It has been a while....ID a Microcar quiz.

[cuscus47]

I do not know if this was actually built or not.  Bad statement, I mean "I do not know if any others other than the one in the photo" were built. 

  Questions to answer are (Q1) Country of origin, (Q2) Size of motor, (Q3) its Name,  and lastly (Q4) Is it a Microcar?     Also maybe the Year?




No prize for winning, yet there is also no prize for not winning.

[Bob Purton]

Right, Question 1. USA.  2. 50cc.  3. TRI-PED. 4. Its not a microcar in my view although I believe it was advertised as one. 5. 1979. As far as I know it went into production in Farmingdale NY. Sorry but dont like it, too much like an invalid carriage!

[richard]

more like a tuk-tuk but still dont like it.  the only trike with motorcycle front end should have that look, and sound of the volkswagon beatle back end- lovely. but still not a minicar or microcar for me

[steven mandell]

The advantage is that the hitch hiker has to end up in your lap.
Is she (the trike) for sale?

[marcus]

Is it perhaps so under-powered that any hitch-hiker you pick up has to be seriously anorexic?!

It is interesting, a curio and I hope one survives somewhere, but not really my cup of yerba mate´. I bet its cornering is a bit wayward.

Can I choose which No Prize I want? If I am not completely satisfied with my No Prize, can I get my No Money refunded? These questions DEMAND a No Answer.

[cuscus47]

Some very good and astute answers, but the prize should go to Marcus for suggesting he win the non prize or a replacement of no cash.  Maybe the non-prize should be nada, naught or since it's American (as Bob so eloquently put), zero.  Bob was so fast, and nearly 99.99% correct, and the others had some very valid pointers.  The answers in the morn. It is peculiar, as if a modern replica of an IC, but that was not the intent, just easy transportation.  It just goes to show that even America has strange ideas and needs, at least thirty years past, not even a buxom model selling as now-a-days. very refreshing.  Ian.

[Big Al]

The wheels look like ... I think it is a Sparta. It seems to fall into that category of vehicles which answer a transport problem no one actually has. The guy looks like he is sitting on a mobile commode and is somewhat embarrassed by the interests of a young lady such that he has not been out with since he was 19. Life can be like that as Marcus' quip below messages reminds us.

Anyway it is time to go and get Stuart out the Peel bodyshell with a crowbar where he has been sitting on a scrap tyre for sometime making brum noises while I give him tea through the window. I even took the pose of the wench in the picture but he was not moved either. We are to identify exactly which Invalid Carriages we have here by taking the chassis numbers and comparing them to Root's Peerage. Bit like Burke's Peerage but for blue 'appliances'. Our man is confidant that he can use this to find the DVLA record and therefore apply for the number to be reissued to the appropriate vehicle.

[marcus]

Why is he called Root?

[g-o-g-g-o]

answers on the back of a post-card please

[Big Al]

Why is he called Root?

'Tis a long and strange tale. Briefly and basically if you recall 'Tales from a Long Room' read by Robin Bailey and principally the bit about the escape by our heroes from a tribe of annoyed Pygmies during an adventure in darkest Africa by use of a large shoe as a canoe then it all makes prefect sense. If not then you missed out on a rather enjoyable minority televisual experience exemplifying the use of the English language in full effect by a skilled orator. The ultimate in shaggy dog stories of no value at all but the pleasure of listening to them. I believe the 'Adventures of Spode' came from the same source, indeed memory fades and this might have been one of them taken from radio to screen. It is this series which sporned the Fast Show's Gents Club drunkard and his scattered statements of some ridiculous tale ending in 'I was very, very drunk at the time'. which of course was a cheap and easy way of recycling the witty idea into one palatable for those not wanting to sit through the genuine original version thus exemplifying the dumming down of content we see on and in the media with, as an example, Top Gear as opposed to the original fact based program for people with more than one brain cell. By encouraging all these nits to think they are intelligent and giving out worthless degrees it is no surprise we are in the economic situation we are now. All would be solved if folk listened to well read shaggy dog stories, it is what made Britain into an Empire, by Jove!!!
From this obscure reference you then need to know Stuart and the BUMS and you get a reason why he obtained the nick name. Much the same reasoning in fact as to why Thornogson is a member of this band of anarchic loonies.

If comformation is needed that the BUMS are well and functioning we spent part of last night listening to recordings of Festiniog Railway noises from about 1967 and a LP record of an Aston Martin Grand Prix engine on a test bed. You will not get that down the Red Lion jukebox!

Well you did ask!

[marcus]

Ah, that sort of a reason!

The bBbBllllllenau fFfFesstddiniddddoggdd rRrRaillllwhaddyyyy (excuse my poor Welsh spelling) gets good coverage on one of my top favourite DVDs; On The Rails, presented by The Fast Show's Mark Williams (ooh, suits you Sir). Available from Amazon and very highly recommended for all fans of machines. I first saw it on Quest (freeview 38) and immediately ordered the DVD, something I never normally do.

[Bob Purton]

Marcus, you should know by now not to ask, Al will always write a sonate and still not answere the question! And to think all this time I assumed it was down to flatulence or ginger root referencing to hair colour!

[Chris Thomas]

I think big Al's reasoning and logic as to why Stuart is called ROOT is much too difficuly for me to De Cyphus.

I think that as I can remember every minuit of the 1960's I obviously was not inhaling or downing any of that mind bending falling down juice that others appear to have consumed.

Now that Bob has won that Microcar quiz it must be his turn to set the next quiz picture quiz. Lets see how long we can keep this one going.

Chris T

[cuscus47]

Here are the answers as promissed.... ....but first the photos.





It is definitely made in USA.  The year appears to be 1979/1980.  It has a 49cc 2 stroke (European made but brand???) engine.  Question four is hard or obvious.  The name of the vehicle, appears to be, though made by Tri-Ped, is "Microcar".  Therefore the answer to Q4 must be yes, if that is its name, though it may not exactly fit the characteristics of a micro-car. (trick question?).

Though, as many of you experts stated, it does remind you of an IC.  If you squint and look at the side-on view, and imagine a full canopy/shell on it,  it looks exactly the same shape and proportion to my French sans permis Arola.  Agree?

So the next question is (Q5)  what make of engine?    Ian.

[marcus]

I'm not saying until I know what the No Prize is.