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Origins
Renzo Rivolta's Iso company made refrigerators and scooters, and in 1953 it combined the two instincts into the Isetta: an egg-shaped microcar whose entire front face was a door, with a scooter engine behind two closely-set rear wheels. Italy shrugged, but the licensing proved historic — BMW bought rights, substituted its own four-stroke single, and sold over 160,000 Isettas that carried the Munich company through its near-death 1950s; further licences spread to France, Spain, Brazil and Britain. The little Iso thus occupies a peculiar summit: a footnote at home, a lifesaver abroad. Rivolta banked the royalties and aimed higher, and within a decade the same badge sat on Corvette-engined grand tourers. Few products anywhere have funded so complete a change of social class.
BMW Isetta 300 · Pujanak · Public domain
