The smallest car ever made had no reverse gear

The smallest production car ever made shipped without a reverse gear. When a Peel P50 driver needed to turn around in a tight spot, they got out, grabbed the handle bolted to the back of the car, and dragged it around by hand. At 54 inches long, 39 inches wide, and 130 pounds, that was not much of a chore.

The Peel Engineering Company built the three-wheeler on the Isle of Man from 1962 to 1965 and advertised it as seating "one adult and a shopping bag." It had one door, one headlight, one windshield wiper, and a 49cc engine good for about 38 mph. The 1963 model retailed for £199. As a publicity stunt that year, someone took a P50 up Blackpool Tower in the elevator and drove it around the observation balcony.

Fifty were built, and 27 are known to survive. One sold at a Sotheby's auction in March 2016 for $176,000. Jeremy Clarkson, who is 6 feet 5 inches tall, drove a blue P50 across London and through the corridors of BBC Television Centre for a 2007 episode of Top Gear, and called it "absolutely brilliant."

Previously:
• Tiny vehicles, big impact: the past, present, and future of the ingenious microcar
• Largest collection of microcars up for auction today