Peter Brock, who is known for designing the original Split Window Corvette that later became the StingRay is not so well known for designing a Microcar for GM as a competitor to the BMW Isetta.
At 19, he was the youngest designer ever hired by GM Styling but he thought GM was missing something in their lineup; A small car. At the time GM had nothing and Brock thought there was a market for “young guys like me” who were going to school and could not afford big cars. His ideas intrigued Harley Earle enough that Earle started a project to address the “student market” and assigned Brock to head it.
The result was the GM CADET.
The story behind this is documented on Brock’s website with this one paragraph in particular that really speaks volumes about the attitude of the day:
Earle was so excited about the Cadet he planned to showcase the car to all of GMs upper level executives and dealers at Styling’s annual internal VIP car show. At the show’s end, after attendees had survived hours of blinding chrome on the new 1958 GM line-up, the lights went low as other cars were cleared away, and then they came back up on this beautiful little jewel of a $1000 car, slowly spinning on a turntable… the Cadet. The audience fell silent. It was about a third the size of anything they’d seen all day. No one knew what to say… they sat in stunned silence! The only chrome on it resided on slender door handles. After a few moments, the president of GM, Harlow Curtice, stood and formally announced: “GM doesn’t make small cars”. The lights went out and the car was never mentioned again.
If you are trolling Craigslist looking for a cheap Microcar, don’t fall for this scammer trying to “sell” a Fiat 500 for $3000.
The ad has been placed in local Craigslist postings all over the country and most every one of them has been “flagged” for removal because it is SCAM.
I contacted the “seller” who lists their email as BISS.LAURA@Yahoo.com (update: that email account has now been disabled)
I got a reply with a link to some more photos on PhotoBucket.com and the offer that the car would be placed on eBay on a “private” auction “Just for Me!”, where I could “safely” buy the car because eBay offers 5 days “protection” against fraud. Problem is, that eBay does not offer that and the eBay link that “Laura Biss” sent me was a scam site posing as eBay. The text of the scam email follows…Read the rest of this entry »
The 29th Annual Unique Little Car Show will be held April 3-4 in Commerce CA in the center of the beautiful and popular Citadel Outlets — situated behind an historic Assyrian Castle wall and within walking distance of the Double Tree Hotel.
Ralf demonstrates how to use the Reverse button on a Goggomobil Transporter equipped with the electric Pre-select gearbox.
Jim tries to help but sort of fails.
The same info should apply to any Goggomobil with the Electric Pre-select gearbox.
This video is a very short segment from the Störy 2002 Video which can be found on DVD HERE
For many years there has been quiet talk and rumors of a Microcar Collector in Thailand. It seems the rumors were true!
Jesada Dejkulrit is the collector who has a large Private Collection of all sorts of vehicles under the name “Jesada Technik Museum”. He appears to have a special interest in Microcars and Bubblecars of all sorts.
His first Microcar was a Messerschmitt, purchased in 1997 at an auction, since then the collection has grown quite a bit. Rumor has it that a number of the cars sold at the recent BubbleCar Museum Auction in the UK will be going to this collection in Thailand.
After squashing a previous rumor that they were closing, the UK-based Bubblecar Museum sent out announcements that there was to be a large Auction of Bubblecars and related parts at the Bubblecar Museum and yes a number of the microcars in the Museum would be sold.
??? So what is it? They are closing? They are not closing?
They are selling all the contents? They are not?
Turns out they ARE CLOSING….but they close EVERY YEAR at this time until the Spring…when they….RE-OPEN.
This time is a little different since they are moving and are “downsizing” the Museum collection and focusing more on British Cars. While a number of the cars in the recent Auction were from the Museum Collection, the Auction also had Microcars and spares from other people as well mixed in.
There were 186 “Lots”. About 86 were Microcars.
You can find a list of Auction Results HERE.
as shown by David Raab who makes very high quality reproductions in panelboard that is as close to the original as possible. (Watch in High Quality if possible, it looks much better)
EMMA Peel that is. From the old AVENGERS TV show.
Specifically the episode “The Girl from Auntie” originally broadcast in 1966.
The Avengers was distributed in over 120 countries aside from the UK and was dubbed into several languages. What language are they speaking in this clip?
Jan Durham at the Clean Tools booth in Las Vegas NV with her BMW Isetta
Jan and Thom Durham got to have their BMW Isetta used by Clean Tools(maker of the Absorber and other products) at the 2008 AAPEX Show in Las Vegas this year.
AAPEX stands for Automotive Aftermarket Products EXPO and is a trade only venue that is sort of a companion to the more well known SEMA show (Specialty Equipment Market Association).
Both Shows are part of YAA(Yet Another Acronym): AAIW (Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week).
Clean Tools contacted The Vintage Microcar Club looking for an Isetta in the Las Vegas Area and we hooked them up with Jan and Thom.
Has your Microcar been used for commercial purposes? Let us know.
One of the few remaining Peel P50 microcars is passed by the coffin of its inventor and Peel Engineering Company founder Cyril Cannell
SITTING in salute at the funeral of Peel inventor Cyril Cannell was one of his most famous creations.
The diminutive Peel P50, the world’s smallest road-legal car, was the first in a series of experimental microcars built in the 1960s by Mr Cannell’s fibreglass firm Peel Engineering Company.
Seventy P50s were produced between 1963 and 1964, but fewer than two dozen are thought to still exist including this one, bought by Peel’s Manx Transport Heritage Museum after a public appeal in 2005.
Volunteers at the museum used to see Mr Cannell come in to gaze with pride at the three-wheeled wonder, advertised in its heyday as a city car capable of holding ‘one adult and a shopping bag’.
In tribute to him, they lifted the 1.3-metre, 130lb car on to the patio of Peel Centenary Centre, where it was passed by his coffin leaving Peel Methodist Church on its way to Peel Cemetery.
After squashing a previous rumor that they were closing, the UK-based Bubblecar Museum sent out announcements that there was to be a large Auction of Bubblecars and related parts at the Bubblecar Museum and yes a number of the microcars in the Museum would be sold.
