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Description
This 1958 BMW Isetta "bubble car" and matching trailer owned by Ken and Lorrain Mullin were displayed at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento. The Isetta is not the smallest car in the world, but it does hold at least two other records. It was the first car to achieve a fuel economy of 94 miles per gallon, and was the most popular car with a one-cylinder engine. Its top speed of 53 miles per hour was fast enough for postwar Europe, and it could be driven with a motorcycle license in some countries due to its three-wheeled configuration, but in 1950s America the chrome-and-tailfin "big boats" ruled the roads...at least until the recession at the end of the Eisenhower administration forced a lot of people to look at small, economical imports from Europe and Japan...

Description
This 1958 BMW Isetta "bubble car" and matching trailer owned by Ken and Lorrain Mullin were displayed at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento. The Isetta is not the smallest car in the world, but it does hold at least two other records. It was the first car to achieve a fuel economy of 94 miles per gallon, and was the most popular car with a one-cylinder engine. Its top speed of 53 miles per hour was fast enough for postwar Europe, and it could be driven with a motorcycle license in some countries due to its three-wheeled configuration, but in 1950s America the chrome-and-tailfin "big boats" ruled the roads...at least until the recession at the end of the Eisenhower administration forced a lot of people to look at small, economical imports from Europe and Japan...