{"id":499388,"date":"2021-08-31T16:12:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T23:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=122634"},"modified":"2024-06-04T15:35:15","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T15:35:15","slug":"1978-seab-flipper-microcar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/1978-seab-flipper-microcar\/","title":{"rendered":"1978 SEAB Flipper Microcar"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Europe tried to recover from World War II, manufacturers began producing small cars to satisfy the need for personal transportation.\u00a0 There were cycle cars, micro cars, bubble cars.\u00a0 They were cheap to build and buy, and they were economical to drive.\u00a0 As manufacturing was re-established and \u201creal\u201d cars began coming off the assembly lines, more people turned to larger, more comfortable automobiles.\u00a0 Sales of micro cars fell off – until the 1970s, when there was a resurgence of interest in micro cars, especially in France.\u00a0 The resurgence was likely caused by the gas crisis in the middle \u201870s, but it continued for quite a while, again, especially in France.<\/p>\n

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The French government allowed anyone over the age of 14 to drive moped-engined vehicles without a driver\u2019s license, safety inspection, or registration plate.\u00a0 The vehicles were restricted to 50-cc engines and a maximum speed of 45 kmph (27 mph), and they had to have at least one pedal that could be used to move the vehicle if the engine wasn\u2019t working.\u00a0 Without that pedal, it was no longer a moped, and the driver\/rider had to have a driving license.\u00a0 By the mid-1980s, there were 30 manufacturers in France producing 50 models of small, economical cars, or voiturettes<\/em>.\u00a0 One of those manufacturers was Societ\u00e9 d\u2019Exploitation et d\u2019Application des Brevet<\/em> (SEAB), located in the Villejuif suburb of Paris.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>SEAB was run by a WWII ace fighter pilot, Roland Paulze d\u2019Ivoy de La Poye.\u00a0 His company was focused on the use of plastics.\u00a0 The company produced a variety of products, but they also built the bodies for the Citro\u00e9n Mehari, so they were familiar with at least that aspect of auto manufacture.\u00a0 SEAB took the next step to become a voiturette manufacturer in 1978 when they first showed the SEAB Flipper 1.\u00a0 It was followed by a Flipper 2, also known as a Donky<\/em>, and a Flipper 3 before they stopped production in 1984.\u00a0 The two later Flippers were fairly conventional, small, front-wheel drive micro cars.\u00a0 Flipper 1 had some conventional design elements, but it was anything but conventional in other ways.<\/p>\n

Conventional elements of the design of Flipper 1 included a 47-cc Sachs air-cooled, two-stroke engine producing 3 bhp and driving the front wheels through a two-speed automatic transmission.\u00a0 It was small, only 234 cm (about 92 inches) in length, narrow, and slow.\u00a0 What makes the car particularly interesting is how they produced the body and why the car needed no reverse gear.<\/p>\n