[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher]
I believe this is an Austin Mini Traveller.
[/QUOTE]
Yup. That’s got to be it.
If I’m remembering the name right, this is a Voksin. Regardless of the name, it was built for only a few years by a French aircraft manufacturer who wanted to get into the car business. They stopped production in the 1930s, so I can only conclude that the Great Depression did them in. It was a lovely car, that reminded me of Packard in it’s elegance.
The Voksin wasn’t the only car in the museum which could trace it’s roots back to an aircraft company. In the 1930’s the Martin Aircraft company considered it as well. They built two different prototype models, one of which was the Martinette. (The side of the car can just barely be made out in this photo. Not a pretty car at all, but it was one of the pioneering designs as far as streamlining goes. Even the underside of the car was fitted with a cowling to smooth the airflow. Needless to say, the cars never went into production (and the other prototype was simply a larger version of the Martinette).
Hanging from the ceiling was what appeared to be a flying car. It’s not visible in any of the photos, but the front wing appeared to easily removeable, and the tail wing appeared to be designed to be slid out of the fuselage. There wasn’t any signs around the car/plane (clane?) telling you exactly what it was, so I’m guessing here.
If I’m not mistaken, this is a French built propellor driven car, that lay rotting in a barn until it was found in the mid to late 1990s. The last time I was there, the museum had a large display talking about a prop car that looked like this one, but the display was gone this time, so I’m not certain if this is it, or if it’s another one. In any case, not visible in the photo is that the body was made of thin varnished wooden strips. A number of people built prop cars in the 1920s, for reasons I can’t fathom. Although, I do have to say such a car would be fun to tailgate someone with! :evil:
A nifty idea for a car was this King Midget. Back in the 1950s, you could buy one of these very tiny cars for next to nothing. IIRC, they were shipped in a small crate, and you did final assembly on the car. They didn’t go very fast, but were economical on gas, and, apparently, you could buy a boat and trailer scaled for the cars.
A similar looking vehicle was this FarmORoad. It might have been made by the same company, and the idea behind it was a small combination tractor/car for farms (hence the name).
Probably, the coolest of the microcars there was this French built model. Admittedly not much to look at, but it had pedals for both the driver and passenger to use. You could pedal the car to go where you wanted to, or you could use the pedals to fire up the 2HP 100 cc engine in the car and use that to power you up to a blistering 21 MPH! :eek: Put something like a 10 HP engine in it so that you could get it up to highway speeds and as long as gas prices remain high, you could probably sell a million of them!
Hey, mister! What kind of car is that? Bond. Microcar Bond. I’m not sure who made it, but it’s a British three wheeler. I don’t remember if Bond refers to the make or model of the car.
This is a 1980 Midas Bronze. It was a British made kit car, that reminds me a lot of the Nissan 300ZX which wouldn’t be built until years later. I’m not sure what the donor car was, and I don’t have a pic of the interior, but the car wouldn’t look out of place on the road today.
Everybody knows that Toyota builds reliable cars, but people often complain that they’re not very exciting looking. As this model from the 1970s demonstrates, that wasn’t always the case. Toyota should really consider bringing out an updated version of the car.
Honda also put out a rather nice looking car at about the same time. It reminds me of an MG.
This is an NSU, I think. Anyway, it’s a 3 letter named car that began with “N.” I’m not sure if it’s owned by the museum, or if it was driven there by someone visiting the museum that day. It was parked in the garage attached to the side of the museum, which not only is parking for the museum, but also held several exhibits. No matter what the case, the car was right hand drive, and the stereo inside had been upgraded with a CD player that was designed to look like original equipment.
Fans of Fatboys will find this French motorcycle interesting. It was primarily built for the French police and was powered by an automobile engine. Not a bad looking bike, IMHO.
This is a Wankel powered motorcycle. If you zoom in on this pic and squint, you can read the sign telling a brief history of the design. I bet that the thing was fast as all get out.
A few years ago, on the TV show Invent This! they featured a monocycle, and I had to laugh, because the idea’s been around for decades. In fact, someone even designed a tank version between the World Wars. :eek: This monocycle that was on display was built in the late 1980s, IIRC.
I don’t know who made it, but this small sports car reminds me of Caroll Shelby’s AC Cobra for some reason.
Here you can see some of the cars lined up for rides. Your choices, besides the Tatra, was a 1930s Lancia, a Citroen, and a 1930s BMW. The Lancia and the BMW are both lovely cars (while the Citroen reminds me of a hamster), and
