Quincy-Lynn / Riley (United States)

Robert Q. Riley Enterprises was a small American design and engineering firm that specialized in low-energy personal vehicles sold as do-it-yourself plan sets rather than finished cars. Operating under that name at least from the late 1990s until around 2021, it was registered as an LLC and based in the Phoenix–Glendale area of Arizona, working from a Phoenix post-office box and presenting itself as “Robert Q. Riley Enterprises: Product Design & Development.” The firm grew out of Riley’s earlier collaborative work under the Quincy-Lynn banner in the 1970s and 1980s, where “Urba-” branded vehicles first appeared in magazines such as Mechanix Illustrated.

Riley’s company became best known for dramatic foam-and-fiberglass three-wheelers and compact cars promoted through Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated and similar titles. Its catalogue eventually included the Trimuter and Tri-Magnum reverse-trike motorcycle conversions, the UrbaTrike electric three-wheeler, Urba city cars such as UrbaCar and UrbaElectric, the Phoenix micro-RV and Boonie Bug camper, and economy designs such as the Urba Centurion and the XR-3 Hybrid plug-in kit car, all offered as detailed plans and construction manuals. Contemporary promotional material claimed that most projects debuted in major DIY magazines and that nearly half a million plan sets were in circulation worldwide.

Beyond the kits, Riley published technical papers on topics such as suspension design for very low-mass vehicles, reflecting a sustained interest in vehicle dynamics and safety.

After Riley’s death in May 2021 Robert Q. Riley Enterprises effectively ceased trading; subsequent commentary has described it in retrospect as a niche but influential source of experimental small-vehicle designs for home builders.