Quote:
Originally Posted by MagicRat
It's not a Mescherschmitt. They made distinctive 3 and 4-wheeled bubble cars (click here), (you can see one in the background), but they never made anything like this..... unless it's a one-off prototype.
The layout looks completely different from the rear-engine, RWD Meschershmitt..... It's obviously a front-engine front wheel drive car (probably an air-cooled motorcycle engine, give the size of the grille. , and much more closely resembles a Berkeley. Given it looks like an easly 50's sports car, its probably British or American.
BMW made the Isetta microcar, which was popular at the time. Such microcars were not just made in Germany. The UK had them, too, like the Berkely and the Peel Trident.
The US had a flood of small manufacturers making tiny cars in the late-1940's. Most companies failed within a few years, because the austerity and the 'buyers market' that existed after WWII quickly disappeared, so buyers all flocked to regular cars instead.
The only US micro- car makers that survived more than a brief time were Eshelman, Crosley, and King Midget. |
Wow, thanks for your input!
The seller of the red car had Messerschmidt on the windshield sign, but could be wrong. Or as you say it could be a prototype.
Of course microcars came from many countries. An elderly acquaintance of mine bought a Berkeley new in 1959 and drives it today. I don't believe they were intended primarily as inexpensive transport but as lightweight sports cars in the mold of Lotus, and were introduced in 1958 or '59, as Britain was emerging from postwar rationing and trade restrictions into brighter days.
I wouldn't consider most Crosleys to be microcars. The first few, introduced at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, were on the borderline, but the much better selling envelope-bodied postwar models were at least as big as a Mini and carried the same four passengers with ease. And a Crosley sports car (forget if it was a Hot Shot or a Super Sport) won the Index of Performance at Sebring around 1950.
The King and Peel were definitely micros! The King was essentially an enlarged go kart with a body, and one average-sized man could barely squeeze into a Peel coupe. Even then, he couldn't close the windows and drive, because to steer he had to stick his elbows out the windows!