The name DKW comes from “Dampf-Kraft-Wagen” which translates to “steam-powered vehicle.” It carries this name because the first vehicle its Danish designer, J.S. Rasmussen, built, was a light steam car.

The name DKW comes from “Dampf-Kraft-Wagen” which translates to “steam powered vehicle.” It carries this name because the first vehicle its Danish designer, J.S. Rasmussen built was a light steam car.

After WWII, the German government sponsored a competition between Borgward, Porsche, and DKW to find a suitable military replacement for the Land Rovers they had used before the war.

The principal derivative of the Fiat Nuevo 500 was the Autobianchi Bianchina. A chic, upmarket product conceived in parallel with the Fiat 500, the Autobianchi firm was part-owned (and later fully-owned) by Pirelli and Fiat.

The Biscuter, or ‘Zapatilla’ (little shoe) as it was known in Spain, was actually built to the design of the French engineer Gabriel Voisin. ‘Biscooter’, the French name, was in itself a playful name for a car the size of two scooters.

Avid Aircraft was an American company that built and sold homebuilt kit airplanes. The company was started in 1983 by Dean Wilson, and was initially based in Idaho, moving to Montana in 1998. 

The original design of the Spatz was penned by German automaker Egon Brütsch. He was one of the world’s most prolific microcar engineers and designed eleven different car models between 1952 and 1958, such as the Mopetta—but he hardly sold any.