Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[martc]

Postwar Szczecin wasn’t just another industrial city — it had pedigree. Before the war, Stoewer was building fancy cars there. After the war, the ashes of Stoewer turned into the Szczecin Motorcycle Factory, cranking out Junak two-wheelers (aka. Motorbikes). But in Warsaw, the design office BKP-Mot decided in 1957 that Poland needed a people’s microcar. Engineers Karol Wójcicki, Janusz Zygadlewicz, and Andrzej Zgliczyński whipped up a monocoque body with independent suspension — torsion bars and links powered by a single-cylinder Junak engine wheezing out about 14 horsepower.

The single door didn’t open sideways, or forwards like an Isetta. No, it dropped downward, like a drawbridge. To get in, two adults and two children would clamber over it, aided by a front seat that could fold sideways. 

About 17 or maybe 20 prototypes were built (nobody’s really sure, which says a lot). They were rushed, flawed, and by 1959 the whole thing was scrapped. Instead, Poland went with the Mikrus MR300, basically a Goggo knockoff. That one also fizzled out after a few thousand units. The Mikrus was produced by WSK more famous for it's aeroplanes and now part of Airbus. Details of the Mikrus can be found here - https://wystawaklasykow.pl/mikrus-mr-300

 

[martc]

Built in Denmark and hailed as 'the car of the future,' the Hope Whisper was a small, sensible electric city car. It seated two, ran on a 10 kW motor with six 6-volt batteries, and could cruise at around 60 km/h for roughly 100 km.

Then came the unveiling — and the metaphor that would define an entire country’s automotive dreams. Exhausted engineers, a sleepless night, a missing handbrake. Cameras rolled as the Whisper quietly did what few cars ever have: it drove itself off the stage and into history. No fire, no drama — just a slow, tragicomic roll that silenced Denmark’s electric ambitions.

[D.E]

5 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Probably very well known - but I'd not seen one before -  a Ka 4-dr - the Ford Ka Plus - 2016 - 2019 apparently. Very neat. Sold in the UK and elsewhere I expect.

Rare things here. Ford sold them at a price that was very close to that of a basic Fiesta, so customers would rather buy a Fiesta instead. Then Ford, in all their wisdom, discontinued both the Ka+ and Fiesta, and now their sales and market share are at an all-time low*.  

Spoiler

This year they seem to recover somewhat, slightly above 4% while the market share was about 3,5% in 2024 and 2023. Still, that is less than half of what it used to be in the 2000s.

 

[nomiST]

 

 

What's the opposite of nominative determinism? Looks like it should read "Nope". 

[D.E]

38 minutes ago, martc said:

Built in Denmark and hailed as 'the car of the future,' the Hope Whisper was a small, sensible electric city car. It seated two, ran on a 10 kW motor with six 6-volt batteries, and could cruise at around 60 km/h for roughly 100 km.

Then came the unveiling — and the metaphor that would define an entire country’s automotive dreams. Exhausted engineers, a sleepless night, a missing handbrake. Cameras rolled as the Whisper quietly did what few cars ever have: it drove itself off the stage and into history. No fire, no drama — just a slow, tragicomic roll that silenced Denmark’s electric ambitions.

Lol.

Edit: also, this comment:

Quote

In 1985 I worked for a British company that had been offered the UK distribution of Hope Whisper vehicles. By that time, production of the Hope Whisper had moved to West Berlin and I went there to test drive their little car. I recall it had a glass-fibre body fitted with VW Golf doors (to save the cost of complex tooling). My test drive lasted no more than 200 metres at which point the 'gearbox', as used in milk floats of that era, failed and the test was over almost before it had started. My internal report was negative and we never imported these cars.

 

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, nomiST said:

 

 

What's the opposite of nominative determinism? Looks like it should read "Nope". 

Hopeless would also be apt. Anyone else think it looks like a sad-faced cartoon of a Citroen AX?

[Metal Guru]

6 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Hopeless would also be apt. Anyone else think it looks like a sad-faced cartoon of a Citroen AX?

It looks like the unwanted love child of a Citroen AX and Marvin the paranoid android.