CITY CAR (Jan, 1969)
CITY CAR built in England by former RAF pilot Mike Forrest is only 6 ft. long, has a tiller instead of a steering wheel, grip-type throttle and brakes; 750cc engine gives it 40-50 mpg and a top speed of 50.
May 6, 2011
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Mini-cars such as this and today’s SmartCar make a lot of sense in Europe, where parking is not delimited by painted spaces, parking meters, and big parking lots.
It’s silly to put a tiny car into a space designed for a huge SUV, but there’s no legal way to cram cars tighter along the roads.
Comment by Rick Auricchio — May 6, 2011 @ 7:56 am
Rick: Hey, I must live in Europe now!
There are virtually no “painted spaces” on the streets of Toronto any more. Instead, there are parking zones and “smart meters.” You park (when and where it’s legal), walk to the meter, use some coins or credit or debit card to buy some time, get a ticket, walk back to the car, and put it on your dash. Take as little or as much space as you need, as there are no dividing lines.
Sadly, the change also resulted in a shortage of suitable poles to park my bicycle at. They’ve since put “bike rings” where a lot of the old meters were.
Comment by Toronto — May 6, 2011 @ 9:59 am
Here it is in action: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=45470
Never thought that it had room for 5 people.
Comment by Jari — May 6, 2011 @ 12:27 pm
Sorry, Toronto, my US-centric bias was showing. You folks up north are way ahead of us…
Comment by Rick Auricchio — May 6, 2011 @ 4:37 pm
The problem with this car is that it would fail the two most important tests for any modern car, the crash test and the laugh test.
Comment by Hirudinea — May 6, 2011 @ 10:47 pm
Hirundinea: British Leyland did in fact experiment with a version of the famous Mini that was further shortened to look like this – it was exactly cubical. They never put it into production because, with the front seats about a foot from the front bumper, there was no way to protect the driver and passenger in a front-end crash. The same, I should think, applies to this.
Comment by Stephen — May 7, 2011 @ 6:06 am
Stephen: Do you have any more information about “cube” mini, as I wasn’t aware of it? As a former tuned-up Clubman owner, I want to know
Comment by Jari — May 7, 2011 @ 2:50 pm
Jari: I have searched at length without success. I can only tell you that I saw pictures in a book about the Mini, but it must have been twenty-five years ago. I’m sorry I can’t help you more.
Comment by Stephen — May 8, 2011 @ 5:36 am
I found http://kaching.tumblr.com/post.....-for-cutie of a model that BMW produced. No other information.
Comment by Mike — May 12, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
Mike: That’s a BMW Isetta, plenty of info around: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta
Comment by Jari — May 12, 2011 @ 12:29 pm