Tarkus was built by a chap with the suitably heroic name of Jake Challenger and is actually one of six. The very first one was originally designed around a two-stroke three-cylinder engine from a DKW (Vintage Thing No. 13) . Tarkus - small loud and very fast. I love the matching helmets...