U.K. man builds world's smallest car out of children's ride (w/VIDEO)
World's Smallest Car - Click above to watch a video after the break
Standing just 39 inches tall and 26 inches wide, the little red Postman Pat car is apparently well-known in Europe as a children's toy. Oddly enough, it's now known all over the globe as the World's Smallest Street-Legal Car. The ridiculously tiny vehicle owes its new-found fame to a 47 year-old man in the U.K. named Perry Watkins, who gutted the plaything, added a steel frame to the fiberglass shell and propped it all up with the chassis from a quad.
Powered by a 150cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine hooked to the rear wheels, Watkins' machine won't be keeping up with traffic on the motorway, but it's working head lamps, tail lights, windshield wipers, horn and turn signals mean it's fully street legal in Britain. The small-displacement engine reportedly returns 70 miles per gallon and manages to push the diminutive flame-painted flyer to a top speed of 40 miles per hour.
This isn't Watkins' first foray into the automotive record books. Last year, the car-crazed builder made headlines with his so-called Flatmobile, which stands just 19 inches off the ground at its highest point. Finding it hard to imagine this thing actually driving down the road? Hit the jump for video proof and click here to check out a gallery from The Sun.
[Source: The Sun]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Luke 9:53PM (5/14/2009)
Is the difference between a gocart and a "car" that a car is enclosed?
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Walter 11:18PM (5/14/2009)
What's the point?
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Ignatius 11:46PM (5/14/2009)
To get a good lawsuit going when some dumbass American imports a HUMMER H2 and runs him over.
Throwback 8:52AM (5/15/2009)
How about when some dumbass Brit runs over him in a Land Rover?
Woodenbee 9:26AM (5/15/2009)
I think the point is the English have real innovation and know how, experiments like this demonstrate to the public and especially children that small is fun, or at least interesting and different where as in the US its all about gas hog hotrods and maintaining the status quo so big oil can keep making obscene profits that benefit no one but the shadowy elite that never dare mingle with us commoners and live in their secret mansions in Texas
Throwback 10:42AM (5/15/2009)
"I think the point is the English have real innovation and know how", are you suggesting Americans don't? How many electric motorcycles built in the USA have been shown on this site? What about Tesla, Fisker (yes I know he is not an American), the Volt etc.
The USA is a large diverse country with people of varying tastes and talents. The car is part of culture and always will be, no matter how it is powered.
Stan Wellaway 3:53AM (5/15/2009)
Reminds me of the Peel P50 which went into production more than 40 years ago. Fifty were sold. I saw one at a car rally in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK in 1965.
Jeremy Clarkson recently drove one to and into the BBC tv centre in London, taking it upstairs in an elevator and parking it alongside his desk. See video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Z4R2uLv-A
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