I like the entry idea.. Its innovative... Remember the 300SL.. Gullwings.. the Delorean.. Gullwings... The Bricklin - peel the plastic shards from your skin

Its ultra cool

someone in my neighborhood has an isetta(green on white). I also saw one on a trailer (attached to a RV) last week.

There is also the Messerschmidt. I think the passengers sat in tandem. And I like my Bricklin. Those bumpers put the fear in any other sports car along with about anything else. Now if we could just get enough speed up for battering ram mode.
Tom

I've got to see some pics of this thing.. I've only seen one and it was not in good shape

haha here they are!

http://microcarmuseum.com/tour/messerschmittkr201.html

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1984 300D Turbo - 231k....totalled 11/30/07 RIP

If you had a head-on collision in that and survived it, you'd never get out of it!

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I'd go for the bare bones version.. As long as I can roll down some form of window for ventilation.. and it needs some form of sound system I Can plug my ipod into.. Silence sucks

Agreed... It just needs enough get up & go to get out of the way of the common road idiot and be fun....

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Joe

1998 E300D turbo 240K + Miles
2000 Dodge Dakota 122K + Miles
1992 Mazda Miata Autocross Machine 143K + Miles
http://www.renegademiata.net

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains. - Winston Churchill

For the last 30 years or so the marketing mantra has been to make them bigger and faster and people have sucked it up.

Years ago (lets say 1972 or so) 100 HP was plenty of power to do the job ( I'm not talking muscle cars) yet one was hard pressed to approach 1 HP per cubic inch displacement. Now everyone expects 200+ HP in everything and its no big deal to find that in an econobox. Why can't manufacturers produce a smaller displacement engine that develops reasonable useful power? I would think one ought to be able to get 100 ponies out of about 1 litre, but no one seems to be interested until now, maybe.

Rick

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

um... that would be over 2.7 HP / cubic inch...

If memory serves correct 1 Liter = 61.4 cubic inches..

100hp / 61.4 = 1.63 hp per cubic inch, this is an economically obtainable power range... I have a 16 yr old car with a 1.6 liter engine that puts out just over 100hp... Add a turbo or super charger and some modern engine management electronics and that engine will reliably run in the 160hp range...

Joe

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Joe

1998 E300D turbo 240K + Miles
2000 Dodge Dakota 122K + Miles
1992 Mazda Miata Autocross Machine 143K + Miles
http://www.renegademiata.net

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains. - Winston Churchill

I came up with the same Cu Inch figure you do, I wonder how my calculator got the 2.77 from..... simple head math shows it's less than 2HP... I blame my macintosh.....

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Sounds like the ricer argument of HP/cubic inch.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

The typical econobox weighed at the most, probably what, 2000 pounds? A civic these days weighs 2600+. The new Honda Fit that's about the smallest Honda car sold is bigger and heavier than the first generation Accord.
There are engines that get 100hp/liter (Honda, BMW, high-end Italian makes) but you have to rev them very high to get that power. How many people will want to rev their engine to 8000 RPM? Not many, most people think going over 3000 RPM is hurting the engine.

These days, our crash requirements basically dictate you have to use a lot of high strength steel, which is heavy but gives the car a very stiff chassis. Go look at a crash test of a Toyota Yaris... very stiff chassis. Of course this means we can't have any cars under 2000 pounds anymore.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

It can be done, but they have to be small cars. The Smart which meets all current safety specs, weighs 1800 lbs IIRC. The Honda Insight was about the same, but that one's no longer produced.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL