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Origins
The Peel P50 of 1962, built on the Isle of Man, remains the smallest production car in history: 134 centimetres long, around 56 kilograms, one door, one headlamp, one seat, one wing mirror, and a 49cc moped engine giving perhaps 38 mph with a following wind. Reverse gear was omitted; owners lifted the car by its rear handle and repositioned it like luggage. Roughly 50 were built, of which about half survive — now trading for six-figure sums as the ultimate microcar collectible. Jeremy Clarkson's 2007 drive through BBC Television Centre's corridors made it globally famous, and modern replicas followed. The P50 endures because it answers a pure question — how little can a car be? — with a completeness no one has dared repeat.
Peel P50 & Peel Trident · Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England · CC BY 2.0
