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Cheaper than Walking

Andy Kershaw explores the brief, golden post-war age of small British companies making diminutive three-wheeled cars. From 2012.

Andy Kershaw rediscovers a brief golden age in British car-making when we excelled in producing very, very small cars.

Many of them had three wheels and engines more suited to powering lawnmowers. They were manufactured during a time of post-war austerity, particularly when the Suez Crisis cast a dark shadow over fuel supplies.

These micro-cars looked like they'd escaped from a funfair ride and had names like the Allard Clipper, the Opperman Stirling, the Bond Mark A and the Frisky Family Three.

Andy’s starting point is the Isle of Man and the only car ever to be produced there – the P50.

Then in Kent Andy visits the largest private collection of microcars, the Hammond Collection, followed by the annual get-together of bubble-car fans, the National Microcar Rally.

It’s a celebration of a uniquely creative, three-wheeled answer to hard times, evoking a lost era of tiny family companies making tiny family cars.

Producer: Jeremy Grange

First broadcast on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 in October 2012.

30 minutes

Last on

Thu 17 Feb 2022 02:30

Broadcasts

  • Mon 8 Oct 2012 11:00
  • Mon 5 Feb 2018 06:30
  • Mon 5 Feb 2018 13:30
  • Mon 5 Feb 2018 20:30
  • Tue 6 Feb 2018 01:30
  • Wed 16 Feb 2022 14:30
  • Thu 17 Feb 2022 02:30