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Although it took europe less than half a century to ease up after being penetrated by World War II, the skinny camels were bigger than horses, and no matter how poor they were, they were only consumption demotion, and we did not even have the right to live in that era.
The exploitation of the European powers that made their fortunes in the Americas and Africa through the Industrial Revolution carried out a reshuffle (redistribution of rights) after the war, but the European continent and the British Isles as a whole did not live too badly, and the economic assistance of the United States imperialism also inherited Britain's "offshore balance hand" law, and would not let the great powers be too strong or too weak.
In this historical context, european traditional industrial countries continue to develop and produce mid-range and high-end car products, and entry-level products are more shabby than before the war, equivalent to the "old scooters" that China was particularly hot in previous years.
Although the car is weak, the design is remarkable. Today, let's dig up some of the classic "old generation" works of that year.
The older generation of European styles, generally known as Voiturette, English [vwɑ tj 'ret], is a rarely used word.
These mini cars called Voiturette, the product force is extremely weak, the main cost performance, the use of motorcycle engines to promote small cabin travel, most of the structure is three-wheeled, and later more and more four-wheeled vehicles appear, consumption upgrades belong to yes.
Fuldamobil
Fuldamobil is the collective name for a series of mini cars produced in Germany in the two decades from 1950 to 1969, produced by Elektromaschinenbau Fulda GmbH of Fulda and Nordwestdeutscher Fahrzeugbau (NWF).
Fuldamobil can be understood as a covered motorcycle, similar to the definition of Voiturette.
However, because the models are particularly complex and the design and production process is very informal, most of these products have not been recorded in the annals of history, and the status is equivalent to the old scooter industry in Dezhou, Shandong Province, with a particularly large brain hole, a particularly low price, and a particularly poor product.
Looks like rice balls:
Looks like Porsche':
Elements incorporating the rear elements of the American rocket car of the same period:
True Old Age Scooter:
The Europeans also set up a special exhibition to show this industrial waste:
1、Minicar Bond
The Bond Minicar "Affordable" mini car was built in 1949 and was discontinued in 1966, with 24,000 units built.
The car's designer, Lawrence "Lawrie" Bond, was originally an engineer who designed aircraft and auto parts, and his original intention was to solve the problem of grocery shopping within 50 kilometers, and he could climb a not too steep slope.
Performance is not much to say, mainly the design is more creative (Texas old generation industry got its true legacy).
Weak chicken powertrain to understand.
2. Messersmith FMR TG500
Messerschmitt, a fighter manufacturer in Regensburg, Germany, was converted into a car manufacturer after the war and produced a car brand called FMR, fully known as Fahrzeug-und Maschinenbau GmbH.
Aircraft designer Fritz Fend successfully designed the KR175 small scooter based on a three-wheeled paralympic car and set his sights on these two-stroke motorcycle-powered scooters, the TG500 being one of the two-stroke four-wheelers.
TG comes from the nickname Tiger, 500 comes from the displacement of 494cc, this empty weight of 350kg rear-drive TG500 sports car for 0-96km/h acceleration time takes 28 seconds, fortunately, the speed reaches 126km/h, no problem on the high speed, as long as you are bold enough.
Kleinschnittger F-125
Kleinschnittger, a small German factory, built this 125cc two-stroke motorcycle engine-powered car called the F-125 between 1950 and 1957. Later, the industry upgraded to the F-250, equipped with a "more powerful" 250cc engine.
3、Sparrow
Another small German factory, Spatz, focused on industrial waste in the late 1950s, with single-cylinder motorcycle engines and extremely poor quality control, the only advantage being that it looked super cute. Even this one sold a small thousand units.
Do you see the picture below like the 911 Carrera Cabriolet green version? 9/11 was not yet born.
4、Biscuter Pegasin
Spanish miniature car products, the manufacturer's name is Autonomous.
Because of the various tumultuous operations of the Franco government, the Spanish economy was even worse after the war, and many people could not afford to drive a good car, but turned to this old scooter.
5、Peel P50
The famous Peer P50, the Guinness World Records certified "world's smallest production car" in 2010, was produced between 1962 and 1965, the manufacturer is called Peer Engineering Company, the price is only 299 pounds, can not be fooled to buy can not afford to lose.
The P50 is only 1370/980/1000mm in length, width and height, and has a curb weight of 56kg, making it a legal motor vehicle on the road, although the speed is only 45km/h and there is no safety configuration.
Jeremy Clarkson was driving the P50 in and out of BBC tv on Top Gear.
To break that record, Jeremy Clarkson built a P45.
6、Peel Trident
Peel also came up with such a thing, you can't imagine that they were designed to let two Europeans sit in it.
Compared to the P50, the Trident, which weighs three times (that is, 150kg), is a luxury car, equipped with a 4.2 horsepower 49cc engine provided by DKW, and a hundred kilometers of 2.8L gasoline.
The following picture is a pair of Crouching Dragon Phoenix Chicks:
7. Robin Tricycle Reliant Robin
The Robin tricycle is also a source of jokes for Jeremy Clarkson, one of the most notorious black histories of the British car industry.
In the 50s and 80s, the British three-wheeled motor vehicle industry was booming, mainly because this broken thing could directly take a motorcycle license plate and pay a low tax on motorcycles, taking advantage of legal loopholes - or the law specifically left a loophole for low-cost motor vehicles to hit the road, so as to stimulate the economy.
Robin was in mass production from 1973 until 2002, and later changed from Robin to Rialto, all in the same car.
The four-cylinder 848cc petrol engine provides 40 horsepower, and in 16.1 seconds, it can push the plastic car from 0 to 96km/h, and there is no road tax at all. Although there is no security configuration, considering that the price is less than 1500 pounds, it is easy to bear it.
8、Scootacar
The British railway locomotive manufacturer Huntslet Engine Company designed and built only 130 mini cars between 1957 and 1964, which is a more ticket-playing thing.
The car was designed because the company's director's wife wanted a grocery gadget that could park better than her jaguar, so the engineers used fiberglass and a 197cc motorcycle engine to make a sample and found that it could be made into a business, so they mass-produced a batch for only 275 pounds.
9、Mini
The Mini of the Middle Ages is a lowercase Mini, and the Mini of the BMW era is a mini in uppercase.
Mr. Bean brought the British Mini culture to the world, and this British car was actually born decades before the image of the Bean. After the blockade of the Suez Canal in 1956 (Egypt recovered Suez from Britain), the British oil crisis broke out and fuel rationing was introduced, so the British Motor Corporation developed a low-fuel-efficient car, which rolled off the production line in 1959.
The carriages of the original Mini accounted for 80% of the total volume of the car, and the Honda MM concept had to call Daddy when it saw it.
10、Meadows Frisky
Henry Meadows, a British company that originally built ship engines, built a series of miniature cars called meadows Frisky between 1958 and 1961, nicknamed "The Bug".
Performance parameters aside, let's just have fun.
11、Zeta
A factory in Australia, known as Zeta, produced a series of industrial waste between 1963 and 1965. These older scooter versions of small sports cars, equipped with 324cc or 493cc motorcycle engines, are more luxurious than the small displacement mini cars of the British.
Cute to cute, Zeta's series of mini cars have a common point, that is, the quality control is too poor, and eventually can only be discontinued.
12. Fiat 500
The Italian Fiat 500 was born two years before the British Mini, initially named Nuova (new) 500. Since it is called the "New 500", there must be an "Old 500", that is, the Topolino car, which produced a total of 520,000 vehicles from 1936 to 1955.
There is less content about the Fiat 500 on the Internet, so you can talk to you more.
This car is positioned higher than the Messersmith TG600, much lower than the Beetle, similar to the Medieval Mini, belongs to the most basic entry-level model of four-wheeled motor vehicles, and can be compared to the Macromix MINI EV. At that time, Japan was also building similar products, such as Mazda 360, Subaru 360 and other mini cars.
Nuova 500 weighs only 470kg, is 2.97m long, has a width and height of 1.3m, looks like a small potato, and many models of the Fiat 500 are like using the same potato to make different dishes, hard-topped, extended, semi-convertible, fully convertible, Abbas modified, Zagato customized...
Ugly and cute, it only needs a small amount of gasoline to carry 4 people, and the 500cc engine only outputs 13 horsepower to push the rear wheels, which can be translated as "one or two gears are very powerful" in the modern car reviewer.
However, due to the lack of ability of Fiat Group to do business in China, after selling a few "Italian national cars", it disappeared, leaving a bunch of double-clutch transmissions that often jumped the gods, so the fan cultural circle of the Fiat 500 has not been established in China. Some people in the media circle have bought the media price of the Fiat 500, after the half discount only need to be tens of thousands of larger to buy, more exquisite than the Fit, after all, the Fiat 500 into the 21st century after no longer in accordance with the standard of the entry to buy vegetable cars to build, but embarked on the MINI and Beetle high premium boutique car route.
Unfortunately, such a good car has withdrawn from the Chinese market, and everyone is more willing to buy an Accord, Camry or Xiaopeng G3 at the same price...
13、ACMA Vespa 400
Piaggio in Italy designed a mini-car called the Vespa 400, and the French company ACMA mass-produced this rear-drive 400cc production motorcycle with a cover.
14、Heinkel Cabin
Heinkel Flugzeugwerke designed a miniature car, Heinkel Kabine, which means "cottage" in German, but its biggest specialty is not small, but the quality is really good, so much so that in 1958 when it was produced in Ireland, it was directly revoked by the government.
Produced in Ireland, the UK and Argentina, the Heiinkel Kabine is available in three- and four-wheel versions with a four-stroke single-cylinder engine with displacements ranging from 174cc to 204cc.
Here's the picture of Heinkel Kabine's motorcycle engine:
15. BMW Isetta
Isetta doesn't have Chinese name, nor is it a common word, and I often confuse it as a double ee or a double tt.
I've seen one in the museum at BMW's headquarters in Munich, and it's the least sporty model in the museum.
In fact, this is an Italian design miniature car, some people call it "egg car", some people call it "bubble car". The Italian company Iso SpA, which manufactures it, used to produce motorcycles, tricycles and refrigerators, but switching to four-wheelers is also an industrial upgrade.
The car was also born in the Fiat 500 era, but it is far less powerful than the Fiat 500, because only a 10PS two-stroke 263cc gasoline engine is responsible for driving. Although the fuel consumption is only 3L/100km, it became the world's first 3L car (much earlier than the Volkswagen 3L car of Piëch's era), and it is also the world's best-selling single-cylinder four-wheeler, selling a total of 160,000 units.
The tall and tall Europeans forced themselves into such a small carriage, and the scene was funny to think about.
After sitting on the big European man, the Isetta is really not enough power, the top speed is 75km/h, not as good as our Macro Mini EV.
Not all Isetta are BMW Isetta, in addition to the Isetta design and manufacturing company Iso SpA just mentioned, the car has also been domestically produced in the United Kingdom, France, Argentina, Brazil and other places.
In Germany, the Isetta was fitted with BMW's own four-stroke motorcycle engine into the BMW Isetta 250, which increased the top speed to 85km/h and only needed a motorcycle license to drive on the road.
However, the Federal Republic of Germany updated the motor vehicle regulations in 1956, less than 250cc of motor vehicles can no longer use motorcycle licenses on the road, but BMW does not want to raise too much displacement to touch the motor vehicle tax of more than 300cc, so the single-cylinder four-stroke motorcycle engine was expanded to 298cc, increased to 13PS, and the gearbox was 4-speed manual with reverse gear.
The Isetta, which was blackened in Top Gear, is the one that doesn't have a reverse gear.
Later, BMW also upgraded its "high-displacement product" called the Isetta 600, using the 582cc engine of the R67 motorcycle, and the top speed was increased to 103km/h. The problem is that the long-scroll version of the Isetta 600 is so ugly that the OTA overhauls it.
Because The output of Isetta is not low, so the number of existing products is still online, some people have come up with some crooked ideas, such as the heavily modified version of the picture below, 730PS power comes from Chevrolet environmental protection V8.
Of course, there are also people who use it to ridicule BMW in the era of electrification...
In 2018, Swiss company Micro Mobility Systems AG launched the Microloino electric model, "homage" to BMW Isetta (plagiarism is plagiarism).
In 2020, they launched the mass production version of the picture below, with a range of 200km, priced at 12,000 euros, equivalent to 85,000 yuan, which is three times that of the Hongguang MINI EV...
16、Inter bumper cars
Inter, a French aircraft factory, built a mini car called the 175A Berline in the early 1950s, a competitor to the Messersmith KR175 that year, but the former only produced 300 units before it was discontinued.
Just look at the name of the 175 car, the 175cc two-stroke motorcycle engine is responsible for driving the rear wheels of this tricycle, and the top speed can go to 80km/h.
17、Ardex cycle car
Another small French factory, Ardex, has handcrafted some motorcycles with caps, fitted with weak, single-cylinder two-stroke engines with a minimum displacement of only 50cc.
Something
After the 70s, although there was an oil crisis, Europe has been breathless, no longer need this completely non-safety performance of satellite scooters, the market has not completely abandoned the concept of mini-cars, there are some interesting things out, such as the 1972 Fiat ESV 1500
Mercedes-Benz NAFA concept car in 1982:
1992 Fiat Grigua concept car:
1993 Fiat Downtown Concept:
Peugeot Tulip in 1996:
Myers Motors NmG in 1999:
As well as the relatively familiar Daimler smart, Renault Twizzy, Citroën Ami and so on.
The real first car of the ideal brand is called SEV, this project is actually quite in line with the needs of European travel, but it must not meet the needs of the Chinese market, so it is smashed, and the ideal has deleted all the information about it.
Today's smart cars and smartphones are caught in the quagmire of homogenization of design, which is in sharp contrast to the strange gasoline cars and keyboard machines before.
We don't know what the future of cars will look like, but what is certain is that car design may re-usher in the design trend.
With the advancement of automotive autonomous driving assistance systems, the demand for automotive power levels has decreased. When the vehicles of the whole society can coordinate traffic through the system and the human driver withdraws from the stage of history, the car will line up in a row to sprint to the next node, and the head car can also play the function of breaking the wind.
If the future car has completed the electrification and intelligent transformation, the rest can be played, is there still a design?
When traffic accidents have been basically eliminated by automatic driving, we may be able to reproduce this lightweight car, and the cabin will inevitably be filled with happy air.
Dr. Wang's books have been published
Reservations are welcome
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