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Bubble car
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bubble car is a generic name given to a range of small economical automobiles — mainly produced in the 1950s and 1960s. Bubble cars became popular in Europe at this time as a demand for cheap personal motorised transport emerged and fuel prices were high due in part to the 1956 Suez Crisis. Most, although by no means all, were three-wheelers; this made them still cheaper to run in many places, since they were considered for tax and licensing purposes to be motorcycles.
The vast majority of bubble cars were manufactered in Germany, including by the former German military aircraft manufacturers, Messerschmitt and Heinkel, as well as BMW's Isetta. France also produced large numbers of similar tiny vehicles called voiturettes, but unlike the German makes, these were rarely sold abroad. There were also some similar British vehicles (see Reliant Robin) — these were rather larger but continued in production until modern times. The Messerschmitt KR175, KR200 and TG500 even had aircraft-style bubble canopies, giving rise to the term bubble car to refer to all these post-war microcars. Isettas and others also had a bubble-like appearance.