Goodness me...how ahead of the times was this little tyke of a car? It's even smaller than the current city-car champion, the MCC Smart!
The Peel P50 was a three-wheeled microcar manufactured in 1962 by the Manx Peel Engineering Company, retailing for £150 when new, and was designed as a town car and advertised as capable of seating "one adult and a shopping bag".
The car currently holds the record for the smallest-ever automobile to go into mass production, at just 134 cm (53 in) long and 99 cm (39 in) wide, with a weight of only 59 kg (132 lb). Having a tiny little 49 CC engine, it topped out at about 61 kmh and had a 3-speed manual tranny WITHOUT a reverse gear...
In tight confined spaces (relatively-speaking for it, I mean), turning could only be achieved by pushing, or lifting the car using the handle on the rear and physically pulling it round. Well, it was light enough...
In spite of its diminutive size, it was actually street-legal...but if you got into anything more than a fender-bender, you'd probably be squished flat...
in the vid below, TOP GEAR checks out the Peel...
Friday, February 29, 2008
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