Brütsch Mopetta

Only recently, I realized I saved two images of the same car. This car. Have you seen them?

One, a meme photo that's been around forever, with an older person driving a tiny blue microcar, smoking a pipe and looking like the mayor while doing it.

The other, a black-and-white image I'd saved to my look book 20 years ago of a very well-dressed—dare I say dapper—person next to an impossibly small car. (Some time ago, I found more images from this shoot, to my delight.)

Given how freakin' cute it is, I feel like it's a waste to even tell you it was designed and built in mid-1950s Germany by a guy named Egon Brütsch; he made a literal handful before others stepped in and completed the production run of, like, 14 cars.

You didn't read any of that, did you? OK. Shorter sentences:

Fibreglass body. No gauges. Pull start. Moped-style handlebars. Three wheels. Two-stroke engine from ILO-Motorenwerke. 

Less horsepower (2.3) than a wet/dry vacuum.

No, your local Autozone doesn't have parts. (And please, they'd prefer if you don't call them again.)

Mopetta is both a rare combination of bare-bones mechanical elements and is quite dear, in a monetary sense.

While it looks and performs like a toy, I'm obliged to mention buying one of the (several) Brütsch Mopetta toys and trinkets available is a more prudent way to get your feet wet before taking the plunge into unobtanium microcar ownership.