Motorcycle-car hybrid raises buzz - and concern over looser safety standards

Culpeper, Virginia

SANDY Hall's white trike is screaming down a suburban Virginia road.

It can hit 257kph. But with no doors, seats two seats inches above the asphalt and a high-performance engine howling above 10,000 rpm, accelerating to even half that is a neck-whipping catapult ride.

He said, after slowing down his new fusion motorcycle-car which looks like the spawn of a Suzuki and a Formula 1 racer: "You wouldn't feel this in your regular family car."

A new class of vehicle, dubbed the "autocycle" by an increasing number of state legislature…