Hasta La Ideas

These would be fun to drive down a smooth country road in Europe somewhere… It’s the Isetta microcar from the mid-1950s. There’s a company recreating electric versions, called the Harrington BB. “The vehicle’s incredibly simple drivetrain has no transmission, relying instead on the wide power band of the wheel-mounted electric motors to provide smooth acceleration. There’s a simple “forward/reverse” lever to choose your direction. They’ve clocked about 800 miles driving the prototype around the streets of Saigon, Vietnam without suffering a breakdown. Its main drawback is speed – it has a top speed of only 30 mph (48 km/h), with a range of approximately 60 miles (96 km) on an 8 hour charge.”

Via Treehugger: “Have we grown so much in fifty years that we couldn’t slow down a bit for safety, and drive such cars again?”

{ 1. Cary Grant, 2. 3. 4. }