The Road Not Taken

Eric Koch is spending two weeks in Europe. A number of his regular readers have generously volunteered to compose guest-postings – this is the first of several by Michael Gundy.

When the automobile was introduced nearly a century and a quarter ago, it was modeled on the horse and carriage rather than the more logical bicyclist. As a result, the vast majority of vehicles since have been unnecessarily heavy and ponderous. Their production and use have consumed vast additional resources as well as creating immense additional pollution. We now consider the equine-inspired model the norm so all else is absurd.

It was not always thus.

Leonard J.K. Setright, journalist, Talmudic scholar, scion of the eponymous trambus ticket printing machine family and author of Drive On! A social History of the Motor Car, reminds us that there were numerous motorized tricycles at the early part of the last century.

Ettore Bugatti, race car designer and manufacturer, first established the architecture of the current minimalist vehicle in 1911. The result was the Peugeot Bébe, an unapologetic miniature car, philosophically still valid today.

Others followed. Sir Hubert Austin created the Seven, Sir Alex Issigonis the Mini, Dante Giacosa the Fiat 500, André Lefèbvre the Citroën 2CV. All were involved in racing or aircraft design. The results are elegant minimalist machines that are delightfully responsive. The driver is connected: the vehicle is a direct extension like a fine musical instrument.

Setright is vexed that the motor car developed into a bloated decadent artifact rather than the more satisfying jewel-like alternative. Unfortunately, size does matter.

“In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to be taken away.”

— Antoine De Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars