Cars

Vespa is known around the world for its scooters, but few people may know it produced one economy car. 

Gabriel Voisin was a major manufacturer of airplanes during World War I. The end of the war saw him with a large fortune and an equally large factory, but a very small market for airplanes. In 1919, he decided to become a car manufacturer and acquired a ready-made engine design–a 3969cc sleeve-valve four which had been considered and turned down by Citroën as unsuitable for mass production. Voisin remained faithful to the sleeve-valve principle for the rest of his career as a car maker. Voisin built lightweight cars using techniques learned in his years as an aircraft designer. The type C28 “ambassade” body design was inspired by the art-deco period and was the last model Voisin was personally responsible for.

The Volkswagen Beetle is a car we are all familiar with.  More than 20 million were sold.  While the name “Porsche” is associated with expensive cars, Ferdinand Porsche had a life-long interest in a small car that an average working person could afford.

Underneath the futuristic Buck Rogers fiberglass bodywork beats the heart of a 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit diesel with a five-speed - no warp engines, sadly. The rear axle has obviously been narrowed, but otherwise, the drivetrain is intact, and reportedly gets over 50 MPG.

In 1966, the Volvo 142 was introduced. It was hailed as ‘the safest car in the world’ and was voted ‘Car of the Year’ in Scandinavia

Former SKF Bearing executives Gustav Larson and Assar Gabrielsson saw an opportunity to build cars in Sweden after WWI, and approached their former employer about using an underutilized factory. SKF liked the idea, and backed the pair for years, even allowing them to use a trademarked name, Volvo (Latin for “I roll”) for the new venture.