If you study the photo, see the driver, then you know for sure: this is a very small car. Indeed, a pleonasm, but the car is also so terribly small ... It is about the Rytecraft Scootacar, a product of the British Motor Boat Manufacturing Company Ltd. from london.
There they became 'miniature cars' from 1934 to the start of the 2e World war built. The copy shown here dates from 1935 and thirty years later he traveled around the world with - the late - Jim Parkinson. This involves around 24.000 kilometers. On 25 in May 1965 he left with great public interest. The 'Cold War' was running at full speed and so he was not allowed to drive through Siberia, but had to make the journey on the Trans Siberia Express. In Japan, after a TV show, he sold photos of him and the car to collect some money. Once in California, the police were relentless. The cart could not be seen on the street! He received the same message in North and South Carolina, but the police saw 'the challenge' there and turned a blind eye. Remember that the cart was equipped with an 98 cm3 one-cylinder two-stroke engine in which 0,4 DIN hp (on the wheels) was delivered at 2.000 revolutions per minute. The absolute top speed was 16 kilometers per hour. As soon as a hill came into view, let alone a mountain, Parkinson had to get out, lock the gas pedal and walk next to the car. He even had to help push in mountainous areas ... Well then 421 days later he was home again. The cart has been on display in Beaulieu for a while, but has since been on loan for an indefinite period of time at the Brooklands Museum.
Photo: With this Rytecraft Scootacar the Brit Jim Parkinson rode a round the world in 1965