Single headlight, single windscreen-wiper and just one door – it had room for ‘one adult and a shopping bag’.
A handle on the rear made it easy to drag the car around, or it could be pulled by the front bumper.
PEEL P50The tiniest production car ever made was the Peel P50. This three-wheeled microcar was made by Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man in 1962-65. With its four-stroke 49 cc petrol engine mounted in the side, the P50 could manage 60 km/h. It had no starter motor and the driver had to use a crank handle to get it going. The P50 could be parked in a small space, but with no reverse gear it was often easier to get out and move it by hand. Just 50 P50s were made – 27 still exist.
POSTMAN PAT REVA MPED
The smallest ever drivable car is the Wind-Up, made by British engineer Perry Watkins in 2009. It’s made from a converted Postman Pat coinin- the-slot ride and is 132 cm long, 104 cm tall and 66 cm wide. The fi breglass body is reinforced with a steel frame and there’s a mini quadbike with a 150 cc engine underneath.
HYDROGEN FUEL CELL
A hydrogen fuel cell is rather like a battery except that it never runs out. Hydrogen enters the cell, where it breaks down to make electrons and hydrogen ions. The electrons produce the electric power and the hydrogen ions combine with oxygen to make water, which is the only waste product
SMALL AND EFFICIENT
The most fuel effi cient car is the experimental PAC-Car II. Running on a hydrogen fuel cell, it uses only 1 g of hydrogen per 100 km. That’s equivalent to 5,385 km per litre! The PAC-Car II could go three times round the world on the petrol Concorde used on the runway before take-off.
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