You don’t need a license to drive this weird plastic-bodied French microcar, nor do you need a reverse gear to get this wacky front-wheel-drive car to spin around in reverse.
I could never convince my mother to get me a BMW in high school. She had a BMW in high school, I would argue. But hers had a top speed of around 55 mph, provided there was a strong a tail wind. Mom had a BMW Isetta 300, and I finally got to see why she loved it so much when I drove one at the Lane Motor Museum.
European microcars: they’re like cars! Sort of! Well, technically they’re “quadricycles,” and not cars at all. And because they’re extra small and extra cheap, they don’t have to adhere to normal car safety standards. That doesn’t mean regulators can’t have a hell of a time completely destroying them, however.
That winsome guy up there is the Gasuden Minivan. I came across it on this page in a book on kei cars I have and was immediately taken.
Some failures become famous because they pushed an envelope too far, or tried to innovate too soon. The Tucker, the NSU Ro80, the McD.L.T. We remember them like we remember Icarus. Too bold and avant-garde to survive this mundane existence. We respect bold failures because they’re not the result of ineptitude, but of…
The beginning of June in western Europe means “the return of the westerlies,” or the European Monsoon season when westerly winds, which take a break during spring, come back bringing with them rain and cooler weather. It’s a cycle that repeats 7 out of every 10 years and folks are generally prepared for it. The first…
Amongst the myriad postwar microcars that were too cool to make it to production is this wee winsome fellow, the Econom Teddy. It was designed by the impressively named Hellmuth Butenuth and is the only car I know of named after a stuffed animal. It was meant to be the cheapest car in the world. So cheap, the company…
One of the most whimsical, in a wide field of whimsy, microcars of the post war years was the Felber Autoroller, a frog-like three wheeler from Austria. Austria isn’t really known for its cars, but with names like Ledwinka, and Porsche, and marques like Steyr-Puch and Gräf & Stift, it’s made some important…
Often, very cheap, basic little city cars have problems with status. They’re perceived as little rolling penalty boxes, an added insult to the need for frugality. That’s why Tata’s well-designed Nano sold slower than it was expected to — few people want to be seen in what’s known as a “cheap” car. But there does seem…
We all know Greece is in a tricky financial spot right now. Pretty much all of Europe is breathing down their neck for cash, no one has any, and it’s a big Greek mess. But, as always, ol’ Torchy has a plan. See, Greece used to build some pretty quirky cars. Quirky cars are becoming rare today. See? Quirky…
During the Golden Age of the Microcar after WWII, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of microcar companies all trying to eke out their own sliver of the automobile market. For every one that did manage to pump out a few copies, there were several that barely got off the drawing board. Microcar history is…
I think I’ve expressed before how much I love finding cars I’ve never heard of before. Chasing that joy, however, is a bit like being a junkie — getting the feeling at first is easy, but it gets harder and harder as time goes on. This car, today, is some hardcore car-junkie goods — wildly strange, obscure, and oddly…
New Horizons has finally passed Pluto and the exciting encounter is the perfect occasion to give the confused astronomical community a clear framework for organizing celestial bodies. That framework is how we classify and market cars.
Torchinsky’s post over on Jalopnik got me thinking about all the amazing micro-trucks of the post-WWII era. Up top is the Isocarro made in Italy (and under license in Spain) by Iso, the original builders of the Isetta. It used the same 236cc Iso motor that powered the little microcar and sat upon a relatively…
Recently, I was in Italy to take part in the Mille Miglia, and, of course, I was surrounded by some of the most amazing cars I’d ever seen. That’s why it was so important for me to get out and cleanse my palate with some really awful shitboxes, and, thankfully, Rome did not disappoint.
Before I can talk about the ordeal that was driving a 925lbs. 25hp car across the United States, let me give some back story about myself and this car, and why in desperation I decided to take it on a long, long drive some years ago.
The most infamous review in the history of Consumer Reports car reviews came in 1969 when they covered the new to America Subaru 360. Their summation: Not Acceptable.
Let me be up front here: I don't think the Lightburn Zeta is the worst car ever made. But many people do. It's not a good car, by any standard, but it was designed to be a super-cheap, incredibly basic form of transport, and considering the context, its flaws at least make sense. That said, it is sort of delightfully…
In the months after Germany's surrender in 1945, Fritz Fend was working as an itinerant farmer for 8.50 marks a week. During the war, Fritz had been an engineer who helped design the very first jet fighters for the Luftwaffe. He was clever and creative and seemed destined for big things save for the fact he worked for…
We're all familiar with the wonderful Peel P50, the smallest production car ever made. But, what's the deal with Peel? Turns out, it's an interesting story. The teeny microcar wasn't the first automobile with a Peel badge, nor would it be the last. And, despite being one of the slowest motor vehicles ever, Peel's name…
