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This car was first designed and built in Italy by Iso SpA in the mid 1950’s. There were about 20,000 produced in Italy. In 1954 BMW made a deal that not only licensed them to produce the cars but also took over all of the tooling from Iso SpA. BMW later re-engineered the car and produced well over 160,000 cars from 1956-1962.
BMW Isetta
BMW made the Isetta its own. They redesigned the powerplant around a BMW one-cylinder, four-stroke, 247 cc motorcycle engine which generated 10 kW (13 hp). Although the major elements of the Italian design remained intact, BMW re-engineered much of the car, so much so that none of the parts between a BMW Isetta Moto Coupe and an Iso Isetta are interchangeable. The first BMW Isetta appeared in April 1955.
1955 BMW Isetta 250, BMW Museum, Munich, Germany.In May 1962, three years after launching the conventionally modern-looking BMW 700, BMW ceased production of Isettas. A total of 161,728 units had been built.
This car was seen just around the corner from my house, what a rare find. If you know more about these cars or know the year, please leave a comment, I would appreciate it.
This is Jory Bell’s car, I’m nearly certain. As far as I know he has the only bubble window BMW Isetta in San Francisco and his was black with black license plates. Jory is a founder of OQO, world’s smallest personal computer. The computer was lovely but the business failed it was extremely expensive and they didn’t foresee the rise of the netbook.
Thanks for the comment. I really appreciate it. Why don’t you send the link to Jory. he might get a kick out of it.
Fred