Larmar
The Larmar microcar is probably the narrowest car ever built. It was produced from 1946 to 1951 by Larmar Engeenering Co., Ltd. from England. This car is designed to fit between a standard British garden gate which is two feet six inches. It was made for women primarily to go used as a shopping car right after World War Two.
With that in mind one of the things that have that’s kind of surprising is a pretty usable trunk. If you were to measure the volume of the trunk to the volume of the entire car the Larmar would be better than pretty much anything else in the world.
The convertible microcar got a BSA 1-cylinder, 4-stroke, air-cooled 246 cc engine making about 7.5 horsepower and that’s really the maximum amount of horsepower you want in something that’s more narrow than a lot of people. The engine is located in the rear. It drives the rear wheels. Top speed is only 35 mph.
Inside it’s got controls for either hand operation or foot operation and it has very absurd gear shifts on the right of the driver’s seat of the 3-speed manual gearbox.
Its mechanical underpinnings were quite sophisticated compared to other vehicles of the type, having four-wheel independent suspension with large coils at the front and torque tubes with quarter elliptic springs at the rear. It was constantly being developed, finally receiving a 350-cubic centimeter twin in 1950.
We know that only few of Larmar microcars were made and sold. It’s a fascinating machine though it’s filling a really specific niche. So if you really need a small shopping car and for whatever reason it’s completely beneath you to do any walking whatsoever even to the point of getting through your gate this car is by far the best choice for you. Whoever saw this and thought finally.
Larmar photos
