---
title: 'The Refrigerator Car That Saved BMW: Jay Leno’s Isetta 300 Drive | Jay Leno''s Garage'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=YX2R-avn1ZE'
video_id: 'YX2R-avn1ZE'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 1814
---

# The Refrigerator Car That Saved BMW: Jay Leno’s Isetta 300 Drive | Jay Leno's Garage

> Source: [The Refrigerator Car That Saved BMW: Jay Leno’s Isetta 300 Drive | Jay Leno's Garage](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YX2R-avn1ZE)

## Summary

Jay Leno's Garage features the 1958 BMW Isetta 300, a microcar that saved BMW after World War II. The video explores its quirky design, including a front door sourced from a freezer, and its single-cylinder 300cc engine. Leno and owner Danny Paddling discuss the car's history and take it for a test drive, highlighting its charm and surprising capability.

### Key Points

- **Introduction of the 1958 BMW Isetta 300** [0:50] — The car featured is a 1958 BMW Isetta 300, which literally saved the company after WWII.
- **Post-War Context** [1:14] — After the war, Germany was devastated and not allowed to build war-worthy vehicles, forcing BMW to adapt.
- **Italian Origins** [1:28] — The Isetta was originally an Italian car produced by Iso; BMW bought the rights and produced it in Germany.
- **Engine Specifications** [1:38] — BMW installed a four-stroke motorcycle engine, a single cylinder 300cc, making it dependable.
- **Sales Success** [2:07] — BMW sold over 160,000 Isettas, which funded the development of later high-performance models.
- **Freezer Door Design** [2:48] — The front door was originally a freezer door because the Italian manufacturer also made refrigerators.
- **Three-Wheel Variant for UK** [3:52] — In England, the Isetta was built with three wheels to avoid the oppressive car tax on four-wheeled vehicles.
- **Horsepower** [8:02] — Later models had 13 horsepower from the 300cc engine; earlier 250cc versions had 12 horsepower.
- **Price in America** [9:51] — The Isetta cost a little over $1,100 new in the US, comparable to a Volkswagen.
- **Total Production** [13:20] — Approximately 203,000 Isettas were produced across all licensees, with about 25% still remaining.
- **Car Length** [15:41] — The entire car is only 7.5 feet long, allowing it to park perpendicular to the curb.
- **Mille Miglia Participation** [27:49] — Four Isettas ran the 1,000-mile Mille Miglia in 1954 and all finished, starting first and finishing last.

## Transcript

For how small it is, it's pretty
comfortable going along. You're not
getting rattled to death.
>> Look what's coming up next to us here.
>> Oh, nice Chevy.
>> The horn's really above its pay grade.
>> Yeah, it it screams like a big guy. I
mean, it certainly gets points for
originality.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> You don't you don't see many of them
around. And if you do, typically not
drive it.
>> Just makes you smile riding along.
>> It's a cartoon car.
>> Welcome to the episode of Jay Lo's
Garage. The car we're featuring today,
1958 BMW Isetta 300. This is the car
that literally saved the company. It
doesn't look like much of a hero, but it
really did. You know, those of you that
enjoy your BMWs and your MClass and your
CLS coups and all the cool BMWs or even
the motorcycles, you owe your success or
at least what you have to this car.
Because what happened was after the war,
Germany was devastated. They were not
allowed to build any automotive product
that could be deemed war worthy, trucks,
heavy equipment, that type of thing. So
BMW really didn't know what to do. The
Asetta was an Italian car. It was
produced in Italy. BMW bought it and
decided to produce it in Germany. They
put a BMW four-stroke motorcycle engine
in it. Single cylinder 300 cc's and
using, I think, real good German
engineering prowess. They made it a
dependable family car. It seems silly
thinking this is a family car, but it
really was because Germany was just
devastated. All of Europe was
devastated. The Marshall plan was a plan
where American companies went to Europe
and without colonizing rather or or
trying to take over we just helped them
out. We gave money to Fiat, gave money
this given to German companies and BMW
produced this. This is how they made
money. They sold over 160,000 of these.
I mean, you know, you know how they say
the uh SUV safe Porsche. How many 911s
can you sell over the at the cost of
$100,000? you know, so they produced the
SUVs and that allowed them to grow as a
company and produce more 911s and this
allowed BMW to produce the high
performance motorcycles and sports cars
we see today. All right, let's meet the
man who owns this one, Danny Paddling.
Danny, come on in, my friend.
>> You seem a little tall for this car.
>> Yeah, very much so.
>> These are fascinating. You know, the fun
thing about this vehicle is this front
door. The company that produced these in
Italy, they also made freezers and
refrigerators. That's why it has this.
This is a freezer door. This is a door
off a deep freezer. And you
>> Etherm was Yeah. Just very funny, you
know. Just use what you have, you know.
I always like lowbudget movies because
people are creative, you know. They they
come up with ways to get things instead
of using special effects or they really
get good writers or good acting. And
that's what this is. This is some real
solid engineering in these because these
were actually quite dependable. They
came to this country and they were they
were a hit here too.
>> They were they they use them as yacht
tenders a lot more here and golf golf
carts in a sense.
>> It would have been a little bit hard to
go anywhere in the US with these other
than in the city. But in Europe they
really did well as a city car as a
proper enclosed scooter in a sense. Now,
when they built it in Italy and in
Germany, often time it had four wheels,
two in the front and two in the back.
But when they built it in England, this
is the one we all know because it's a
three-wheeler. See, in England, anything
less than four wheels did not pay the
oppressive car tax. You had this huge
car tax, which doesn't seem like much in
hindsight, but at the time,
>> half of what the car tax would have been
at the time for a motorcycle.
>> That's what it means. So, that you could
register this as an enclosed motorcycle
or whatever they want to call it. So
that's why that's why they produced it
with the three wheels and and put the
steering wheel on the other side and did
all that all that kind of stuff. Now, as
I said before, when these were built in
England, they built as three wheels to
save money. But in Germany, France, even
in America, that was not an issue. So
they built them a little more stability
with the four wheels. But it's basically
the same problem that you have with the
three-wheel. You got the two inboard
wheels like this. If they building this
today, it would just be one big wide
wheel probably. Probably. So you got to
So if if there's a pothole in the road,
you're going to hit it with something
because it is like an equilateral
triangle. Like it's, you know, you guess
like it's like like a Dorito. It's like
this. You're going to hit it with
something. The back.
>> Yeah. Hilarious. Very funny. But this is
this will probably be a little more
stable than one of those three-wheeler
ones. So because when I first saw this
come in, I just assumed it was a
three-wheeler, but now I realize no,
that's not true. And it's a chain
transmission, basically like a
motorcycle.
>> Chain drive straight to the axle.
>> And this is would have been a family
car. Dad comes home with a new car. Hey,
take a look at that, kids. That's for
the man who carries success with ease.
Yes. S Bob, this is this is the future.
Yeah, it's really funny.
>> Yeah, they really had to go through a
lot of work to redesign it to switch it
over to right-hand drive, but that would
have been um Brighton Railway Works, I
believe, is the producer that car.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, there's kind of a fun
story behind these. BMW beefed it up a
little bit. See this? These big I guess
this is part of the frame, but this
keeps it
>> that would be what bumper what you could
call a bumper on this. I don't know what
it would stop.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I look, you get hit in this.
I'm sorry. Yeah.
>> Yeah. Not making that one, that's for
sure. That's This wasn't a luxury. This
was your escape hatch right here
>> because Yeah. When you get hit, you're
not getting out that door, you know, you
get hit in this thing. But Yeah. But
they're funny. I'm I'm anxious. You
know, in all the years I've been doing
this, we've never driven one of these.
So, I'm I'm excited about it. But it
just looks very German. You know, I had
to say that even though it's Italian,
it's Well, the Germans do well with
Italian stuff. You know, they bought
Ducati, they bought Lamborghini.
>> They they seem to reinvent the wheel
pretty good over there.
>> Well, they're they're real good at
wiring and engineering. I mean, you
know, being Italian myself, I know how
that is. I got a lot of Italian cars and
let's put the wires. They're fine.
They're beautiful to look at. They
>> underneath maybe not so much.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Not so much. Yeah. So,
that's where you need the Germans. And
they do and they do just a wonderful
job. I mean, this looks like something
right out of Volkswagen. That's a
beautifully made steering wheel.
>> Really?
>> It really is.
>> You know, there's nothing cheap looking
about this car. I mean, it looks like
all quality stuff. Look the way this
door opens. Got your freezer unit right
here. You put your frozen peas and stuff
right in there. Yeah. Yeah. It's just
It's just such an odd automobile. It's
just It could only come from Italy. This
would not come from the mind of a
German. Why would the door open this
way? It does not make sense for a door
to open this way. You know, when I
worked in Mercedes as a kid, cup
holders, why would you drink in the car
while you're driving? It is silly to
have you do not a cup. You should not
have a cup in your car. Well, of course,
Americans want their 44 ounce big gulp
and they eventually succumb. And when
they come up with a you ever see the the
the the cup holder, the German you press
it say it turns, it goes this way, it
comes around. Um you Yeah. Hilarious.
>> They don't they're not so much a cup
holder as a can holder in those. I have
a I have a Porsche Cayman and that is I
don't really use them. They never really
pop out. So,
>> Right. Right. Yeah. It's very funny.
>> It's an afterthought. It's a single
cylinder 300cc's.
I would get that to be what, 12, 13
horsepower?
>> The earlier cars would have been 12
horsepower and 250 cc's. The later cars
had 13 with 300. And it didn't really
add to the top speed. It was more torque
to get up those.
>> So, this is the big block.
>> This is the big block.
>> Okay. So, you got the big block. If it
sounds like it's running on one
cylinder, that's cuz it is. It's only
got one cylinder.
>> Very lumpy.
>> Yeah. Very funny. Well, let's show
people the engine. Can you open that up?
>> Here. Let's pop the key out.
It is an air cooled motor. Yes, it would
be air cooled. And it's not a motorcycle
motor, but it is designed off the the
R25, I believe.
>> Right. Okay. And the key is really just
a uh
>> just a a little wrench in a sense.
>> Just a little wrench. Yeah. Okay.
>> See, and this acts as a fan that throws
cool air up to the cylinder head. Ammo
carburetor, I think, isn't that? Yeah.
Yep. Motorcycle carburetor. Very very
simple.
>> Yeah. Interesting. And you put the kids
back here, which makes me laugh. Yeah.
>> That or you know, you could squeeze them
in between you, but it might be a tight
fit. They'd have to be some really small
kids to get more than two people in
there.
>> But here's your fan. This spins.
>> Yep.
>> And that throws cool air up into the
sill. Yeah. I never heard about any of
these overheating, so I guess it works
quite well.
>> It seems to. I mean, they they didn't
really have too many revisions. The ESOs
came as two-strokes and then BMW decided
to make it a little bit more reliable
with the four- stroke and the torque of
a four- stroke.
>> Right.
>> So, that helped it out a lot.
>> Only they didn't make too many changes.
One of the significant ones, the ESOS
had the headlamps in the in the wings
right there.
>> BMW then brought them up, mounted them
on the side side windows. They slid so
you didn't get hot boxed in there in a
sense. And
>> And what did this cost in America? new
>> little over $1,100, I believe.
>> Okay. Well, yeah, that's about what a
Volkswagen was.
>> Yeah.
>> Well, the Volkswagen got three extra
cylinders.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> But that was probably 13 or $1,400.
>> Little I think
>> you have to think of hundreds as we
would think of thousands. Very much so.
>> So, $100 is really $1,000. That's Oh my
god, that's a third of the price of the
car, you know, by the time you add it
all up. Okay.
>> And they had a optional heater. I don't
know how much that was extra, but
>> couldn't have been more than 40.
Probably a gas heater. You light it with
a match and Yeah,
>> probably.
>> And look at the minuscule. Look at the
little gas pedal and the brake and
clutch. And it's it's a four-speed
transmission correct?
>> Yes. It's a
>> No skimping there.
>> Four-speed motorcycle gearbox. And it is
a reverse
>> backwards. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
>> All right. And it's got this optional
sunroof. Paid a little extra for that, I
imagine. Yeah.
>> It's not luxury. It's a necessity. It's
your escape hatch right there.
>> Oh, I get So, did they all have it?
>> Yes, they all have it. So
>> if you get hit in the front, you're
without that, you're in a situation.
>> Oh, I see. No, you're in a tin can is
what you're in. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Very good. Okay. And do you have do you
have to tickle a carburetor to start it?
No, you can just start it, right?
>> Yeah. It started right up. Yeah.
>> The other day today gave us a little
trouble, but it starts for a single
cylinder 13 horsepower car that you
wouldn't think on the road, it does
pretty good.
>> And there's no provision to kickstart
it, right? It's electric starter.
>> Electric start. Uh generator start. D.
They call it a dino start system.
>> Oh, so it's when it's not starting the
car, it's charging the system.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. So, it's always connected. All
right. Very good. All right. And there's
no trunk or anything. No.
>> The back shelf. That's it.
>> Well, let's get in. Let's take it for a
ride. Let's put this the door back on
here. And it's rear wheel drive, right?
Not frontwheel drive.
>> Yes, it is a rear wheel drive. And it is
there's no differential on it. The
reason the track is so skinny is so it
can just chain drive right to the uh
axle.
>> And the advantage is with this, if
there's a pothole in the road, you'll
hit it with at least one wheel. If you
don't get it with two outer wheels, then
you'll hit it with the inner wheel. I
got a Morgan three-wheeler. And you
cannot avoid if there's a pothole, it's
either here, here, or here. So,
>> oh yeah,
>> you're hitting it in one of the three
wheels.
>> Yeah. You got the equilateral triangle
there where you're going to you're just
going to hit anything that's in the
road.
>> Hilarious. Okay. It it's how it's people
believe how devastated Europe was. There
was just no money.
>> There was nothing.
>> The French car industry decimated. They
used to build the most beautiful luxury
cars. Nothing. There was no no money to
buy any of this.
>> They went I mean they went from making
Bugattis to making the douche. Yeah.
>> It was really Europe had to completely
change everything that they were doing
to survive. I mean, the way we think of
Middle Eastern wealth now with the oil
was the way people in Europe thought of
people from Texas. They had oil, the big
Texas guy with the cigar and the
Cadillac and he would go to Europe and
buy up all these great works of art and
take them back to his ranch and and they
built well over cuz I continued to build
it also, didn't they?
>> Oh, they sold it after.
>> They sold the licensing. They produced I
think it was some somewhere along the
lines of 5,000 cars. They sold the
licensing to BMW and then at the same
time they sold the tooling to ROI in in
Brazil and they produced a ton.
>> So did Volam in France. They produced um
some with a little bit of variation.
>> So there are hundreds of thousands of
these out there.
>> About 203,000 is
>> how many remain?
>> How many? 25% I'd say give or take.
>> Yeah, cuz I see them all over the place.
You know, a lot of rich guys like to
have these in their collections up near
the front. You know,
>> every good museum has one in their
collection.
>> Well, let's take a ride. Can we give it
a shot?
>> Yeah, let's go right ahead.
>> Let's get inside this baby. Well, this
is hilarious. Okay, let me see here.
Just step in here.
>> Yep.
>> Well, it's easier to get into the
mirror.
>> Don't have to bend down as much.
>> Oh, look at that. There you go.
>> We'll just scoot over and squeeze on in.
Good thing I'm skinny.
>> Here we go.
>> Then we just close the door.
>> Here we go.
>> That's closed.
>> All right. Gee, it's not claustrophobic.
Well, this is hilarious. Here we
Oh, boy. All 13 horsepower.
There we go.
It goes pretty good.
>> Yeah.
>> Does make you smile. It's pretty fun.
>> It does.
>> Now, once again, this has a 300. So,
this is the big block motor.
>> This is the big block. All 13
horsepower. Not the not the two not the
250.
>> There we go.
It feels pretty good.
>> Yeah.
>> It's a car.
>> Yeah. Pretty nice.
>> It's two people moving.
>> I mean, going downhill, you can get some
real speed with it.
>> Oh, yeah. You I don't know if you'd want
to get real speed, but you could. might
be a little bit scary, but
>> you know, for around town, it's
perfectly fine.
>> Yeah. For LA, it's the perfect car.
>> Yeah. For LA. Yeah.
>> You know those tiny parking spaces that
everyone messes up on? You just pull
right in and unload right onto the curb.
>> And you get by long horizontally or
whatever you want.
>> Oh, yeah. 7 and 1/2 ft long. That's how
long the whole car is.
>> Yeah. It It was actually designed so you
could just pull straight into the curb
and just open up the door and walk out.
All right. It's kind of the most
well-built micro car of them all. Why it
was so popular.
I mean, the Mesher Schmidt, you had a
little canopy like a, you know, fighter
plane. You had to climb in and that had
the uh the yolks
>> and that had the bigger motor. Was that
a 500?
>> I actually believe that was a smaller
motor. I think it was still only 250.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Let me drop down a third. Yeah. I get a
little more power.
>> Yeah. Fourth is the downhill gear.
>> Yeah. You know, this is all right. It's
pretty good.
>> Yeah.
>> And everyone smiles at you.
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah.
>> The horn throwing above its pay grade.
>> Yeah. It It screams like a big guy.
>> For how small it is, it's pretty
comfortable going along.
>> It's quite comfortable.
You're not getting rattled to death.
>> Look what's coming up in excellence
here.
>> Oh, nice Chevy.
I
>> mean, it certainly gets points for
originality.
>> Oh, yeah. You don't you don't see many
of them around. And if you do, typically
not drive it. They typically, you know,
sit in a museum and they're eye candy.
>> And this was this was in a you know, in
a shop for a long time.
>> I mean, it's really an enclosed motor
scooter. Yeah, very much so. It's a it's
an in between. You know, there's not the
full creature comforts of a car, but
it's not, you know, open and out in the
elements like a motorcycle.
>> Yeah. I mean, if you want to go look at
Christmas lights, it's perfect.
>> Yeah.
>> Just makes you smile riding along.
>> Yeah.
>> It's a cartoon car.
>> Well, I like that era when you could
just design anything you wanted and you
could put it on the road. Nowadays, the
headlight has to be this high. The
wheels are too close together because
there's just all kinds of reasons why
you wouldn't even be allowed to build
it.
>> Yeah. This was a time when the idea was
to get Germany back on its feet. People
had to go from one point to another as
cheaply as possible,
>> you know. So,
>> it was a war torn nation and, you know,
war torn Europe in all honesty. And this
is why so many people this work this was
the perfect car for them.
>> I mean 160,000 that's pretty amazing.
>> It really is. I mean I I don't know the
measurement production numbers but I
know ESO with their original version
didn't even come close to that. None of
the other licensed built copies did
either.
>> BMW makes up a good 34 of the production
of my
Yeah, you you can keep up with traffic.
Almost.
>> Almost.
>> You wouldn't want to go on a freeway,
but around LA, you don't get up to
enough speed to
>> No, I don't even think this engine is
big enough to be allowed on the freeway.
>> I I don't think I'd ever test it. I
would be too scared with the semiis and
pickups but
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, my 1909
Baker electric car, I would take when I
drive it sometimes to NBC, I would take
it on the freeway, but only if the
freeway is bumper to bumper cuz the top
speed was 22 mph. So, I could get on and
go to exit to get off.
>> Yeah.
>> Had to be middle of a middle of traffic
though, rush hour in LA.
>> That would have been a sight to see. I'm
surprised there's no tachometer in this
thing just to give you some idea what
your revs are.
>> It was a very basic car and I guess you
know they weren't worried about somebody
damaging it.
We're doing all right now. Look at this.
And today's a perfect day cuz in a hot
California day you burn up in this
thing. Very true. I mean, when you have
the Yeah. You target your roof there,
hold back,
>> the necessity, not a luxury.
>> Yeah. Walk here is really almost an
overdrive. You got to be going flat out
on it.
>> I mean, it's fun to drive. And if you
live in a little village in Bavaria to
go from here and your factory is like 5
miles away, it's perfect, you know.
>> Yeah.
>> You know, put your basket eggs in the
back that you take home pick up on the
way home and you're good to go.
I think I think your t I think your
tachonometer is right here. See
red ready for each gear.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. It's not bad. It's all right.
>> It goes and it stops. Keeps up. It's
about the speed of my Topelino. And
that's a fourcylinder.
And that had 500 cc's, right?
>> Yeah, about that. I got 6 on the
job done as a city car.
>> Very very well. Yeah. Couldn't ask for
anything more.
>> Well, actually, you could.
>> You could, you know, then you just been
picky.
>> You wouldn't have gotten it, but
>> yeah. All you get was a heater.
>> And Germans are pretty big, so they put
a lot of leg room in this thing, you
know.
>> Yeah. A lot lot of area for it to
collapse into your knees.
>> Right. Right. Yeah.
>> The nice thing with this car is you have
an accident, you're the first one on the
scene because it's right here.
>> Yeah.
>> It's a foot away from you.
>> Yeah. There you go. Right here. Yeah.
>> It's quite good ventilation, too, with
these sliding windows.
>> Not bad. Not bad.
Look how many cars. Look how many cars.
I guarantee you we're in all their days,
though.
>> Look at that. Jesus.
Where did they come from?
>> I know.
Sounds about right.
>> Here comes the first real test.
>> Yeah. And we're climbing the hill. Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> Not struggling yet.
>> I don't think we could climb in fourth
gear, but third gear are okay. for this
more of a downhill overdrive.
>> Yeah.
>> Took that pretty good for having two
people on it.
>> Yeah, it's usable.
>> We're going for the speed record here.
>> Honda Civics look like Peter build
trucks going by.
>> Yeah. really makes you realize how big
cars have gotten over the years. You
feel dwarfed.
Actually,
a climbs hills okay. It's not great, but
you can climb the hill.
>> Yeah, with one person it would do a lot
better, but it was all right. It gets
you there, just not quickly.
>> I mean, the two of us together probably
almost match the weight of the vehicle.
You have to think like an ant carrying a
cube with sugar, you know?
>> Yeah. It's carrying twice as in between
>> and it's doing it pretty well, I got to
say. Yeah, not bad. I really want to
take this up through the Rockies, but
that would be an interesting one.
>> I mean, we are getting up the hill,
especially in Germany where they're real
hill.
>> Yeah.
>> I can only picture it in the German Alps
out there, you know.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Trying to struggle up
>> now. Downhill. This is where you make up
your speed. Now you almost feel like
you're in a real car.
>> Yeah. Can almost trick you into taking
it on a trip.
You know, I think with a twin cylinder
engine, it would be not perfect, but a
lot better.
>> Yeah,
>> it's just a, you know, a 300cc single
cylinder, even on a motor scooter that's
small.
>> I guess that's where the people get the
Kawasaki idea for these things. But I
I'd be too scared.
>> I don't know if I
>> I guess some people have done it, right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. There's been a few of them
that have been building. Actually, a
company started building them, I think,
in the '9s called the um
>> uh Zetta or something with a Z.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> And they they were a replica of the
Isetta with a Kawasaki motor.
>> Wow.
>> I'd be nervous about rolling it over
like an egg.
>> I know. Yeah.
>> Definitely got a look to it. That's for
sure. Nothing else like it.
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's it's a lot of
fun to drive. I mean, it's a quality
built car. Yeah, I like this German
plastic. Mercedes had the same color
wheel. I wonder if this is the natural
color of the plastic cuz all anytime I
see it and all sorts of different German
vehicles, it's always exactly the same.
I I never seen like a red steering wheel
or brown one. They all seem to be the
356s as well.
>> Yeah, this must be the natural color. I
don't know.
>> It is a very pretty steering wheel.
Simple.
>> Yeah, very simple. It's really
interesting to think that within 10
years they went from this to a 2002 well
1600.
>> Right. Right.
>> And and that was
>> Well, you know, I've got a Bristol
and that has the uh the engine out of
the uh 1930s BMW.
What a what a great motor. It's a 2 L 6
and it's extremely powerful. It feels
like a 3 and 1/2 L. I mean, it's a very
good motor.
>> BMW has always been good with their
motors in my in my opinion
>> and really good engineering.
They only built this cuz they were
forced to. They weren't allowed to
build,
you know, a big powerful vehicle.
>> Actually, they built the the 502
>> and that was a V8 handbuilt luxury car
>> and they and they failed. It was a flop.
And so this was they had to they had to
buy the rights to this to save the
company pretty much. It was already
there easy to be made.
>> That was the 507 sports car.
>> I mean Elvis Pres.
>> No, this would have been the saloon and
then the 507.
>> Right. Right.
>> I mean the same V8.
>> Same V8. Yes. Yes.
>> It's so funny. The saloons are are not
dirt cheap but pretty cheap. The 507s
are millions.
>> Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, and the the
50 uh 502 was was like a flagship car
for them. It was the first car they
designed after the war and the head at
that time wanted to come out with a
flagship, you know, Rolls-Royceesque
car.
>> Trouble is, nobody in Germany had their
money to buy it.
>> Nobody anywhere.
>> Right. So, it was just it was a giant
flop and and he had to turn around and
go, you know, this was at the uh
53 or 54 um Turin Motor Show, I think.
And that's where they that's where he
stumbled across it.
>> When I was a kid, I was in and nobody
had any money. Okay. Somebody had all
the money. I mean, the same amount
exists. So, where is it? If nobody has
it, where did it go?
>> Ford was spending it on the GT40s.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
But it's really crazy to think that, you
know, these ran four of these ran at the
Millilia in in 1954 and they all
finished the race. Started first and
finished last
>> and that was 1,000 miles.
>> 1,000 miles in a lesser version of this
cuz that was a two-stroke, you know,
250cc.
>> Yeah. But just as I were talking and
having a conversation and driving it
like it's a normal car, it makes me
laugh. You know,
>> you would I mean, it's not like we have
to constantly, you know,
>> fiddle around and look for a steam car.
You're const Oh, you're checking this,
you're doing that. You're making sure,
you know,
>> you just put the foot down and drive.
You don't really lift it either.
>> No, no. You just This is a classic case
of use all the power all the time.
>> Very much so. Going fast in a slow car
is a lot more fun and scary than going
fast.
>> I mean, it does it hasn't stalled. It
runs nice. No, it cleaned up pretty
good.
>> Well, Danny, thanks for bringing this.
This thing's a lot of fun.
>> Thank you for having me. It's been a
really fun day and I appreciate the
great conversation.
>> Yeah, I can't believe it took me this
long to drive one of these things, but
I'm glad I can around. There's so many
micro car museums in
>> the the Lane Auto Museum. There was the
Bruce Winer Microar Museum.
>> Oh, yeah. What happened to that one? uh
that he passed away and then RM actually
auctioned off a lot of those cars about
10 years ago, I believe.
>> Yeah, that's right.
>> He actually had one of these things with
a V8 in the back and it was a full-blown
drag car.
>> Oh, that's funny.
>> But it was really a interesting uh car.
>> And this is a nicely restored example.
It's nice and tight.
>> I think you got a good car on your hand.
>> Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Got the Leno seal of approval.
>> Yeah, there you are.
Well, Danny, thank you for bringing
this, my friend. A lot of fun. I can't
believe it took me this long to drive
one of these things. So, uh
you hope you enjoyed our little micro
car here. Uh it's a lot of fun. You
know, we're pretty eclectic here. You
never know what we're going to have. So,
check with us next week and we'll have
something totally different again. See
you later.
>> Just makes you laugh, I got to say.
>> Yeah, it does.