Manuel Garriga
Before the arrival of the Seat 600, microcars were a common image on our streets and highways; and not a few of them were manufactured in Barcelona. Until mid-March, it can be seen in the city's history museum an exhibition dedicated to the phenomenon. To understand this history we must go back to the first third of the XNUMXth century, when the automotive sector began to gain strength in Catalonia until it became one of the foundations of our industry. After the war, with many companies dead or undercapitalized, the recovery began at the hands of small and medium-sized workshops that, alleviating the scarcity of resources and restrictions with effort and imagination, managed to lift the national industry. This is how microcar production begins, a phenomenon that also takes place in other countries of a Europe that is recovering from World War II.
But first of all, what is a microcar? If we stick to his technical description, it is worth reading the Belgian journalist Jacques Ickx in an article by L'Année Automobile 1958:
[su_quote] »Let's look at features that escape the orthodoxy of automotive construction: engines of less than 4 cylinders and less than 600 cc, elementary gearboxes (not always), wheels of 12 inches or less, wheelbase of 2 m at the most, total length close to 3 m, empty weight less than 500 kg, without forgetting this tendency to research (sometimes healthy, sometimes excessive) of the construction economy «. [/ Su_quote]
To understand the context in which a good reference arises is what the English historian Michael Sedgwick says in the work Cars of the fifties and sixties:
[su_quote] »Microcars are a by-product of postwar financial and steel constraints, rather than fuel rationing itself. (…) They were almost an extension of the scooter fever and, like these, they employed firms affected by postwar disarmament such as Messerschmitt and Heinkel. But basically the microcar is an attempt to introduce a means of transport to a car-hungry and still naive public, taking components from the motorcycle industry: small 2T engines (which could be turned in any direction, obviating the need for a reverse gear), reliable transmissions, primitive brakes, handlebar steering (Messerchsmitt) and three wheels or rear axles without differential (Isetta, Heinkel). Most English models had three wheels to save taxes. (…) In Spain (…) there was no automobile industry and there was a flourishing motorcyclist. That is why microcars proliferated, although only Gabriel Voisin's Biscuter would be produced on a large scale ". [/ Su_quote]
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The strength of local industry
From the mid-40s to the early 60s in Barcelona and its surroundings around twenty builders came to work, most of the workshops plus a few larger companies dedicated to the cultivation of the microcar and close relatives (motorcycles, tricycles and motorcycles with or without sidecar). Among the best known, along with the ineffable Biscuter we have Kapi, David, Orix, FH, Clúa, Junior, Delfín ...
Outside the area of Barcelona, we cannot ignore three famous microcars such as the PTV -which AUSA produced in Manresa-, the Isetta built in Madrid under Italian license, and the German Goggomobil manufactured in Munguía, although these arrive on the market somewhat later, already in full agony of the Biscuter. The appearance in 1957 of the 600, with doors that close, windows that go up, seats for four people and a motor with many cylinders (four), marks the beginning of the decline of the phenomenon, already practically extinct in the mid-sixties.
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Most of these vehicles were made with more trade than means using unsophisticated raw materials due to autarky (It was very difficult to find aluminum, for example) and through quite artisanal processes. Sometimes those who used their talents were technicians and industrial masters trained before the war, dedicated to the creation of these small-sized, simple-built mills for lack of better prospects.
A curious case is that of David (be careful, the local pronunciation turns the first vowel into a tonic: David) that ended up making somewhat bizarre microcars but still enjoyed a strong reputation in the city since the 230s, when it produced motorcycles. His factory on Calle Aribau 1931 is a rationalist building conceived by the architect Ignasi Mas Morell in XNUMX, and a true model in the genre. Today it works as a parking lot and headquarters for various offices where a certain elite of publishing, design and architecture languish.
If you look at the aesthetic aspect it seems that the microcars were looking to emulate their larger counterparts. By shaping them, it tended towards lines familiar to the general public, albeit by approximation. Thus, the FH blatantly imitated the nose of the 2CV in the first prototype, and the series version was inspired by the Fiat 500, while the Clúa drank from the Pegaso Z-102, not in vain had it been outlined by the bodybuilder Pedro Serra, author of the most elegant convertible of La Sagrera and of a few Seat 1400.
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The Kapi were quite diverse: from a passenger car that looked like a miniature Chevrolet to a cheap copy of the Jeep Willys lines called… Jip. The PTV came out of the pencil of the now centenary Guillem Tachó, who willingly admits having been inspired by the Porsche Spyder. What is not understood is that Joan Ramírez Montpeó, creator of the Orix, tried to pass off his SF model as an original in the case of such a crude and obvious imitation of the Volkswagen that at the 1954 Trade Fair he managed to raise the ire of a group of Falangists , outraged in this case for stylistic reasons ...
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Biscuter, the oldest of the little ones
Embedded in the collective memory of several generations, the Biscuter represents the Barcelona -and Catalan and Spanish- microcar par excellence, since it is the only one that is produced in significant quantities (12.000 units), far superior to any other, and above all with an ambitious industrial approach. Among its promoters were people related to the regime - the name of the company name makes it clear: Autonacional - such as the businessman Lorenzo Marco Sarrió, or the chain manufacturer Benet Jofre. The third man was Damià Casanova, the son of exiles and trained as an engineer in Toulouse, who contacted Gabriel Voisin to buy him the patent for the microcar presented at the 1950 Paris Motor Show, which they planned to build under license in Barcelona.
Autonacional builds some warehouses in Sant Adrià del Besós from where the first units of the vehicle will come out in 1954, perfected with respect to the original by Voisin and Casanova, with the 197 cc Hispano-Villiers single cylinder and the super cylinder of the French engineer. Marco offers the presidency of the firm to José María Marcet Coll, mayor of Sabadell, who facilitates many procedures in addition to opening the doors of El Pardo (the delivery of Biscuter No. 1000 to Franco is a coup). Little by little, the Biscuter is taking hold among the public: the Biscuter Club is launched, excursions and parades are organized, and later on, new versions of the model appear (blonde, van, Pegasin), although the company will lose its way due to disagreements between the partners and the market crash due to the effect 600. In 1958 it ceased to be manufactured, although units were still sold in stock for four more years.
It is not true that Voisin despised the Biscuter, on the contrary, he spoke proudly of his "Spanish model", the most powerful of all and above all the only one made in series. He did abhor, as he says in his memoirs, the 200-F version for its heavy fiberglass body that looked like "some kind of pompous Cadillac." From an essentially technical perspective, the car is a small miracle of simplicity and efficiency: reduced size due to its capacity, correct performance, minimal consumption, ridiculous maintenance ... Voisin, who was a visionary and in certain things ahead of his time, had already developed an experimental version with an electric motor, more than half a century ago.
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The Top 10 of Barcelona's microcars
Clua
With the air of a miniature Pegaso, the most elegant of Barcelona's microcars was that sports car from the firm Construcciones Mecánicas Clúa SL, established at 254 Espronceda street and already known as a manufacturer of popular motorcycles. Of the utilitarian with people skills, which had a 4cc 500-stroke boxer twin, produced about a hundred, quite remarkable for a vehicle of this type.
David
Simple, ingenious and ... very ugly, this bizarre tricycle was not, according to the manufacturer, a car with one less wheel but a motorcycle with one more wheel. It had a 2 cc 345-stroke single cylinder on the front axle, and about 60 or 70 were sold, in passenger and commercial versions. In the 50s the David brand, founded in 1914 and known before the war for its cyclecars and taxi fleets, he was still renowned in the city.
Dunjo
Behind the fruitful creativity of the Barcelonian industrial master Arcadi Dunjó Berta is the first Derbi 250, the rare Dusco, the exceptional Mavisa and the Kapi motorcycles and motorcycles, as well as many motorcycles, sidecars and an excellent replica of the republican aviation fighter Chato, built in 1986 and today exhibited at the Getafe Air Museum. Of this micro with an Iso 125 motor, three units were made in 1956, all different.
FH
Microcar built in the Hostafrancs neighborhood by a subsidiary company of Hispano-Suiza (the acronym stands for Hispano Van), that participated in the manufacture of Hispano Villiers engines under English license. Between 1956 and 1959, 350 to 400 copies were released, fitted with 2 and 197 cc 324-stroke single and twin cylinders, and refinements such as independent front suspension and hydraulic brakes.
Junior
Presented at the 1955 Trade Fair, the Junior 3R-197 (due to the number of wheels and the engine displacement), a traction rear-wheel tricycle, without doors and with an optional canvas hood, was the result of Antoni's inventiveness. Casas, creator of the Reina mopeds. Although the press of the time spoke of a hundred, of the Junior workshops at No. 80-84 on Mallorca Street, not even 20 came out (18 bodies have been counted).
Drops
That Super 125 with the Montesa engine and the look of haiga jibarizado is one of the models created by Captain Federico Saldaña, a Burgos soldier based in Barcelona and founder of Automobiles and Autoscooters Kapi. Between 1951 and 1957, it launched several two-, three- and four-wheeled vehicles, including motorcycles, motor-cars and micro-cars, although it is not at all clear that it actually produced the entire range announced.
maquitrans
Using the structure and mechanical base of its low-bed motorized van that appeared in 1952, Maquinaria y Equipos de Transporte SA presented five years later a flattened line microcar with a 175 cc 6,9 CV engine, electric starter and hydraulic brakes, capable of to reach 67 km / h. But it was too expensive and no more than a dozen were made. In 1958 this same company began to manufacture Ducati motorcycles under license.
At the limit of the same microcar concept -it was longer than a Seat 600-, the elegant Automach coupé that this somewhat mysterious manufacturer intended to produce, of which hardly any data is known, had a two-stroke two-cylinder 2 cc and 350 CV located behind the rear axle and announced a top speed of 15 km / h. But Spanish superutilitarian it would not reach the public until the end of 1959. Too late ...
MymsaMotores y Motos SA had already been making two-wheelers with their own technology since 1953. In 1955, it launched a first commercial tricycle in the style of the German Tempo, equipped with an engine (125 cc) and front-wheel drive, from which a 4-door, 4-seater touring version was derived that the Franco administration will not authorize to be mass-produced. This Rana 3R tricycle is quite similar to the Solito, manufactured by the French house New Map.
OrixMore a small utility vehicle than a microcar, the Orix is the work of a singular man, the mechanic Joan Ramírez Montpeó, author of several patents and accessories, and considered one of the masters in the field. Between 1952 and 1953, he built around 15 units in his workshop in the Les Corts neighborhood - he had won the Rise to La Rabasada in 1950 with the prototype - powered by a 610 cc, 28 hp boxer twin, capable of reaching 115 km / h. .
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