Cyclecars

[marcus]

^ Yup, there are several kit cars which, like Trials and Hill Climb cars, are comparable to old cycle cars. The design, technology and name have moved on, but they are still close relatives.

[Big Al]

If this is so are Cyclecars an enduring category of eccentric vehicle, where as, Microcars are a subdivision, or offshoot, of a category doomed to for ever failure in economic production after one successful upsurge in the '50's. I hope not.

[marcus]

I think that so far the legacy of cyclecars has endured slightly better than that of micros, which had their brief moment. There are a few modern micros, including Smart, and the new Toyota and Renault Smart look-alikes. These are all far more sophisticated than the 50s/60s ones, but they have to be to find modern buyers. QPods (in my opinion) are more like Cabin Mopeds, and the French Sans Permit vehicles also fit this general category. However all of these apart from the Smart are rarely seen.

[Big Al]

The Axiam, Microcar and Lieger are real microcars. So to are the more sophisticated fridges but when you look at the Bel Car with added pedals then it is more cyclecar. Hard to delineate and probably pointless as while less usable you embrace the eccentricity. France has had a second upsurge of Microcars in the 70's and it is a genuine and economically unchallenging area to base a collection.
It becomes apparent that other areas of the world quietly had microcar explosions. They are clearly a product that answer a set of circumstances but so limited are these that in most cases the market evaporates in less than a decade leaving few survivors.

[marcus]

Agree Al, Aixam etc are modern micros but I have not seen a single one on the road, so certainly less common than Bubbles and Bonds. I do see the odd GWhizz around town, and a Japanese electric, poss Honda, but this was much bigger than a micro. Mind you, the latest Mini Cooper (SD?) is as big as it is plugly; it is very nearly the size of the original series 1 Range Rovers, and certainly at least as big as the old British Leyland Maxi! The meaning of words is obviously irrelevant nowadays.

[Big Al]

Agree Al, Aixam etc are modern micros but I have not seen a single one on the road, so certainly less common than Bubbles and Bonds. I do see the odd GWhizz around town, and a Japanese electric, poss Honda, but this was much bigger than a micro. Mind you, the latest Mini Cooper (SD?) is as big as it is plugly; it is very nearly the size of the original series 1 Range Rovers, and certainly at least as big as the old British Leyland Maxi! The meaning of words is obviously irrelevant nowadays.

Pity the poor Mini, to big to be real Minicar and to fat to be fast. Used to be an icon now its a semi, as our American chums would say. Made in Britian etc but profits to Germany. All is exactly not as the old Mini was including making money from them.

Buy the Bond name, re use the name Minicar and Bug and set up making proper retro Mini and Bug cars?

[marcus]

I understand the need to make the Mini bigger for US sales, and also because modern drivers expect a car to have so much more "stuff" in a car, stereo, air bags, safety cells, SIPS, turbos, servos, power steering etc, and all this takes up so much space, that to make a car with a reasonable amount of space left for humans it HAS to be a lot bigger than 50 years ago.

But why call it a MINI?!

[Barry]

Fiat 500?

[Big Al]

But why call it a MINI?!

I agree but the Mini is perceived as some sort of success and is a well known brand name. BMW recognised this and all is history. The fact it is not Mini in anything but a recall of styling clues really just shows more about the buying public than about design and technology. They are mugs twice over! First the believed the hype about the Mini first time round, which then proceeded to prove its creator wrong by being competitively successful twisting the hype into something far more complex to a point that it disagreed with the original concept. Then BMW use it to sell a thing that was effectively a Golf competitor in the mid range car class. Do I blame them, no. Should it be called Maxi, yes. Would they have been a success, no, probably not as while the Maxi was actually conceptually a far bigger stride forward BMC botched the production entirely ensuring that it would fail to achieve any great sales even in its home market. To those who doubt me. How many modern cars are now laid out as a Mini and how many as a Maxi? The BMW Mini owes far more to the Maxi.

[Bob Purton]

No! Well to me anyway a cycle car has a longish shape, motorbike engine and spoked wheels. The cute little 500 is more micro.

[Bob Purton]

I understand the need to make the Mini bigger for US sales, and also because modern drivers expect a car to have so much more "stuff" in a car, stereo, air bags, safety cells, SIPS, turbos, servos, power steering etc, and all this takes up so much space, that to make a car with a reasonable amount of space left for humans it HAS to be a lot bigger than 50 years ago.

But why call it a MINI?!

I agree! In what possible sense of the word is it mini??!!

[marcus]

Have you seen the Mini model I am talking about? It has much blunter and squarer styling, with a protruberance above the rad grille, it looks really grotesque. It should be called the Plugly or Fugly

[Bob Purton]

I have indeed. Its like an standard BMW mini on steriods. Ugly! Maybe its meant to look like a 4X4?

[Big Al]

I have indeed. Its like an standard BMW mini on steriods. Ugly! Maybe its meant to look like a 4X4?

Check out the one with the Mini badge like the Trojan Bubblecar badge. That is the monstrous one I think you are talking about. It is not a small car, indeed I am not sure it is a car class vehicle in reality.

[Bob Purton]

Hows this for a cool looking Cycle car, love the V twin engine!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300702286396?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649