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Iota was an off-shoot of the Bristol Aircraft Motor Club and offered a range of parts, up to a complete car, to encourage the growth of 500cc single-seater racing, which later became Formula 3.  Iota made 22 chassis but most owners gave their cars individual names.  None achieved much success.  In 1951, some of those […]

Ferdinand Innocenti’s company started in 1931 as a major steel tubing manufacturer. His patented “Innocenti pipe” is still used in scaffolding today. Before the war, the company also developed heavy press machinery.  After World War II, Innocenti was mainly known for their Lambretta scooters until they began production of a license-built Austin A40 in 1960.

  The Honda Beat was built for the Japanese Domestic Market, aka JDM. This mid-engine, two-seat convertible Kei-class car was produced from May 1991 to February 1996, with nearly two-thirds of the production occurring in the first year. While the Honda Beat was never meant to be a serious performance car, it was a part

  The Honda City Turbo was the brainchild of Hirotoshi Honda, founder of well-known Honda tuning firm Mugen and son of Honda’s founder Soichiro Honda. When he created the City Turbo, Hirotoshi took one of Honda’s most unassuming vehicles, the City, and turned it into an aggressive JDM pocket rocket, considered to be well ahead

In the period immediately after the Second World War, many talented people wanted to “have a go” at producing their own vehicle. One such person was a Michael Hoffmann, a shop foreman from Munich who designed and built this extraordinary vehicle of mostly hardware store and junkyard parts between 1949 and 1951. The tiny engine,

  The Passport multi-purpose vehicle seen here was the third and last model produced by the short-lived French manufacturer Hobbycar. Perhaps manufacturer is the wrong term, as even the factory itself liked to remind its customers that nothing was manufactured at the plant – “it simply assembled many components from a multitude of suppliers”. At

  Heinkel, like fellow airplane maker Messerschmitt, was prohibited from making aircraft after WWII. In 1953 Heinkel began building a high end 4-stroke scooter called the Tourist.  Scooter sales soon began to slow, and in 1956 Heinkel began building bubble cars. Despite its engine being smaller, the Heinkel was just as fast as the BMW

H.R. Harris was a steam engineer employed by the city of Detroit.  Mr. Harris designed and operated steam-powered electric generating plants.  In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Harris was disappointed because of the failures of both the Stanley Steamer and Doble steam cars.  Harris hoped that if he built a unique and stylish steam