Another Microcar at the LA Auto Show

[MicroNut]

Mainly I'm posting this so I don't have to see the title of that other puerile thread listed on the main forum screen anymore.

Notwisthstanding, this is a cute picture from the LA Auto Show. Shows how far microcars have progressed in 50 years:



Accoding to the caption, the guy inside is 6'6". It says the Isetta was designed to travel 180 miles on a 3 gallon tankful of gas. I can state from personal experience, that would not be at highway speed. And don't those wheels remind you of something?

[paul c]

Well, I wouldn't say the guy is really "inside" the car exactly. A great pic. Thanks.

[jwight]

Just got back from the local Subaru dealer; they had an ad on the wall for the old 360 model: capable of "up to" 60 mpg.

[Old smart]

Originally Posted by MicroNut

And don't those wheels remind you of something?

The wheels are "minilites," likely imitation Minilites (Compomotives, Supalites, Panasports?).

[SmartShanna]

Originally Posted by MicroNut

Mainly I'm posting this so I don't have to see the title of that other puerile thread listed on the main forum screen anymore.

Notwisthstanding, this is a cute picture from the LA Auto Show. Shows how far microcars have progressed in 50 years:



Accoding to the caption, the guy inside is 6'6". It says the Isetta was designed to travel 180 miles on a 3 gallon tankful of gas. I can state from personal experience, that would not be at highway speed. And don't those wheels remind you of something?

Thanks for the redirect, micronut, and the cute as h*ll photo!

[cains10]

If I remember correctly, our BMW got 60 MPG. Maybe only when it was going down-hill, not sure. My father only had it for only two years and traded it on a three cylinder, two-cycle SAAB.

[a2jack]

Fun little car. Yes it would make 60 mph. I took it up on the Ventura freeway to see. (But just once )!

[jonnysan]

Your father was a smart man..... Those early Saabs were great little cars to drive, excellent on gas, easy to fix, etc, etc, etc. I had one for 4 years and drove it over 100,000 miles. Smoked some, though....typical 2 cycle engine but soooooo simple. Didn't do so well in downpours, though..wet ignition woes with a BS fix...hot air to the distributor cap from the heater plenum so you had to run the heater blower to dry out the moisture inside the cap. Go figure....it worked though...after about 5- 10 minutes that is.....

[a2jack]

We drove the car every day for 2 years while living in LA.

[24-42]

I have had a number of Isettas, both 300 & 600cc.
300cc was a single cylinder. It was half of the 600cc motorcycle engine, had 13hp.
Got 45-55 mpg.

I did drive it on the freeway 50mph average ( 55 for overtaking provided you were on level ground). On the freeway, if the car started to lose some speed, before you pulled over thinking something was amiss, you would look out the rear window and exclain, WoW ! I didn't realize that was an upgrade.

I was in a parade with my first 300. My float was "Aunt Jemima. I sat on the roof, steering with my feet. Extended clutch, throttle and shifter. The car was surrounded with a huge hoop skirt, I wore a big padded (picture it) Blouse and was in 'Blackface". The big downer in all this was the exhaust was inside the skirt and rose up through the blouse and resulted in mr breathing in the cloud.

In Detroit, I took the front door off in the summer, opened the Sunroof (Talk about Air Conditioning !) Carried 20' lengths of gas pipe, put them in through the front and out through the roof slightly more than half way.

The 'heater?' was a joke (engine is air-cooled). In the winter I nailed 3 cans of Sterno to a board and put it on the floorboard. Many times ,while waiting for a traffic light, the person in the car next to me would mouth "You're car is on fire" to which I would mouth, "Thank you very much" and proceed on my way.
Don't even mention 'Ventilation', I can assure you that with the sliding windows shut as well as the sunroof, there was still plenty of ventilation.

flatulence is a whole nother story ! Not suitable for this forum.

Another time I'll relate the "Pulling the Plymouth out of the mud with an Isetta" and
The Isetta "Wrecker" tow vechicle. Isetta built a dump truck also.
Isetta means 'Egg' in Italian. Was originally built by "Iso". BMW bought the car from them.

That's enough for now

Donald LaFavor