Putting Europe on wheels, after WW2..

[ironglowz]

  With the war over, and most western Europe and UK were left in varying degrees of shambles.  Roads very damaged, which were very narrow in comparison to ours in the first place.

  Gasoline(petrol or benzine) being hard to come by, they had to be economical, and also tough just to take the partially destroyed road surfaces.

    Utilize a few materials as possible..steel, aluminum, paints, etc.  European car builders responded, generally not what we Americans of today would like..but what answered their needs quite well.

  When I lived there (1962-1965) I was attracted to the engineering diversity of their cars & trucks.  At a time when virtually all our domestic cars were of the same pattern... front engine....rear wheel drive and basically the same style and engineering, the multitude of efforts of design was intriguing, to say the least !

  First off the inimitable Citroen 2CV, produced from 1948  through the 1990s, it was a French favorite that was used all over west Europe.;

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWL6-A5KceU

[ironglowz]

Italy found itself struggling as well..  After the war they needed an automobile to hjandle the narrow roads of Rome and Tuscany.  Also to be considered.. the Appenine mountains run up the center of the Italian peninsula (750 miles), and blend in with the Alps in northern Italy..where Fiat has it's home in the city of Turin...

  Thus, Italian cars must have decent brakes and corner well, to compensate for the narrow, twisty roads through the mountains..

  Yes, Italy had a super highway ! In fact they had the FIRST super highway, started pre war. It was called the "Autostrada", which Hitler shortly copied with his "Autobahn", and we followed with the Eisenhower network in 1953.

  ...But Italians still had to use the narrow, twisty roads for most of the time.

   So, Fiat developed the small but efficient Fiat 500..later on the 600 which had the same lines but on a larger scale, with a water cooled 4 in line engine.

     The 500      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmQAnljYgu4

   The 600   https://www.motor1.com/news/749321/fiat-600-1955-70year-story/

[Bob Riebe]

                                                                     Targa Florio
 
      Ah the same narrow roads that held the last great TRUE road race till 1973.  Parts of the 42 mile course on Sicily were broken up  pavement closure to a gravel road.
      It beat the heck out of the cars and safety gremlins finally caused the race to stop , although, the factories did not appreciate sending their high tech race cars to get beaten and broken at the track.

       

           

       

[ironglowz]

                                                                     Targa Florio
 
      Ah the same narrow roads that held the last great TRUE road race till 1973.  Parts of the 42 mile course on Sicily were broken up  pavement closure to a gravel road.
      It beat the heck out of the cars and safety gremlins finally caused the race to stop , although, the factories did not appreciate sending their high tech race cars to get beaten and broken at the track.

       

           

       

   Yes Bob, those road races were something to see !  The Monte Carlo is still going on from what I understand, and I consider the regular European road rallys a much better test of both car and driver, than any left turn only, race in a bowl.

  Here i the USA, with its spacious roads and more modern infrastructure, it is hard to understand how close things are there.  Even in the photos you furnished.
  it is evident that anyone dwelling in those houses, could reach out and lose a finger or hand on a racing car.

  I can recall as a GI, having a superfluous number of eggs on hand, tossing some into windows as we drove by in an open Jeep. (They don't use window screens) . 
   
   Rotten GIs ! No surprise some didn't like us..but that's another story ...

[ironglowz]

  There seems to be some common misunderstandings between Europe and the US, due primarily to cultures.

  I refer to an old axiom...  "to the US, 100 years is a long time..to a European, a hundred miles is a long way."

  Explanation;  In Europe, there are buildings, yes even houses, standing since the 11th century, thus a house 100 to 300 years old, to us, is an old building..

  On the other hand, while day trips alone may cover 2 or 3 hundred miles, for a European, 50 miles on a day trip is not exactly quite common.

  If you look at some of the cars shown here, you will notice that the seats are quite minimal.. for that reason.

  We are all familiar with the Beetle. so I am not dwelling upon it., but France had another entrant after WW2, the Renault 4CV..

  Enter, the Renault CV...   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmVyW-IHnY0

    https://www.erclassics.com/renault-4cv-cabriolet-1951-r1942/

   

[Bob Riebe]

      Yeah, the little "tiddlers" as the British call them; as youth from my age we generlly thought who would buy some thing you cannot get more than groceries in. or in a more practical , all your friends for a road trip.

      The VW and Isetta were , outside of a few British two seaters, were the only ones in my home town, AND, even though we were hot rod gear heads, thought the little Isetta was really cool.

      OH yes, as my parents and grandparents spoke German, the VW was a Folds Vagen.

[ironglowz]

      Yeah, the little "tiddlers" as the British call them; as youth from my age we generlly thought who would buy some thing you cannot get more than groceries in. or in a more practical , all your friends for a road trip.

      The VW and Isetta were , outside of a few British two seaters, were the only ones in my home town, AND, even though we were hot rod gear heads, thought the little Isetta was really cool.

      OH yes, as my parents and grandparents spoke German, the VW was a Folds Vagen.

   Yes, I intyended on showing the BMW Isetta too....Perhaps I'll do that next.  Corectt it is FolksVagen..or translated "Peoples Car"..

  I soon learned that Vs are pronounced as Fs ...and Ws are pronounced as Vs.    I suspect your grandparents were immigrants, so did they have difficulty pronouncing our TH sound ?  Germans in the homeland have trouble saying other than the regular T sound instead.

  This was used during that Battle of the Bulge, when MPs were checking for Otto Skorzeny's infiltrators, behind our lines.

   In the same way, they would ask our troops to say the number 88 !  ....And I can't convincingly speak it to this day..

  My Uncle John, who was very intelligent, and fought in WW2, said the great German gun used in tanks and artillery was 88mm instead of 90mm, because H is the 8th letter in the alphabet, and thus 88 was a salute.   To wit,  Heil Hitler..

   After a search... here's how 88 is pronounced.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejWGdnC3rnI

[ironglowz]

  Going truly minimal..  The BMW Isetta..

         The Isetta was originated by an Italian refrigerator maker, who promptly gave up on it..  BMW, offering luxury cars, wanted a truly economy car to fill out it's line and fulfil a surging demand for affordable cars.

  So, BMW bought the rights and manufactured them in Germany.  BMW made no fighter planes during WW2, but did provide engines for some, notably the Focke Wulf 190, which some rate as Germany's best of WW2.

  Yes; I even drove among them on the Autobahn. Naturally they rarely shared the hammer lane, with the other BMWs, Jaguars, Mercs, Lambos and Aston~Martins..

  Nevertheless there were numerous ones around...especially scooting through town and country.

  The Isetta 300...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKSS2blxUUo

  While stationed there, I had an old, 1950 Opel Olympia with beaucoup miles, and nearly bought a 600 model, since I had 2 boys, but I ended up getting a ex-poliezi Beetle.

  The Isetta 600...   https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1958-bmw-isetta-600-2/

[Bob Riebe]

           Ah Iso, pronounced EEso
           The went from this:

           

            To this:
           

             To these:
             
             

              To this and a few others:
             
             
             

[ironglowz]

  Then there was the real minimalist...  Messerschmitt made some great fighter aircraft during WW2, but as far as I know, they only tried their hand once in the auto field

    It was a true minimal car..  They were quite common, but I can't recall meeting any on the Autobahn.

  The Messerschmitt family must have been in the manufacturing business many years ago, since the name Messerschmitt translates to "bladesmith" or "knife smith"..

   Here's the Messerschmitt..   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYyyqKTLviU&t=40s