What the heck is this? A French barn find micro car in the UK that has not 3, not 4, but 5 wheels! The Acoma Mini Comtesse was produced from approximately 1974 to 1984, with this particular car being a 1975. It’s located in Billingham, Cleveland, UK and is for sale here on eBay UK where bidding is currently below 1,000 pounds but hasn’t yet met reserve.
As you can see, this is a truly tiny automobile! That’s a regular door on the right hand side and a gull wing door on the left. The Comtesse also has outrigger wheels to prevent Clarksonesque Reliant tip-overs. I have no idea if they are successful or not. Here’s a video of one being driven to give you an idea of what we’re talking about. Apparently mufflers weren’t a priority in the design! Parking, on the other hand, is world-class!
Apparently these little vehicles could be driven without a license in France in the 1970’s, which caused a boom in this type of car. By some accounts, Acoma ended up with 30% of the market and supposedly sold 3500 vehicles in 1979.
Needless to say, accommodations are pretty sparce. The seller says that it has a two-speed automatic with just a gas pedal and brake. There is a parking brake handle to the right of the driver’s seat. I think the last golf cart I drove was more comfortable looking!
49 cc, single cylinder powering the front center wheel. Based on the width of that front tire, I wouldn’t want to depend on it for traction! Eventually the company produced a four wheeled version with a 125 cc engine but this is the original configuration. I just can’t imagine wanting one of these when they were new–and we won’t even talk about crash protection or comfort! But I guess if that’s the only way I could drive a vehicle, I’d consider it. How about you?
The origin of the Falcon door revealed!
Ok, I laughed for a good 30 seconds after reading this! Not only that, but Blueprint is right!
Spot on. Love it. Good eye!
If it wouldn’t be $3,000 in shipping costs to get this to the US, it would be very, very tempting. Nice find!
I’m sure you can have it shipped for much less than $3,000 – contact an agent for Wallenius Wilhelmsen and ask about shipping it ro-ro (not in a container) – you should be pleasantly surprised. I shipped dozens and dozens of cars out of Southampton, UK that way and never had a problem nor did any of my cars sustain damage.
Thanks for the insider info, brakeservo!
Looks big next to a Peel 50 though . . .
Drove one of these last summer, It had a serious problem getting up a slight incline.
In other words, it wouldn’t be good for the mountains.
Something Mr. Bean would drive! It makes my Nissan Micra ,( I don’t think Micras’ are available in the States.) look huge.
Also known as the “American Pickers Clown Car”…
Any pictures of Mike Wolfe sitting in one of these. That’d be a hoot!
For really entertaining hour check out a hilarious study of Micro cars I found in this series on Amazon prime;
“James May’s Cars of the People
Series 1 Episode 2, 17 August 2014
James look back at the history of the Microcar; puts a Citroen 2CV and a Renault 4 to the test to see which is the most bulletproof; and participates in a race between a Honda Super Cub and a Japanese sports car to see which can deliver noodles faster.”
There is apparently at least one of these in Tucson, Az.but I don’t know if it’s for sale – look at the photos for this Corvette on Craigslist in Tucson and you’ll see another one of these micro-cars in the background of at least two pictures!
http://tucson.craigslist.org/cto/5598112581.html
how was it detirmed as a 1975? what’s the chassisnumber of the eb2?