Topic: Solved -PJ631- Minicar All-Electric (Ride and Handling chassis)

[Allemano]

I've got the feeling it's somewhere in a forgotten corner of my HD, but can't find it back...

[Paul Jaray]

Minicars ?

Now, the easiest part. What is that?
Locked for you

[oko94]

I've found lots of pictures of this car in a certain online digital library, but there's no information available there except for a year : 1969.

Digging deeper, I've found two conflicting stories :
- in 1969, Minicars Inc of Goleta, California (near Santa Barbara) designed the Minicar, a 2-door 3-seat small car fitted with an air-cooled six-cylinder engine, automatic transmission and air conditioning. There's no picture in this source.
- in 1969, the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Urban Research and Experiment unveiled the Minicar prototype, designed in cooperation with Minicars Inc of Santa Barbara, California. It was a hybrid car, powered by both an electric engine and a 40 hp flat air-cooled engine. The project started in 1967 and was funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and by the US Department of Transportation. There's a picture in this source : it has roughly the same proportions as the puzzle's car but it looks like a real car, not like a crude prototype. See the attached picture.

So I would answer that the puzzle is an early prototype of the Minicar.

[Paul Jaray]

Minicars Transit System built 2 electric prototypes, Prototype A was equipped with an internal combustion engine, and Prototype B had an hybrid power train. There were also an interior/exterior buck ( the one in your picture) and a chassis developed for testing ride and handling, the puzzle car.
We already had the Safety Sedan and the RSV.
Well done, point for you!