In 1955, the Isetta 250 was launched and participated very successfully in the mini-car era of the 1950's. It was built under license from the Italian manufacturer Iso and used a motorcycle engine and a single door at the front. The engine was a single cylinder 245cc unit producing 12 horsepower at 5800 rpm and a top speed of 53 mph (85 km/h). During its 7 year production run a total of 161,728 Isettas were built. Many say the Isetta was one of the best engineered small cars in history and it may have saved BMW from going under and we may have never seen the 3 series, 5 series, 7 series and the M5 if there hadn't been an Isetta.
I'm very familiar with the Isetta, because my best friend in college had one and I rode in it all the time with him. What could be considered the M division of its day, included a team of three BMW engineers that dropped a souped up 600cc engine that produced 78 horsepower at 6600 rpm into the Isetta and got wide eyed stares as they blew past other sports cars of the day. These cars were way ahead of their time and typically delivered 50 to 60 mpg! Many accumulated over 100,000 miles, rare for a vehicle in the 1950s.
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