In a 1955 issue of Life magazine, a tiny display ad promoted the Eshelman Adult Sports Car (ASC). “Seventy miles per gallon gas, 35 miles per hour. One fifth the cost of any other auto! Write for catalog.” The fanciful illustration showed a happy couple squeezed into a tiny “Model 6 HP” convertible. They could also use it as a golf car, and get in 36 holes for a gallon of gas. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of the microcar, which had its heyday in the fabulous ’50s. Baltimore-based Eshelman was in business from 1953 to 1961, producing golf cars, motor scooters, light garden tractors, kids’ cars and, amazingly enough, cars for adults. A March of Dimes anti-polio campaign featured then-vice president Nixon fueling up an Eshelman.For $395 you could get the early Adult Sports Car (ASC), powered by a three-horsepower Briggs & Stratton lawnmower motor, and with battery operated lights, padded upholstery, and (the ultimate wishful thinking) chrome “rocket” emblems on its sides. You rode on it, rather than in it. Later ASCs had six horsepower, with rope start standard (and electric start possible). That’s the car in the Life ad. It also boasted cable-operated brakes, a foot throttle, and a parking brake. There was no generator, so you had to occasionally recharge the light system batteries. Top speed was more like 30 mph. You could order the cars through the mail. Eshelman ad.A big factory fire in 1956 was a major blow from which this automaker never really recovered. But Eshelman was hardly alone. In this clown car category, to which something like the VW Beetle was a giant, came miniature vehicles such as Crosley, King Midget, the Imp, Scootmobile, Martin Stationette, Airway Town Traveler, and many more here and abroad. Mal Pearson has made a study of microcars via his “The Makes That Didn’t Make It” blog. Why then? “The case for microcars in the immediate postwar period was that they were the perfect second car,” Pearson tells Autoweek. “But once the supply and demand reached equilibrium around 1949, the supply of cheap used cars had grown. Now, for the price of a brand-new King Midget or Crosley folks could get a three- or four-year-old Plymouth of Ford. And they didn’t have to battle the behemoths in their tiny cars.”Here are some other choices from Lilliput Land:King MidgetThe King Midget was basic, but successful.A fairly successful microcar company was Midget Motors of Athens, Ohio, which produced the King Midget. “From 1946 to 1965, they averaged 200+ cars per year and made money on every one,” Pearson said. The King Midget looked a bit like a shrunken Willys Jeep. The company was founded by World War II pilots Claud Dry and Dale Orcutt, who maybe say a lot of Jeeps around the airports.The company started out in 1946, when few new cars were available, making $133 single-seaters. They were like a cross between a go-cart and a lawnmower. Models with dual seating were available as of 1951. The Midget II was a big step up, with a tubular steel frame, four-wheel brakes, a two-speed auto transmission with reverse, and storage for a pair of grocery bags. With a 7.5-horsepower Wisconsin engine, the weight was up to 500 pounds, and the bottom line was $500. They still looked like something only Shriners could drive.The King Midget claimed up to 90 mpg.More exciting news came in 1957, when the King Midget III offered unit-body construction, more room, and actual hydraulic brakes. At first the Wisconsin motor remained but then it was replaced with a 9.25-horsepower Kohler powerplant. A 1950 ad promised 80 to 90 mpg. “Drive this car for as little as 50 cents per week.” The Midget was ideal for “errands, sports use, short business and pleasure trips, delivery service or second car utility for the whole family.” Mailing in $1 got you 42 photos, drawings, and blueprints for converting your car to driving on ice or competing on midget tracks. CrosleyThe Crosley Hotshot was the sports model.This was the other big player (phrase used advisedly). Powel Crosley Jr.’s Cincinnati-based car was comparatively long-lived, from 1939 to 1952. The bulbous little vehicles, which looked straight out of a 1940s Supermancomic book, were available in an ambitious variety of body styles, including farm trucks (the “Farm-O-Road”), wagons, and a sports model called the Hotshot. They were the first American cars offered with four-wheel disc brakes. Crosley’s impressive badge.These cars sold well even before the U.S. involvement in the war, with 2,017 finding homes in debut year 1939 alone and (with more models added) almost 2,300 in 1940. The biggest year was 1948, with demand for new civilian rides remaining high. Sales went as high as 27,707 that year. But Crosley’s reputation suffered somewhat from the unreliability of its stamped-steel engine, which had been carried over from the company’s military work. A more conventional cast-iron engine was introduced in 1949. But by then the Big Three and the still-extant major independents were back full-bore, and Crosley’s appeal waned.Architect Frank Lloyd Wright used a fleet of Crosleys in Taliesin Red to ferry his Taliesin Fellows twice yearly between his Wisconsin and Arizona power bases. He himself rode in luxury cars from his own fleet, which included Jaguar, Packard, Cadillac, and Mercedes-Benz, a 1953 Bentley R-Type and a modified 1940 Lincoln Continental.IMPThe capital letters are appropriate, because IMP stood for International Motor Products, a California company. These are adorable rounded one-piece fiberglass vehicles straight out of a clown circus, with two seats and a one-liter engine. The IMP.Maybe the hardtop was optional. This is from a letter to a customer from R.K. Griffin, the IMP sales manager in 1950: “The IMP is powered by a Gladden Series 75 one-cylinder, air-cooled engine [of] 7.5 horsepower. The IMP’s cruising speed is 35 miles per hour, and 65 miles to the gallon of gasoline [the ads claimed only 60 mpg]. The car is constructed of standard parts, which can be obtained in most automotive partsstores.” A mere seven cars were sold in a three-year run from 1948 to 1950. Maybe the hefty $650 price was too high. Airway Town Traveler Hall Engineering was based in San Diego from 1949 to 1950. Mal Pearson informs us that the Airway was considered luxurious in this class, because it was “fully enclosed and actually looked ‘styled’.” Power came from a 10-horsepower single. Why was it called the “Airway”? Believe it or not, the car started life as part of a flying car known as the ConvAirCar built in San Diego by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft. According to Mac’s Motor City Garage, two veterans of that project, Ted Hall and W. Everett Miller, left Consolidated Vultee and set up Airway Motors to build a lightweight commuter car that has some resemblance to the ConvAirCar. The sedan Traveler and the Vicinity Car coupe were both available, and the Traveler could be equipped with a jump seat to make it carry two. Says Mac, “A fluid coupling eliminated the need for a friction clutch, or a clutch pedal for that matter, and while the Airway was intended to be operated in high gear only, a low gear was included for hill climbing. Performance claims included a top speed of 50 mph and 50 mpg fuel economy.” The price was to be $650, half the cost of a new model from the Big Three, with fiberglass bodies. But by the time the Airways were ready, the shoebox Fords were out and only a very few found homes. Frisky Family ThreeSo far we’ve only shown microcars available in the U.S., but the Frisky Family Three is so spectacular we had to include it. It’s an English car with Italian Michelotti styling, produced briefly in Wolverhampton, England circa 1959. The microcar craze was even bigger in England than in the US because of postwar shortages and rationing. The Frisky Family Three was cute as a bug.These finned three-wheeled jewels were powered by a Villiers single-cylinder two-stroke of around 200 cc, producing a mighty 9.5 horsepower. The partners, Raymond Flower and Gordon Bedson, had been involved in auto projects in Egypt, but when King Farouk got booted they returned to England and contracted Vignale of Turin to design the first Friskys. The Family Three became available in early 1959. Lucas electrics! Despite the name, the family would probably have needed two of them. Lane Motor MuseumThe Peel P50. Was it the smallest car ever made?The country’s most complete collection of microcars has to be in Nashville’s Lane Motor Museum. Jeff Lane has assembled there not only examples of some these, but many one-offs and decided oddballs—such as aquatic and propeller cars. Thrill to such amazing conveyances as the A. Morin Scootavia Tripousse (1952), the Ardex (1953), the Bag Spatz (1957), the Carter Town Shopper (1942), and many more. Lane also has a Peel P50, the 1962 to 1965 three-wheeler built on the Isle of Man and billed by the 2010 Guinness World Records book as the smallest production car ever.
