The Smallest

The Worlds Smallest Production Car

http://www.vincelewis.net/smallcar.html

The worlds smallest production car was built by PEC - The Peel Engineering Company, on The Isle Of Man between 1962 and 1965. The Peel Engineering Company were originally makers of fibre-glass fairings and small boats when they turned their skills into car production.  It was called the Peel P50 and first retailed for £150. It is the only car ever manufactured on the Isle of Man.

The car in the  picture is of a 1964 Peel P50.

It was 4ft 5in long, 3ft 3in wide and 3ft 5in high and weighed of 131 Lb, not including the driver ! the top speed was 38 to 40 mph with the wind behind you, driving on 5 inch wide Avon Kart wheels and tires.

The car had normal pedals to brake , accelerate and change gear but with no starter motor on the ignition a cranking  lever was provided to start the engine. The Peel had a column shift quadrant gear selector. There was a complete absence of instruments, there was not even a speedometer due to the fact that the car would never go fast enough to exceed any road speed limits, hence it was deemed unnecessary.

It was powered by a small single cylinder 49cc 2 stroke Zweirad Union DKW Moped engine that produced a maximum power output of 4.2bhp @ 6,600rpm. The fuel consumption was claimed to be around 100 miles per gallon. Below a gentleman has kindly lifted the Peel over so that we can have a better view of its little 49cc engine...thank you sir !  If I can just add...that axel looks a bit weak!

The chassis was actually constructed from welded tubular steel, with the car body shell being made from Glass Fibre. There was three standard colors for the Peel car and they were Dragon Red, Daytona White and Capri Blue.

The P50 was a single seater with no reverse gear, but this was not a problem...you simply picked the car up and turned it around yourself with the handle that was attached to the rear of the car. Or you could just grab it by the bumper!

On this first production P50 the drive wheel was at the front!

The Peel P50 was not a great success as it was noisy, cramped and unstable in that it could tip over if it was driven over uneven ground. It didn't accelerate very fast and was not very comfortable and every bump in the road could be felt through its tiny springs. The worst part about it though was that it could disintegrate if it was struck by another vehicle and the driver could be easily hurt or killed.

On the plus side it was cheap and very easy to maintain, you could just roll it on its side to change a flat tire and it would only take about 2 minutes to wash it. As stated earlier parking was NEVER a problem as it could be pushed into the smallest of spaces imaginable. The car could even be picked up, and literally dropped into a parking place.

We are surrounded by all kinds of animals. But most of the earth's creatures we can't even see. To meet these hidden organisms the Russian photographer Daniel Stoupin photographed them with a microscope.

The smallest creature in the world is either a virus, if you count microbes that or a fairy fly.A fairy fly is actually a bee but does not sting us.It is under 0.5mm long!

If you count smaller-than-microbes,people say an atom is the smallest. this is .not true. atoms are made up of the nucleus, and the electrons. the electrons are made up of even smaller particles called quarks(nothing to do with ducks).

However, the quarks