BMW might be known now for performance and luxury, but one of their more iconic cars was the Isetta, made from 1955 to 1962. It was actually a pretty popular car, with over 160,000 produced. This 1957 model year example is up for sale in De Pere, Wisconsin. If you’ve ever wanted to own a classic microcar, now’s your chance! You can find the listing here on eBay, with a current bid of $6,100.
BMW was on the brink of bankruptcy in the 1950s, and needed to develop a new model that wouldn’t cost much to develop. Their answer came at the 1954 Turin Car Show, when the delegates from BMW saw the Iso Isetta, a tiny 3-wheeled car. After securing the rights for tooling and design, the BMW Isetta was born. Over the lifespan of the model, just a few upgrades were made such as adding a 2nd rear wheel, refining the engine, and tweaking the rear window.
This particular Isetta doesn’t come with an engine, but it would have originally come with a modified 300 cc 4-stroke 1-cylinder engine originally designed (as a 250 cc engine) for their R25 motorcycle. It would have put out 13 horsepower and could propel this tiny car to 53 mph. This was a great car for urban life where speeds were low and distances were short. 2 adults could sit side-by-side, and since it was just 7.5 feet long and weighed 770 lbs, it was extremely maneuverable.
The interior is probably the simplest and plainest I’ve ever seen! Unfortunately, it appears all the interior panels are gone, exposing insulation and wiring, and bare metal. The door has been covered with shag carpeting. There is also a rip in the seat.
One of the more unique features of the Isetta is the single front-opening door. Entrance and exit is simple, but regulations required a canvas top to aid the occupants to escape in an emergency. The body itself isn’t in terrible shape, although there are a few repairs needed to the fiberglass body. Other than dented bumpers and general wear and tear, it shouldn’t be hard to make this car look great again. Fortunately, it appears that all the trim is in place, which would likely be very hard to find otherwise. Even the 2 canvas sections of the roof look to have survived the decades fairly well. It’s fun to keep old cars original when possible, but I think the best scenario here is to restore it. These cars actually look really good when restored, more than their original price would suggest, and they’d probably be the only one present when the next owner brings it to a car show!
Guys, don’t even think of a LS swap for this one! However it would be fun to see if you could fit a twin cylinder BMW bike engine in there.
I thought for sure this would be the one car that wouldn’t elicit comments about swapping out the engine. I was wrong.
DON’T USE A BIKE ENGINE , IT WILL OVERHEAT
WITHOUT AIR FLOWING AROUND IT .
I DID BUILD SUCH A CAR WITH A 1962 BMW 700cs
CAR ENGINE . IT IS STILL A BOXER TWIN BUT HAS PROPER
FAN COOLING AND SHROUDING NEEDED FOR THIS TO WORK .
I ALSO MADE MY OWN AXLE USING ISETTA PARTS
AND A SET OF SPIRAL BEVEL GEARS .
MID ENGINE , NORTH SOUTH CRANK & DRIVESHAFT , NO CHAINS .
IT IS LAID OUT LIKE A BMW BIKE AND IT ALL FITS WITHIN THE ISETTA BODYSHELL .
3 TIMES THE STOCK HORSEPOWER BUT STILL NOT A HOTROD FOR INSURANCE PURPOSES . IT’LL EASILY DO 80 .
“IT’LL EASILY DO 80”.
I’m an adrenalin junky to some degree, who is also ADHD. I’ve done my share of straight line and oval racing, both dirt & asphalt. Jumped out of an airplane. Done a LOT of stuff when I was young, that I won’t do today.
Until reading the above quote, the only time I thought an Isetta would ever travel on a road at that speed, was if it was being pushed by a big truck doing 80, because the truck driver didn’t realize the Isetta was stuck to his bumper!
I’ve driven Isettas. At speeds above 55 I began to be worried about my future!
If I was lucky enough to get in it, I know I’d never get out.
They would have to call the fire dept. to cut me out. lol
I second that Big AL! Although I lost 95 pounds in the last year, I’m still 6 feet tall and over 250 pounds. Call out the jaws of life for my fat azz lol!
Stevieg congratulations on losing 95 pounds !!!
It’s tough to lose the weight.
Yes, they’d have to use the jaws of life for
me too !!! LMAO
Ah, an excellent candidate to convert to electric.
Electric cars are a giant fraud, as is ALL of allegedly ¨green¨ energy. This international insanity will destroy our nature within the next 100 years. There is NOTHING to justify this madness. The by far most plausible engine is the modern Diesel. Solar and wind energies are the most wasteful, destructive and uglyfying technologies ever dreamed up, they are unrecyclable being made of toxic materials, they kill nature wherever they are installed, they are ugly as original sin and are extremely inefficient only existing via massive government subsidies. The same criminals who ¨saved the world ¨ from the 2-stroke engine, thereby destroying entire viable industries are behind this rogue science-fraud.
I totally disagree.
Electric cars are going to cause the demise of true auto enthusiasts…IMHO.
Wow! That escalated quickly!
And don’t even get me started on 5G!
Where are the batteries going, the whole back seat area?
The later 600 came in a limo configuration(sic). It had a side door. Im 5 9 110lbs and I couldn’t get in the back. LOL
That´s strange, I am 5-11 and weigh 72 kilos and had no difficulties entering either the Isetta or the BMW 6OO affectionally known as the Stretch ¨Isetta¨ in the US.
The front yes, but in the back seat?
I have to agree with Gerard. When I ran my restoration shop I worked on and/or restored several Isettas and early BMWs up to and including the 3200 V8 Baroque Angel. At 6’2″ and 260 pounds I never had any problem getting in or out of any Isetta. I eventually lost 65 pounds, so I guess it would be even easier now!
They also have a green one for sale.
Could be wrong here, but the rust and dents shown make me wonder if this has a fiberglass body…anyone know for sure?
Steel. ( my brother has an Isetta).
It’s all steel, any other questions let me know, it’s ours. We have several more as well.
I remember seeing the local librarian’s Isetta and I could never figure out how the steering wheel moved when the front door was opened, but I thought it was amazing. (And still do.)
Isetta bodies are steel. No fiberglass.
There were ads for these for $25 in the back of Popular Science magazine in the 60’s. I begged and begged for permission to buy one to no avail. Damn it!
I remember having a toy one of these. Yes, I played with cars and dolls. Not sure of the scale but it was metal and quite large, maybe a 1/12. It was very unique. Wish I still had that toy.
Hmmmm…. Maybe a Hayabusa swap would be a bit much, but a Vtwin Briggs with dual exhaust should move this thing just fine.
Harley engine!
As kids we used to bounce the head masters Isetta so the door was facing the wall , stopped him getting in it . Great fun!
In the early to mid 1970s I was living in central Germany, in the Rhine valley, courtesy of the US Army. Once word got out I was a collector of “Alte Autos”, I found myself being offered Isettas and Messerschmitts in complete, running, and inspected condition, for as little as 300DM, or around $100.
I remember having to turn down a Messerschmitt KR200 4-wheel car. It had been factory fitted with a 2 cylinder, 2-stroke air-cooled motor intended for the Trabant 601, it was all original and very nice, garaged all the time. The owner showed me papers indicating it was one of only 3 made with the Trabi motor, as a factory experiment. The price: He came way down to only 100DM [about $35], and I learned later he sent it to the junkman in Ladenberg, because no one wanted it. The scrap value of aluminum was more that the car’s value I guess.
Problem was, I already had 2 cars on base when as a single enlisted man I was only permitted one car. I simply had no place to put them. Renting a safe and dry storage facility was also out of the question due to the expense. While it had been 25 years since WW2, there was still a shortage of all types of buildings in the Mannheim-Heidelberg area. And then there was the problem & expense of getting them back to North America.
A 4-wheeled KR 200? with an engine from a Traband?, WOW now I have heard everything. The 500cc 2-stroke twin in the Tiger was doubtlessly superior to the Trabant powerplant having been designed by Fichtel &Sachs and modified by Herr Fend, the originator of the Messerschmitt. Why on earth would anyone play around with ancient-age Trabant technology? Why a 4-wheeler when a 4-wheel Tiger was already on the drawing boards? Questions, questions. I think what it was was a one-off designed and built by an intrepid back yard mechanic, because with the larger engine, the frame, brakes and the wheel geometry had to be changed. I always thought of installing a Victoria 4-stroke twin, which would have required only up graded breaks.