British Microcars, 1947-2002

From the 1940s to the 1960s, the microcar posed a challenge to the large companies that mass-produced cars to uniform designs. The microcar was the opposite, produced by small entrepreneurial start-ups using quirky
design concepts that offered motorists cheaper and more economical vehicles. This book is a beautifully illustrated history of the British microcar, from the early days of Bond and Reliant to the proliferation of micro marques during the 1950s and their demise during the 1960s. It explores many eccentric British concepts, comparing the cars to their influential European competitors, examining the social and economic reasons for the decline and disappearance of the microcar, but also saluting the signs of a microcar renaissance in the twenty-first century, this time from mainstream manufacturers.

Duncan Cameron worked for the British Council for many years and now is resident in Brighton, UK, not far from the finishing line of the Veteran Car Run. He has been a contributor for many years to a series of educational books about international business. He became fascinated by cars in the 1950s after his mother bought an Isetta, and still has a photographic memory for cars of that period.