RETURN OF THE MINI CAR

WTOP, DC - A French company, MDI, has created a car that runs on compressed air. The three-wheeled Air Pod can travel nearly 140 miles on a tank of air. Once you hit empty, the tank can be refilled by plugging the car into an electric outlet or at special air stations. The car can only hit 45 mph, and only produces 8 horsepower. Commercial trials will first hit Paris and Amsterdam in the spring, and will cost $7,500.

Tree Hugger - Swedish car company Vehiconomics will unveil a lightweight, three-wheeled economical vehicle the company hopes will begin to be seen in the streets of Swedish cities already in summer 2009. The first out, three-wheeled two-seater Smite, as it is currently called, weighs just 130 kilos (286 lbs.) and will cost under 50,000 Swedish crowns ($5,500), says Ny Teknik. It will debut in gas, ethanol, and all-electric versions, and is reported to have a top speed of 90 kilometers per hour - the clear opposite of that other famous Swedish vehicle, the Volvo.. . .

Back at the end of WWII, very small, economical automobiles became popular in Europe for a time, many of them three wheelers and able to be licensed as motorcycles. They typically had aircraft-style bubble canopies, giving rise to the term "bubble" cars. . .

Sam Smith, Multitudes - In the 1950s, WWDC's news fleet consisted of two vehicles, a Nash Rambler station wagon and an Isetta minicar. The light blue Rambler had WWDC NEWS, in reverse image, painted on its hood in large dark blue letters, thus allowing the sign to be read correctly in a rear view mirror. The style would become common, especially with ambulances, but at the time was the sort of novelty WWDC loved.

The Rambler had an even more startling, albeit unintentional, characteristic. The front seats of Ramblers folded down to become beds. Unfortunately, this capability had developed an anarchistic streak in our model, resulting in a tendency for the driver's seat back to become prone whenever sturdy brake pressure was applied, say at an ordinary stop light.

The Rambler was, however, the more conventional vehicle of the two. The Isetta, an Italian import, was far smaller than any car on the road today, and powered by a motor scooter engine. It had four wheels, but they were tiny and the two in back were almost adjacent to each other. You sat in what amounted to little more than a cockpit with barely enough room for a 210-pound reporter and a radio telephone. The door doubled as the entire front end, with the steering wheel swinging out of the way for entrance and egress. More than once I pulled up to a wall or post only to remember that I had blocked my own departure.

From its door-width bow, the Isetta slimmed almost to a point in the stern. It was painted bright red with the words WWDC NEWS inscribed in large white letters. In sum, the Isetta looked much like a lopsided, egotistical, overgrown tomato rolling down the highway.

It was not the best way to cover the news. The Isetta had a flank speed of 50 mph on flat, good pavement, and it practically had to be pedaled up hills. This sometimes interfered with arriving promptly at the scene of a distant fire, murder or drowning. Nonetheless, no one at WWDC would admit that novelty in this case had gotten a bit out of hand. Besides, the Isetta's light carriage allowed me to push it out of mud and sand in which a heavier car would have become mired.