A fair few of us played with toy cars when we were little, but there was also a craze for grownups getting around in teeny wheels that were too big to fit in the tub, and yet a good deal dinkier than the usual automobiles on the road. This trend is celebrated in the Powerhouse Museum’s new exhibition Microcars. It brings together a revhead’s dream of 17 pint-sized vehicles manufactured across Australia, Europe, Japan and the UK from the late 1940s. It also examines the reanimation of that trend in contemporary hybrid microcars.
The movement put the petite pedal to the metal in the aftermath of WWII, with the aim of delivering more affordable and economic cars that would appeal to the masses still recovering from the devastation of that time, but who still wanted to reclaim some semblance of how life had been before. These microcars combined scooter engines with small, lightweight bodies, with examples popping up from the likes of BMW, Heinkel and Lambretta in Europe, and Buckle Motors and Harold Lightburn locally.
The Powerhouse already has some great examples and has borrowed a bunch more from keen collectors. You’ll even be able to see a microcar fit for a king, with a Messerschmitt KR200 on display, as purchased by the late, great Elvis Presley. The one on show was used in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming biopic about the beloved American musician. The Renault Twizy and the Mercedes Benz Smartcar represent today’s innovations on the trend.
Damian McDonald, curator of Microcars, says, “Following the hardship of the Second World War, there was a real desire to travel in Europe but the difficult economic conditions meant there wasn’t an appetite for larger cars. Microcars were a result of this necessity but their appealing, albeit arguably cramped, aesthetic soon caught the attention of engineers around the world.”
While the phenomenon was relatively short-lived, impacted by the introduction of the popular and slightly bigger Mini Cooper, they still enjoy a dedicated following amongst automobile afficionados. Bill Buckle, designer of Buckle Motors’ Goggomobil Dart, is excited to see so many examples all in one spot. “I am always surprised at the special interest shown by the public in these little oddities, designed to provide inexpensive transport, and it is thrilling to see the Powerhouse displaying these microcars from sixty-odd years ago.”
