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The Alfa 2600 was Alfa Romeo’s flagship car that succeeded the Alfa Romeo 2000. It is a significant car because it was the first Alfa to be powered by an inline 6-cylinder engine.  Although the 2600 was a fast car that handled well, sales were slow, as it was a very expensive car.  The styling […]

Introduced in 1968, the Mehari was a new multi-purpose, all terrain pick-up joining Citroën’s family of light, flat-twin vehicles. The Mehari was originally designed with a plastic body which prevented corrosion problems and resisted impact.  Roughly145,000 Meharis were produced from 1968-87.  The Mehari is based on the standard 2CV chassis and drivetrain.    Specifications:  

The Citroën Ami Super was launched in January 1973 and, while it looks like the Ami 8, it has a larger, more powerful horizontally-opposed flat 4-cylinder air cooled engine of 1015cc and 55 hp, almost doubling the 8’s power.  The Ami Super was the top-of-the-line Ami and was positioned between the Citroën GS (launched in

French industrial planner Jacques Riboud, of Vitrex Industrie, promoted and designed microcars as a solution to increased urbanization in 1970’s Paris. He believed full-size cars to be too big and too expensive for the old city’s infrastructure. In his publication, Three Wheels and a Brake Pedal he states “For each role … it is conceived,

Poland did not produce any cars until after WWI.  Right after WWI the defense ministry formed the CWS (Central Automobile Works).  In 1927 production of cars was started by CWS – the car was called the T1, and was a large and sturdy car.  Since Poland had a nonexistent service network at that time, the

It may seem hard to believe, but the manufacturer of the Scootacar also produced railroad locomotives.  The Scootacar was developed in 1957 by the Hunslet Engine Works of Leeds, Yorkshire, UK, by Henry Brown, using a Villiers two stroke engine. The basic design was arrived at by having Mr. Brown sit astride the engine while

Almost as a hobby, in 1977 Guy Duport built a prototype, first-of-its-kind diesel-powered microcar. It was a small car with a plastic body and 2 doors, equipped with a 510cc (about 31 cu. in.) Lombardini diesel engine. According to Duport, that 10HP engine assured 3,500 hours of operation, allowing it to travel potentially more than

The Pionier is a 3-wheeled economy vehicle that was designed for the German market. It’s robust, yet light, because of its wood frame body covered by a synthetic fabric. Carl Borgward designed this car to evade the annual German tax that was put on 4-wheeled vehicles. Three-wheel vehicles escaped this tax until 1933, and this