Cheaper than Walking

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 BBC Radio 4 in October 2012.