Local teen enjoys rescuing microcar

Asked about the interior of his 1958 BMW/Isetta 300, Connor McCann grabbed hold of the front handle and pulled. The door swung open, the metal steering wheel rolled out and there it was, the car's cushioned bench seat.

"I've always liked microcars in general," said McCann, a youthful car enthusiast from Charleston.

The rising freshman at Worchester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts drives a Chevrolet station wagon and formerly owned a rare MG Magnette. Midsummer, he obtained the 50-year-old Isetta bubble car, complete with one-cylinder, 13-hp engine, 3-gallon gas tank, four-speed gearbox and sunroof.

The tiny vehicles, which he dubbed "today's Smart cars," were popular in Europe in the 1950s due to their low price of around $1,000 and maneuverable size. The bubble cars, as they also were known, faded out by the mid-1960s as economies worldwide improved and manufacturers built somewhat roomier yet still affordable small cars.

Today, the microcars are rather rare. So when one surfaced in the

Hollywood-Ravenel area, McCann jumped at the chance. "It was much easier to get to" than finding a car online and bringing it to the Charleston area, he said from a small shop behind Mount Pleasant Radio Co. in Mount Pleasant, run by fellow car buff Wray Lemke.

McCann said he researched microcars, including on the Web site www.microcar.org. He also visited a bubble car museum in Madison, Ga., backed by the chief of, yes, Dubble Bubble Bubble Gum.

The ultra-mini cars' history is tied to two companies in particular, Italian-based Iso, and German carmaker manufacturer Heinkel. The Heinkel was a three-wheeler built first in Stuttgart and then in England by British manufacturer Trojan.

Iso SpA made the Isetta, with its notable combination nose-door, where motorists would park sideways and hop in and out the front. Another unusual feature: The car has four wheels, but the back two are closer together than the front tires. McCann said the company found it easier to license the Isetta for manufacture by other carmakers. The French version was the Velam. BMW, which made the cars 1954-63, built more than other carmakers and imported the bubble car to the United States.

"It was advertised (in America) as a second car, wife's car, a grocery-getter," he said.

The German carmaker doesn't note the connection much in its official history, but the Isetta link helped the carmaker through a struggling time after World War II, when Europeans couldn't afford its classic prewar luxury cars. BMW hung on with its Isetta sales before launching its 2002 series, a sporty not overly expensive compact considered in some circles as one of the most significant rollouts in automotive history.

McCann, who has taken part in the cross-country vintage car rally The Great Race, said he wants eventually to fix up the car's interior and exterior, including a paint job for the outside. His initial goal is to get the Isetta running again. One day earlier this month, he started it up briefly at the shop off Coleman Boulevard.

"I got some looks driving around the parking lot," McCann said.

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