The Big Book of Tiny Cars: A Century of Diminutive Automotive Oddities

The Big Book of Tiny Cars: A Century of Diminutive Automotive Oddities

  • Downloads:3384
  • Type:Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date:2021-11-28 16:21:05
  • Update Date:2025-09-07
  • Status:finish
  • Author:Russell Hayes
  • ISBN:0760370621
  • Environment:PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Summary

Richly illustrated and entertainingly written, The Big Book of Tiny Cars presents lively profiles of the automotive world’s most famous—and infamous—microcars and subcompacts from 1901 to today。

From tiny homes to little lending libraries and even tiny food, people everywhere are resetting the premium they put on size。 Fact is, the automotive industry has a “tiny” history going back to the car’s earliest days

Beginning with the Curved Dash Oldsmobile and continuing through prewar classics such as the Austin Seven and Hanomag KommissbrotThe Big Book of Tiny Cars is truly international in scope。 Witness diminutive cars like the Bond Minicar and the BMWIsetta introduced to fuel-deprived postwar Europe, and continue through the classic 1950s microcars and ’70s subcompacts, right up to today’s tiny cars and electric vehicles (EVs) fromthe likes of Smart and Fiat

In addition to iconic curiosities like the frog-like Goggomobil Dart, the futuristic Sebring Vanguard Citicar, and the three-wheeled Reliant Robin, you’ll read about more familiar classics like the VW Beetle, MiniCooper, and Crosley Super Sport。 Other manufacturers represented include Honda, Datsun, Mitsubishi, Trabant, Heinkel, Renault, and Messerschmitt, to name a few。
Each car is profiled with an entertaining and informative history and a fact box
Imagery includes archival photosperiod ads, and modern photography
In all, more than 100 cars are included, from the weird to the sublime。
Gas, diesel, or electric…tiny cars have a rich and curious heritage reflective of motorists’ concerns for their pocketbook, the environment, or both。 The Big Book of Tiny Cars is your ultimate collection of microcars, minicars, bubble cars, kei cars, subcompacts, and compacts that have been built, sold, and driven all over the globe for 120 years

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Reviews

Theediscerning

We're told here that some press release readers thought the brand new Crosley car was triangular。 They were wrong, of course – looking at it it was practically two-dimensional。 Yes, we're in the world of the "that'll never get up a hill", "shall I give it a push-start or shall I just let the cat lean on it?" and the "how the heck am I supposed to fit into that?!", so you can forget your fins, your chrome and your V12s。 This is about the dinky (if not almost the Dinky) - the wee, economical littl We're told here that some press release readers thought the brand new Crosley car was triangular。 They were wrong, of course – looking at it it was practically two-dimensional。 Yes, we're in the world of the "that'll never get up a hill", "shall I give it a push-start or shall I just let the cat lean on it?" and the "how the heck am I supposed to fit into that?!", so you can forget your fins, your chrome and your V12s。 This is about the dinky (if not almost the Dinky) - the wee, economical little nippers that never looked right with an adult person getting out, but that could be parked on a dollar, and lifted back into the driving lane for want of a reverse gear。 It's a world where the 1936 Fiat 500 looks practically large。 (Note I didn't say practical。)The book is very nicely structured – it's a fun browse for the non-specialist, and I guess the databanks for every model concerning their chassis size and brake horsepower are relevant for the petrol-heads。 Full-colour portrait pictures are the order of the day, where possible, with a well-measured text for each car, seldom getting too nerdy and generally sticking to what I would consider worthwhile knowing。 Small essays, concerning things such as the UK road tax of the 1910s and 1920s, pepper things, but it is all about the cars。 And despite their lack of pulling power (both as regards trailers and the opposite sex) I know they would be well-loved by certain people。 And this book will generate the same fondness, too – the chronology of these toy-sized runarounds will be educational to many。 Four and a half stars。 。。。more