Electric Mini Car 1939

[Tony Griffiths]

December 1939. Emergency motoring ideas. With the battery at the front, the resulting understeer must have been rather entertaining.

[Duncan Grimmond]

I love the lines of the bodywork! Perfect for manufacturing in suitcase-style fibreboard. Much derided but surprisingly strong and light as per the Trabant as per this tidy example seen at the Punch Bowl yesterday    

[Malcolm Parker]

Good to see that the quality of the cars attending the Punch Bowl meeting is improving!  When I attended last month there were far too many Porsches, Ferraris and swanky Jags.

[Tony Griffiths]

I love the lines of the bodywork! Perfect for manufacturing in suitcase-style fibreboard. Much derided but surprisingly strong and light as per the Trabant as per this tidy example seen at the Punch Bowl yesterday

Exactly my thought when I saw the picture - I don't know why, but it does give the impression of a "cardboard" body.
Perhaps when the buyer of a new Tesla picks up his car it should be replaced by one of those. "After all," says the salesman, "it's far better for the environment and, not only that, but the lead-acid batteries are entirely recyclable. A trip to the shops, sir? The range is a full 20 miles, more than adequate."
"But what about the tyre-shredding acceleration I was promised. Where's that?"
"Oh, it doesn't accelerate, sir, it merely gathers pace in a graceful way. The tyres will outlast the batteries and the body. What's not to like?"
"But the sex appeal, that's missing too."
"Don't worry sir, at your age, it no longer really matters. Anyway, all the young are bothered about today is saving the planet from the new, one-per-week-built coal-fired powered stations that the Chinese are currently installing. Surely, that's a good enough chat-up line?"

[Duncan Grimmond]

Speaking of cardboard, there was a flurry of pedal-powered solo "cars" in the late 1940's from Scandinavia IIRC, a feature in Automobile magazine showed a good example, super light frame and thin-skin birch ply. Wouldn't fancy crossing "the Bridge" in one though...have to put it on the train that runs beneath the road deck.

Battery storage depends on ever decreasing rare earth metals and IMHO pedal (assisted?) power has to be the personal transport for the future but someone will have to sort out the railways first!

Yes, the Punch Bowl was better, a couple of Frog-eye Sprites, early-ish Minis, a 1936 Riley, a couple of P-type MGs, a Daimler Dart, assorted modern Morgans, 2 Pembletons, and a 1960's Chevy surf wagon. A lot of what I would call moderns but obviously their mothers, I mean owners love them...
How was Harewood Malcolm?