Odd cars draw a crowd at Concours

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jul 23, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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In the owner’s manual, BMW writes that after 7,500 miles drivers should return the car to their dealer, where mechanics will pull the car apart and service the frame for an “insignificant amount.”

Richardson’s Isetta has 8,000 miles on it.

“Now I want to go down to Rasmussen and say, ‘will you translate “insignificant” into a dollar amount for me?’” Richardson quipped.

Once the body was off the car, Richardson piled it in the back of a truck to take it into Portland for a refinish. His wife, Therese, sat on top of the parts to keep them from jostling in the truck bed for the whole trip.

BMW produced about 161,000 Isettas between 1955 and 1962. Of those, about 12,000 were exported from Germany.

But BMW wasn’t the only company to produce Isettas. The Italian auto firm Iso was the first to roll out an Isetta, and others followed.

The durability of the design – which gets 80 to 90 miles per gallon – meant that the little cars were showered with popularity for a time and still have a following, making parts easy to obtain.

Richardson still drives his Isetta, though not when it’s raining. The car’s trip to Concours was its first experience in the back of a trailer, a test-run for an upcoming trip to Colorado where Richardson will show the car off to other micro car fiends.

Richardson said that most of the folks who dropped by to eye his car were excited by the high gas mileage, and wondered why auto manufacturers don’t build micro cars anymore.

The reason, Richardson said, are the litany of safety requirements placed on new cars.

The Isetta doesn’t have airbags or crumple zones. A little unnerved by the car’s size, some Concours attendees worried aloud about what would happen in an accident.

Richardson said the fear has less to do with the size of your car and more to do with your mindset.

“If I thought I was going to get into an accident, I wouldn’t have gotten up this morning,” Richardson said.

– Christian Gaston

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