The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum

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A Zundapp Janus from the museum's collection. Janus10.jpg
A Zündapp Janus from the museum's collection.

The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum was a museum in Madison, Georgia, United States, that held a large collection of microcars. The museum was created by Bruce Weiner, an executive of Dubble Bubble, who collected microcars as a hobby. [1]

The entire collection was auctioned off February 15–16, 2013. [2] The top selling price was for Lot 603, a 1958 F.M.R. Tg 500 'Tiger' that sold for $322,000. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

Microcar Smallest automobile classification

Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than 700 cc (43 cu in). Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes, and the Japanese equivalent is the kei car.

Isetta Motor vehicle

The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built under license in a number of different countries, including Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car, a name also given to other similar vehicles.

Honda S600 Motor vehicle

The Honda S600 is an automobile manufactured by Honda. It was launched in March 1964. Available as a roadster – bearing strong resemblance to the Honda S500 – and as a fastback coupé – introduced in March 1965 – the S600 was the first Honda available in two trim levels. During its production run up to 1966, the model styling would remain pretty much the same, with the most notable changes coming to the front grille, bumper, and headlights.

Biscúter

Biscúter was a microcar manufactured in Spain, by Auto Nacional, SA, from 1953 to 1960, total of all versions around 10,000 units.

Messerschmitt KR200 Motor vehicle

The Messerschmitt KR200, or Kabinenroller, is a three-wheeled bubble car designed by the aircraft engineer Fritz Fend and produced in the factory of the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt from 1955 until 1964.

Peel P50 Three-wheeled automobile

The Peel P50 is a three-wheeled microcar originally made from 1962 to 1965 by the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man, and then from 2011 to present. It was listed in the 2010 Guinness World Records as the smallest production car ever made. The original model has no reverse gear, but a handle at the rear allows the very lightweight car to be maneuvered physically when required.

Messerschmitt Kabinenroller Motor vehicle platform

The Messerschmitt Kabinenroller was a series of microcars made by RSM Messerschmitt from 1953 to 1956 and by Fahrzeug- und Maschinenbau GmbH, Regensburg (FMR) from 1956 to 1964. All the Messerschmitt and FMR production cars used the Kabinenroller's monocoque structure, featuring tandem seating and usually a bubble canopy.

Heinkel Kabine Motor vehicle

The Heinkel Kabine was a microcar designed by Heinkel Flugzeugwerke and built by them from 1956 to 1958. Production was transferred under licence to Dundalk Engineering Company in Ireland in 1958. However, the licence was withdrawn shortly afterwards due to poor quality control. Production restarted in 1960, again under licence, under the Trojan 200 name by Trojan Cars Ltd. in the UK, and continued until 1966.

Dubble Bubble Brand of bubble gum

Dubble Bubble is a brand of pink-colored bubble gum invented by Walter Diemer, an accountant at Philadelphia-based Fleer Chewing Gum Company in 1928. One of Diemer’s hobbies was concocting recipes for chewing gum based on the original Fleer ingredients. Though founder Frank Fleer had come up with his own bubble gum recipe in 1906, it was shelved due to its being too sticky and breaking apart too easily. It would be another 20 years until Diemer would use the original idea as inspiration for his invention.

Goggomobil Motor vehicle platform

Goggomobil was a series of microcars produced by Hans Glas GmbH in the Bavarian town Dingolfing between 1955 and 1969.

FMR Tg500 Motor vehicle

The FMR Tg500 was a sports car built by Fahrzeug- und Maschinenbau GmbH, Regensburg (FMR) from 1958 to 1961. Based on the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller monocoque, which otherwise was a platform for three-wheelers, the Tg500 was a four-wheeled car with a two-stroke straight-two engine. FMR had taken over production of the KR200 from Messerschmitt in 1956. While the KR200 still used the Messerschmitt name and logo, the Tg500 was badged as an FMR.

Messerschmitt KR175 Motor vehicle

The Messerschmitt KR175 microcar (1953–1955) was the first vehicle built by Messerschmitt under its 1952 agreement with Fritz Fend. In concept, although not in actual design, it was an extended version of the Fend Flitzer invalid carriage. Approximately 15,000 were built before it was replaced by the Messerschmitt KR200 in 1956.

Opperman Motor vehicle

S E Opperman was a tractor manufacturer in England. After he saw the Bond Minicar he decided to build his own four-wheel microcar at a factory in Elstree, Hertfordshire.

Fritz Fend was an aeronautical engineer. He was noted for designing Messerschmitt's Kabinenroller (cabinscooter) KR175 and KR200 microcars, for co-founding FMR, the company that took over production of the Kabinenrollers in 1956, and for designing the FMR Tg500, a sports microcar based on the Kabinenroller. Fend continued his career as an inventor and designer after the KR200 ended production. Fend was working on another lightweight vehicle project shortly before his death.

Glovers Island

Glover's Island is in a tree-lined section of river, formerly known as Horse Reach on the tidal Thames, between Richmond Lock and Teddington Lock in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, England.

Fuji Cabin Motor vehicle

The Fuji Cabin is a three-wheeled microcar produced by Fuji Toshuda Motors of Tokyo, Japan, from 1957 until 1958. It was introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1955. The car has two front wheels and one rear. Its two-seater body, with a distinctive single headlamp, is constructed of fibreglass.

References

  1. Hudson, Sheila S. "Take a trip to see the Dubble Bubble Cars". OnlineAthens.com. Retrieved October 26, 2008.
  2. "Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum Auction Report". Archived from the original on 23 April 2015.
  3. "HANDLE WITH FUN: RM AUCTIONS LIFTS THE GAVEL ON BRUCE WEINER'S WORLD-FAMOUS MICROCAR MUSEUM" . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  4. Welsh, Jonathan (23 August 2012). "Auction House to Sell Micro-Car Collection". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 18 September 2012.

Coordinates: 33°31′59″N83°27′00″W / 33.53306°N 83.45000°W / 33.53306; -83.45000