Back to the (Post-war French) Future

I've still not seen anything as efficiently cool as the dozens of tiny eurothingies that burbled, rattled and popped out of the 1950's.

Is there anything as cool as a Fiat Multipla (above, here, or check out all the little tinies here)?

It's one thing to get better than 50MPG; it's another thing entirely to do it with SEVEN on board!

Here in the states we have be blessed with abundant energy and not confronted with fuel shortages like has occurred in countries like post war Germany and France. I had a former German soilder working for me about 15 years ago and we talked about how after the war (II) in Germans would use a wood or coal fire in the back of a truck to burn the smoke and be grateful to find fire wood to fuel the truck-I remember reading about building this system in the 70's in Mother Earth News and had no idea of it origin. He also told me of a 4 wheel steering car that the German military had in 1943.

I agree that some of our predecessors were inspired by the dire needs of the time and still believe that when a person gets "hungry" enough they tend to start thinking of new and better Mousetraps.

I'm still disgusted that we don't see the unintended consequences of all of our taxation, litigation and regulation.

For example, we subsidized roads and several key auto-related industries, which essentially killed mass transit, and meant that our cities became architected for cars, and not bicycles, pedestrians, or cute little eurothingies. Now it'd be impossible to use mass transit...just imagine crossing a giant parking lot to get to a bus stop with a double armload of groceries.

Then we mandated better crash protection, which made cars heavier and more dangerous to pedestrians. Then we mandated more protection for pedestrians, which also makes cars less streamlined. We also mandate better gas mileage as if the price of gas isn't enough incentive now. All of this makes cars much more expensive, but that's OK, because now we take even longer commutes in our leather-lined personal transportation capsules.

All of this has made us more dependent, not less dependent, upon gasoline and the cars that run on them. And ironically, it's made us all think we're dependent upon politicians for technology, roads, etc.

Sheesh.

'Here in the states we have be blessed with abundant energy'

Have? I think that's changing. The latest US sales figures clearly show that the American consumer is going over to smaller, more economical Japanese cars. Fords performance last year was appalling, I read they lost $1000 for every car sold in the US (please correct me if I'm wrong here!), and still awarded their executives a performance bonus. The parallel with the UK motorcycle industry in the 60's and 70's is remarkable. Now; there is no UK motorcycle industry, at least in comparison to what was.

I wish you were wrong, PlbMak; I wish you were wrong.

As a confirmed petrol head with a fondness for classic American cars as well as sports cars, so do I.