That's it. My credibility is blown. A week commuting in a vehicle that whimsical French engineer Daniel Renard says will "put the fun back into motoring" has left my ego battered and more tangible parts of my anatomy bruised. Why? Because I’ve been road testing his two-seat Qpod Sport – part luxury quad bike, part micro-car.Personally I like the rear-drive, single-cylinder petrol engined upmarket quad bike. But the great and the good who expect me to roll around in products by Porsche, BMW, Mercedes and the like were unimpressed by my noisy new-found transport.Can’t think what all the fuss is about. Frenchman Renard has a brilliant concept. His Secma business turns out a range of low-cost street-legal vehicles that are a hoot to drive and the Devon-based Qpod Motor Company is selling them like hotcakes throughout the UK.I drove the Qpod Sport on tarmac, through forests, across beaches and plunged through streams where I'd have never taken a car. And if I'd opted for an off-roader I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun (or as many bruises).The Qpod Sport does exactly what Renard says it does – it puts the fun back into driving. From the teeth-rattling off-tarmac ride quality to the deafening crescendo of its demented motor-mower powerplant this roofed and windscreened two-seat fun-mobile will put the smile back on your face. It'll follow a quad bike everywhere but with better comfort and street-legal credibility.The standard vehicle costs £4750 including VAT. My example came with a few extras – a cab kit for £295, two side doors at £395 and a £140 luggage rack on the lid of the tiny boot. OK, so it pushed the drive-away cost to just shy of £5600, but look at the benefits – exclusivity, parking portability at just 220kg, easy storage at just over two metres long and an ability to take to the nearest field or woodland to help you avoid that traffic snarl-up!Yes it's basic. There's nothing high-tech here. The cabin is a plastic tub bolted onto a steel chassis with an impressively large windscreen complete with single wiper and washer system. Over your head there's a substantial roll-over cage with a fabric roof to keep out rain and flying mud and on either side flimsy doors that give a marginal feeling of security as you’re mixing it with traffic at the Qpod Sport's 50mph maximum.The engine is a lively air-cooled Lombardini single-pot four-stroke bragging 338cc with electric start and driving through a simple automatic gearbox. You get 16bhp at 4000rpm, forward and reverse and a handlebar tiller steering column with a twist grip throttle on the right and controls for the headlamps, horn and indicators on the left.The "dash" comprises a speedo, a gauge for the two-gallon fuel tank and a few warning lights I never quite worked out. There's even a drinks holder and bolted to the steering column is the smallest electric fan heater I've ever seen – just powerful enough to waft warm air onto a misted screen, but not quite man enough to clear it!Starting is best achieved while tickling the twist-grip throttle to get some petrol into the intake manifold. The Lombardini engine fires easily and clatters into life ready to power the Qpod into traffic. Acceleration away from lights is rapid and leaves most cars trailing.Visibility in any direction but ahead is dire. There are door mirrors – but they're mounted on a fabric and wire arrangement that makes them about as useful for reflective science as lump of cheese in a nuclear reactor.Creature comforts are few. The driving position is awkwardly offset to the left, a legacy of its French connections, and the only padding is a leather-lookalike trim about half-an-inch thick under the occupants' rears end and along their backs. But that, and the two lap and diagonal seat belts, were enough to make me feel safe and reasonably comfortable on a 10-mile road trip.Under way on tarmac the Qpod is brilliant – bouncy, but brilliant. Tiller steering is much under-rated. It's direct, fantastic when cornering and lets you know what's happening at the chunky front tyres. Get on a loose surface and this rear-engined device is as much fun as a kart. Thanks to front disc brakes it can be set up beautifully for a corner. Step the tail out on the throttle and it can be left to drift gracefully through an arc like a rally car. Great fun.There's nothing serious about the Qpod. It sheer undiluted driving fun. A breath of manic fresh air in a dull and structured motoring world where most of us are forced to conform to the mediocre.More odd-pod than iPod, it might have left my hindquarters black and blue, my hearing impaired and my teeth loose, but I was sorry to see it go. We'd ridden the range together, battled in commuter traffic and even stayed dry in a downpour. What's more we raised a few smiles along with some eyebrows and gave a few lucky people the passenger ride of their lives in an enclosed go-most-places fun car that is not quite so daft as it looks. Engine 338cc, 1 cylinder Power 16bhp Transmission Automatic Fuel approx. 60mpg Top speed 45mph Price £4750 Details correct at publication date
