This “little tyke”, which Mikrus loosely translates to, is a 1959 Mikrus MR-300, a Polish-made microcar in the same vein as a Goggomobile or similar small, rear-engine car. This one is listed on eBay with an unmet opening bid of $10,000! Macro-money for a microcar. It’s located not in Poland but in Nashville, Tennessee. A Mikrus joke, inspired by the noisy engine, is: “Mikrus is very much like a jet plane: first you hear it, then you see it.”
Look at this little thing! Don’t you just want to love it and hug it and cuddle it, and.. er.. wait, that’s a little awkward. I mean, isn’t it an interesting-looking car? Mikrus, pronounced “Meek-roos”, cars were made in a factory that had just finished production of the Soviet MiG-15 jet. No, really! Being the fine folks that they were, they didn’t want to lay off scores of people so they turned to manufacturing almost anything and everything, around twenty different products in all, from milk processing equipment to Mikrus MR-300s.
Camber? What camber?.. This car will need some work. The seller says that the body is solid, but the LR section is interesting looking, to say the least. I’m assuming that it has had some bodywork in the past, this car obviously isn’t original from 1959. They also say that the brake pedal goes to the floor and everything will need to be gone over, from head to toe. But, that opening bid price, ouch. In all fairness, there were only about 1,700 of these cars were built so they’re rare.
The interior looks good, at least soft-goods-wise. Those are some comfy-looking seats for such a small car. The interior has obviously been “restored” at some point.
There are no engine photos, for some reason, and this one should have a 296 CC two-stroke, two-cylinder with 14.5 hp and of course it’s a rear-engine car. Better to smoke the vehicles behind you than to have that smoke coming in the passenger compartment. Here’s an interesting YouTube video showing a 3D rending of the drivetrain, just for something different. And, here another YouTube video of the cars in action! This is a fun little dash, that’s a huge badge for such a small dash on such a small car. This car will most likely languish unsold for quite a while, especially at that opening bid price. Are there any microcar fans out there other than me?
This manufacturer did the very same thing that Krupp in Germany post WW II did, as well as companies in the U.S. such as White, Crosley and Philco…..diversify into as many markets of manufacturing possible. Stoves, toasters, furnaces, radios….whatever, kept people employed and the company alive.
Still the greatest generation regardless of nation.
Definitely has some mud with a respray.
Maybe part of the Lane museum?
Yep, it’s them!
A motor cycle engine conversion would be interesting/reliable/fun to drive. Or frankenstein the underpinnings from a wrecked Prius to this or any cute/weird “foreign” car would more fun if you are a EE, Phd, engineer, mechanically inclined person.
Kinda like the Honda 600 started out ?
I like the steering wheel.
I’m crazy about funny little, odd, cars too, but not ten grand crazy. More like two or three grand crazy!
Isnt this the same seller as the two front end Honda?
Offered by Crazy Vaclav motors, put it in H
We picked on the Polish terribly years ago, and this car would be too easy, joke wise. Again, never heard of it, but all I can think of, is we were driving fuel-injected Corvette’s, or cross ram Chrysler’s, and the poor Polish were driving this. Even the name, anything that ends with “us” isn’t the best. ( doofus, dingus, etc) With just a tick over 900 kilometers in almost 60 years, that may give an indication of what it’s like to drive. Might want to stay clear of I-95. I’d expect to see 10 clowns coming out of it. I had a home made go-kart with a steering wheel like that. Great find. What next?
While we were indeed driving a nice selection of vehicles, the average polish adult was, if lucky, riding a 2 wheel single speed bicycle, or walking. The company produced a whopping 1,700 cars, and most Polish people in the 1950s didn’t even have the opportunity to ride in a car. Even the Warszawa, built for 30 years, only produced about 250,000 cars. That’s about 8,000 cars a year.
You might have had a go kart with a steering wheel like that, but so did DS Citroens, and a nicer car I’ve yet to drive.
Hi Wayne, the Citroen steering wheel seems a bit safer than this. I’ve never ridden in a DS. I’d sure love to someday. It’s not exactly the kind of car you see in da’ Northwoods. :)
Greetings All
Howard, it’s no time the steering wheel that gets you it’s the sternum breaking Hub.
Citroens I remember had a similar wheel, somewhat beefier along with some ridiculous stalks that had a lot of stacked rotary pots and switches to control things.
Didn’t trust that one either though the hydraulics attached function flawlessly.
Greetings All,
I love these things.
A pity they didn’t post any pictures of the two stroke that powers this.
Guessing a Subaru 360 would be a super car next to this.
Still, it amuses me.
reminds me of a squashed Lada with traces of a 500.
The Mikrus is a blatant copy of the German Goggomobil!