In the years after WWII, Messerschmitt was forbidden from building aircraft and so turned its talent toward automobiles. Sort of. Fend Flitzer designed the KR175 three-wheeler that went into production in 1953. It had tandem seating with a hinged 'bubble' canopy made from Plexiglas. Powered by a 174cc, two-stroke, single-cylinder motor-scooter engine, the first models had a kick-starter (later replaced with an electric starter). Relative to the micro-cars above, the KR175 was surprisingly long, at 9.1 feet, but incredibly narrow at four feet. It was also four feet high and weighed a mere 462 pounds. In 1955, the KR175 was replaced by a completely redesigned (but to the untrained eye, completely identical) KR200 model, also designed by Fend Flitzer. It remained in production until 1964, when it was finally driven off the market by the success of bigger cars like the Mini.
Although retro-styled models of the Beetle, Mini and Fiat 500 have been introduced, none have the DNA of a true micro-car. All that changes with the Smart, built by Daimler AG. Its history is a bit rocky. The notion of a modern microcar was pursued by Nicolas Hayek, head of the Swatch watch company. In 1994, he entered a joint venture with Daimler-Benz to create his vision of an eco-friendly commuter car. When it appeared in 1997, it didn't meet Hayek's expectations and he pulled out.
Daimler decided to develop the project itself and it has proved popular in Europe, especially in crowded cities where its tiny footprint makes it easy to park. The Smart Fortwo, now hitting the U.S. market, is 8.8 feet long, five feet wide and 5.1 feet high. Incredibly, the car's dimensions fall between the Fiat 500 and the BMW Isetta. In some cases, a Smart can park on the street by pulling in nose-to-curb, avoiding parallel parking altogether.
The Fortwo has a 999cc three-cylinder, water-cooled engine making 70 hp and a five-speed transmission. It weighs just 1,600 pounds-amazing given that it meets every U.S. and European crash standard, and comes with four airbags.
Back in 1973, E.F. Schumacher wrote Small is Beautiful, in which he challenged materialism and consumption, and espoused the virtues of the small in scale. He would have liked the Smart Fortwo.
We've come a long way toward more responsible personal transportation. But we still have further to go.