Poland had the Smyk, a four-wheeled microcar with a front door, while Czechoslovakia produced the three-wheeled Velorex.In Budapest the government laid down the requirements for the Magyar microcar: it should be a closed, four-wheeled vehicle, powered by a motorcycle engine, and should be capable of carrying two adults, two children and some luggage.
As the price of petrol soars, fuel-sipping Japanese cars would normally zoom past rivals, but drivers won't buy what the makers don't make.The shortage of parts has delayed the launch of several models, such as Toyota's iQ microcar and Prius V, plus Honda's 2012 Civic and its CR-V (a cross between a sports-utility vehicle and a sedan).
Pentelenyi's Pente never went into production, but his prototypes and designs still proved useful to his successors.These post-war years of austerity and shortages turned out to be the golden age of the microcar across Europe.
The microcar is back, re-engineered for the 21st century.
Endre Suranyi, a former motorcycle-racer turned driver for Communist leaders, built his first microcar in 1946.
The next year the ministry declared that there was no winner, and the whole issue was dropped.Even so, in backyards and garages, Hungary's engineers and inventors did not give up their quest for the perfect Magyar microcar.
A perennial favourite is Swiss-based Rinspeed, which has, over the years, exhibited a car that can be transformed into a submarine, as well as an electric microcar that could slot into a special train, much like a book on a shelf.
In a move that might placate its disgruntled shareholders, DaimlerChrysler announced another overhaul at its loss-making Smart microcar unit, which includes scrapping the unpopular four-seater model.
From the outside, they look like a cross between a Volkswagen Beetle and a Smart Fortwo microcar.
As the Magyar microcar was not actually a car, it could drive through both the kiskapu and the thickets of Communist bureaucracy, or so the argument went, and so the microcar did, with some success.The Magyar microcar was the latest in a long line of Hungarian inventions that have shaped the modern world, including Laszlo Biro's ballpoint pen, the telephone exchange and holography.
The top-priced item, a 1958 rose-colored F.M.R. Tg500 "Tiger" — a racecar by microcar standards, capable of nearly 80 miles per hour — sold for $322,000.
