The slowest car in the World

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In my collection of reference books are the 1967 and 1969 World Car Catalogues. Wondrous books, nearly 700 pages, one car model per page, covering the entire output of the world’s auto manufacturers. Each model has photos and a very complete listing of specs, options,and performance. Right down to transmission gear ratios and a complete dissection of the engine.

Capsule history of each car company. And lists. List by name, country of origin, and my favorite, top speed.

While perusing the top speed list from 1969 I spotted something I had not noticed before. The slowest car was… wait for it… the Dinarg D-200, coming in at 49.7 mph.

Imagine the chagrin in the boardroom when this list was published. “Crap!” (Or whatever they would have said in Argentina in 1969), “If we had only raised the horsepower from 10.6 to 11, we would have hit the magic 50 mph!” “NON! It was the driver! I told you your cousin was too fat!”

Yes, 10.6 horsepower with a car weight of 661 pounds. 4 speeds forward, and you reverse the engine to go backwards. Damn, that must be frustrating for those people who can’t make it into a parking space the first time. Stop the car. Stop the engine. Restart the engine backwards. Back up. Stop the car. Stop the engine. Restart the engine forward. Pull up. Repeat as needed.

What about 1967? Hmm, a few cars under 50 mph, the slowest being the Steyr Puch at 49.1 Were they content to be the slowest car in the world? Hell, no! By 1969 it managed a blistering 60.9 mph, all the way to 10th slowest. And Steyr is well known. Hell, I have a Puch speedometer on my desk as I write. (That’s another story). It’s from a Puch Magnum. It is a 40 mph speedometer, “magnum” being kind of a relative term at Steyr.

Mind you, being the slowest car in 1969 was no simple feat, given the plethora of other slow cars like the Fiat 500s, Trabants and Autobiancis, to say nothing of the Japanese Kei cars like the Subaru 360. All those numbers are CCs, but they are huge compared to the D-200’s measly 200 CCs.

So I set out to find the Dinarg. I first looked on the Internet Movie Car Database to see if it had been featured in a film. Nothing. And there are 4493 vehicles listed in that database:

http://www.imcdb.org/makes.php

A general search was more fruitful. Wow, there is an Argentine Wiki!

And the best mention, one of my favorite sites, the Jalopnik, had a great post:

Enjoy.

Dennis

2

I need one to balance my Roadmonster.

3

That is one happy looking car although it needs to lose a few pounds. I get the feeling that it doesn’t really know it is the slowest car on the road. I would love to drag race it against my John Deere lawn tractor and let it win [The crowd goes WILD!].

Early Volkswagen Beetles weren’t that much better. Can you imagine taking one of those into the Alps or the Rocky Mountains on a really cold night? Even if you can make it up the hills with a running start, you still might freeze to death in the process because the only heater they had just burned your feet.

4

Back in the 1960s, or maybe the 50s, there were road racing classes for micro cars in Europe. I recall an article describing the Messerschmidts at the Nurburgring, they had to “tack” back and forth to make it up the hills!

By the way, spell check does not know “Nuburgring” in the worst possible way, it suggests “burglarizing”.

Dennis

5

Not sure what 80s auto mag it was, but the VW Rabbit diesel automatic couldn’t accelerate from 40mph to 70mph in the length of whatever track they used for tests. They called it a freeway merge test or something. No cite because I really don’t care all that much, just stuck in my mind from all those years ago and I wanted to share my amazing wisdom with strangers on an obscure message board.

6

Yeah, and years later the guys at “Top Gear” panned the newly introduced diesel Golf. It ruined one of the most fun small cars with it’s dreary performance.

Dennis

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I don’t care how slow it is. That is a cool little car! I want one!

Those sound like pretty cool books to have, Dennis. You wouldn’t happen to have a service manual for a BMW e30 X-drive, would you?

8

Back in the early 70’s, I had a 1969 Subaru 360. I seriously doubt I ever hit 50 mph in it and I tried on a couple occasions. I could fill the gas tank for about $3 and that included the 2 cycle oil.

9

This thread has me thinking about how much fun I used to have in my Geo Metro, '60 VW van and on my Kawasaki 100 enduro bike. Slow vehicles let you do the full Walter Mitty without risking a ticket, or much of one. I’m perusing want ads on another window at this moment. Fever has struck. :smiley:

10

I just noticed that the wee beastie’s badge looks like one from a Lexus! I looked at the one for sale but I can’t go $11,000. I wonder if any of them made it to the US.

Dennis

11

This country yokel from Arkansas happened to visit Texas once upon a time. In a bar there, he got talking to a Texan.

So this Texan is boasting about how big everything is in Texas, his ranch included. He tells the visitor: “On my ranch, I can get into my car at eight in the morning and drive straight across the ranch and not reach the other side until eight at night!”

The yokel from Arkansas says: “Yeah, I know what you mean. I had a car like that once.”

12

At that point I’d just push the car into and out of spots. At 661 pounds (300 kg) it shouldn’t be too difficult.

13

I like this description of the car’s appearance:

:smiley:

14

Heh. A friend of my brothers had one in high school. He often found it ‘parked’ in a different part of the lot. Didn’t take that many guys to move it.

15

Somewhere a kid’s Radio Flyer is missing its wheels.

16

GOt to love ugly spud vehicles, they have ‘character’ =) My first car [$250] was a 1958Nash Metropolitan =) Not the zippiest, not the prettiest, but it transported me cheaply =)

17

You don’t re-start the engine in reverse to back into a parking spot. You put the transmission in neutral and open the suicide door a little bit and Fred Flintstone it into the spot. Or you make the kids/wife/cousin push it into a spot. It weighs 661 pounds, that’s less than a lot of Harleys, and people push those around with their feet all the time. Or you pull in forward and use the foot to push yourself out. Either way it’s almost a sure bet the reverse on those engines doesn’t get used much. Check out this video of a guy who has one and takes it to those little cutesy car events. It shows him with the window rolled down and his arm inside working the steering wheel while he shoves it all around like a Little Tykes car.

Enjoy,
Steven

18

As the former owner of an '81 Rabbit diesel (albeit a stick), I do not find this particularly surprising. When passing on a 2-lane highway, not only did one need to downshift, but also anticipate the gap by falling back a bit and getting a running start. If the auto transmission was reluctant to downshift you’d be helpless. That said, in true diesel fashion the engine did develop a decent proportion of its meagre horsepower at low rpm, unlike the gasoline engines in similar underpowered econoboxes.

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and this is why I always chuckle grimly to myself any time I see/hear someone call a car with 200+ horsepower “underpowered.”

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As a former owner of an '82 Vanagon diesel, I can relate. Unfortunately. Imagine the exact same gutless engine from the Rabbit diesel put into a rolling barn door like the Vanagon! It wasn’t a VW, I called it a GW, a Gutless Wonder. 0-60 in about 1 minute. I kid not. It was truly pathetic. But I couldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth – it was a free hand-me-down from my father, and I was poor and with 3 young kids in my young family. That Vanagon was great for us, all things considered. Before that we had the three kids in the back seat of a 1981 Toyota Starlet. Only 2 seat belts back there, but I bought a seat belt from Grand Auto and installed it onto the existing seat belt mounting bolts – voila! Now 3 seat belts. For tiny kids. It worked, but the Vanagon was spacious! Gutless, but spacious.

The Dinarg D-200 looks kind of cute. Dinarg, from the linked article, is for Dinámica INdustrial ARGentina. That article begins with –

This happened to me on Saturday night, walking with my wife near my church, and in one driveway I spotted a car I’d never seen before. It was a 1950s Ford Comète (image(s)).

Interesting!