MICROCAR NEWS Online

After leading the Route 66 group to the end of the trail in Chicago we had dinner at Navy Pier.
The Zündapp Janus led Uwe and Ralf in the Goggomobil Transporter back to their hotel that evening along Lake Shore Drive.
It was a good drive and later we wondered which vehicle might be faster?
Both had 250cc 2-stroke motors.

This video documents the Microcars on Route 66 Rally as it starts from Santa Monica Pier in California.
note that the Red Goggomobil Coupe with Dave Raab driving is NOT on the trip, he was just there to help send them off.

This 8 minute video is a rambling tour (narrated in German) of the Jesada Technik Museum in Thailand.
Previously covered as the Microcar Museum in Thailand, this video shows a bit more coverage of vast numbers of Microcars stored away in all sorts of places in all sorts of conditions from buckets of rust to restored, or at least presentable examples.
Tip of the hat to Mark Hatten for the head’s up.

Scenes from the 1961 British comedy DOUBLE BUNK that only include the Heinkel Kabine.

This film has been out of print for many years and unavailable, now it can be found on Amazon or rented from Netflix! The quality is very good and the film is not bad either.
Does anyone know who owns/owned that Heinkel or where it is today?

From the Orange County Register, this really nicely done profile piece about Dave Raab,
Microcar Enthusiast and Collector from Tustin California.
There is an ad at the beginning of the video, but the video is worth it.
There is a print story that accompanies this, read that HERE.
Make sure you read down to the first comment, it is hilarious!

Great Pacific Northwest Microcar Meet Forest Grove Oregon, June 11-13th 2010.
Microcars and Minicars run rampant, enjoy in the fun! Saturday’s 50 mile drive through the rolling hills and farm fields of Helvetia, with a tour stop at “Garden Vineyard” . Next was lunch at “Helvetia Tavern” , a wonderful parking lot impromptu serenade by “Houseblend” and a picturesque photo op at “Pumpkin Ridge” golf course. Hot 83′f afternoon sun required a soft serve ice cream “microcar” drive-in in treat at “Scottie’s Drive-In” back in old town Forest Grove. Sunday was the big show day on the grass in front of the McMeniman’s Grand Lodge Hotel. Fun was had by all!
Sponsored by mphspecialties.com

I remember seeing this commercial on TV when it came out!

The N600 was introduced to the USA in 1969 as a 1970 model, and was the first Honda automobile to be officially imported to the United States. It was technologically advanced for its time, with an all alloy engine that could achieve 9000 rpm. Engine output was 36–45 hp (27–34 kW) and the N600 was capable of 81 mph (130 km/h). It delivered surprisingly peppy performance because of its light weight (around 550 kg/1100 pounds), due to compact dimensions and some plastic parts (like the boot lid). The first brakes were very weak, despite having front disks and power assist. Rear suspension was a dead axle on leaf springs.
Production was stopped in 1972, along with the sportier Honda Z600 and the car was replaced by the first generation Honda Civic.

This is great, they can’t stop laughing when introducing the car.
The poor model just looks so embarrassed.  I am serious!  The host does a good job of holding it together though.

NOTE: This event is OVER! It was March 26 2010
Also, don’t trust the info from the Reporters/NewsReaders, one person says it happens TWICE A YEAR, wrong – it is normally EVERY OTHER YEAR.

“Terminally Cute” is how the announcers describe it, but for awhile on Tuesday, this car had the top sales spot (along with a Messerschmitt KR175 at $40,000) and probably annoyed some sellers of cars selling in the $20K range.
Expect a Behind the Scenes story of what it is like to sell a car at Barrett-Jackson from Richard Lewis (the restorer and seller) in a future issue of MICROCAR NEWS magazine.  If you look *really hard* you can see Richard standing on the left side (our left) of the Auctioneer podium.  He is wearing a dark jacket and baseball cap.  He says that as soon as the car was brought out someone dragged him away from the car and plopped him there.  Apparently standard procedure so everyone knows who the seller is and it prevents you from bidding on your own car.

This car had a “hammer price” of $43,000
SpeedTV’s own online “magazine” referred to the sale price as $47,300
but they also showed a photo of a different car when mentioning it.
and the NY Times said it sold for “nearly $50,000”

Wow, the price just keeps going up even though the auction has ended.

IEEE.org, the world’s “leading professional association for the advancement of technology” has put up a rather nice 6 minute long video/slideshow/interview that was culled down from about 2 hours of phone interview.

It is part of the online version of their SPECTRUM magazine.

I think they did a good job, what you do you think?
Take 6 minutes and go HERE to see what engineers think of Vintage Microcars.

The original title of this 1957 film starring Peter Sellers was “Your Past Is Showing” but for some reason they now call it “The Naked Truth”.  The credits also refer to it as “The Naked Truth” at the end as well (?)
Anyways -These are all the scenes from the movie with a British-built RHD BMW Isetta.

The driver of the Isetta is actually the “bad guy” who is trying to blackmail famous people into not printing their sordid tales in his gossip magazine: The Naked Truth.  If he could only afford an Isetta and has to live on an old boat, it would appear his blackmailing skills are not well honed.

Note in the first scene when the Isetta drives up to the camera with lights on and then turns them off, if you are watch in HQ you can see that the lighting crew quickly put some sort of diffusion material over the headlamps and did not trim it very well. It is quite obvious when the lamps are turned off.
Later scenes do not have the material on the headlamps.

Do you know any other films with Isettas or other Microcars in them?  leave info in the comments section and hopefully clips from the films will show up here in the future.

A few extracts from the 1961 film directed by Billy Wilder and starring James Cagney.
One,Two,Three is a Cold War farce that happens to have a couple of Messerschmitt KR200s
(and other period German vehicles) in the background of a few scenes.
See if you can spot the Goggomobil!

Jim Rostis hosted the 30th Anniversary Reunion for HMV Freeway Enthusiasts in Plainfield IL.

The Freeway is an American-made Microcar built in Minnesota from 1979 to about 1981.
16 cars showed up from all over, the furthest coming from California and one came from Canada.
more photos HERE

This video pretty much sums it up. What other car could you make a video like this with?

What is a bit astonishing is that this was made by the BMW Museum in Munich.
Listen to the lyrics and in particular to ” …without you I would never rise again”

Does this mean BMW is finally acknowledging the Isetta’s place in their history as “the car that saved BMW”?
Maybe it is just coincidence but this commercial is all stop-motion animation with KinToy Isettas zipping about, having fun and mixing it up with all the other BMW marques as well as modern day traffic. To think they just randomly selected a song to run in the background is difficult to believe.

What do you think?