(first posted 3/29/2013) Sometimes it’s fun to just type in something at google images and see what comes up. Seeing that it’s Easter, how about “egg car”? This one is apparently popular in the UK; sort of their version of the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. It dominated the search results.
This on is titled “The Mork Egg Machine”. No further info available or needed.
The Heinkel is not a surprising result. But no Isetta?
Remember the Nissan Pivo from a few years back? It’s body pivoted on its chassis, for some reason that I can’t quite remember right now.
This one is actually called “Egg Car”, but it looks to be strictly in the digital realm.
The edible egg car.
Here’s a mold with which to make egg-cars from eggs. Takes a bit of imagination, but kids have plenty of that.
Nicely decorated. Hard boiled?
No info on this one, shot in some museum. Anybody recognize it?
Peugeot showed these a while back, as one of so many personal mobility concepts.
![Colani Yellow_Egg_city-car_05[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Colani-Yellow_Egg_city-car_051.jpg)
This 2006 City Car is instantly recognizable as the work of that eccentric genius, Luigi Colani. The wipers are a real tip-off; they’re the same ones he used on his truck and motor home concepts.
Let’s end on that yellow note. And enjoy your Easter Sunday, regardless of how you chose to spend it.
Don’t forget the 1913 Alfa bodied by Castagna. Though it is more of a teardrop than an egg, I think it deserves an honorable mention.
(image from motorbase.com).
The Mork Egg Machine I believe is a reference to the TV show Mork and Mindy. Robin Williams’ character, Mork, was to have arrived on Earth in an egg shaped space craft.
But that ain’t no Pam Dawber standing behind it…
The stillborn Aptera 2e has something of an eggy aspect:
(Allison/ CC-BY-SA-3.0; photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Truly a shame that the Aptera project didn’t make it. I wanted to drive one.
Thankfully, Cadburys Creme Eggs are available all year round – not just at easter. They are smaller than a hens’ egg, and very tasty.
Cadbury Cremé Eggs, my favorite!
Not a fan of Cadbury’s or anybody else’s creme filled candy, but I like the caramel and chocolate fudge filled eggs. Found the caramel eggs in stores this year, but not the fudge filled eggs.
I just realized this year that their commercials looked the same as when I was a kid. So I looked it up. Sure enough, other than some editing for 16×9 HD, it’s been 35 years. That clucking bunny has become an iconic part of Easter.
the stainless steel + plexiglas bubble with french license plates is a proto designed by Jean Albert Gregoire. He was also involved in the Dyna Panhard and Hotchkiss Gregoire
The car is in the National Motor Museum in Mulhouse, France. The crushed rock display base is pretty distinctive.
It is a 1942 Arzens Biplace L’oeuf
Hi there! We’d love to use one of your pictures on our Instagram page (we would tag you of course). We are @averysfloormats. Thanks!
Help yourself, but we don’t really own them, as we found them on the web.
From Car Design News about the little aluminium Paul Arzens microcar
https://cardesignnews.com/articles/concept-car-of-the-week/2016/11/loeuf-electrique
Paris, 1942: at the darkest time of the Nazi occupation, the City of Lights lay under a blanket of darkness. The streets once teeming with automotive traffic were empty except for military vehicles. Petrol shortages meant that horses and carts returned for delivery duties.
Loe12But then reports began circulating about a strange shiny little car that silently flashed around the streets. This turned out to be the invention of engineer Paul Arzens, who had decided to create a lightweight, three-wheeled electric runabout for the city, using a minimal amount of material. The little car soon acquired a name, L’ Œuf (The Egg), and then subsequently L’Œuf Electrique (The Electric Egg).
The Egg consisted of a bulbous aluminum and Plexiglas body that enclosed a minimalist two-person interior. The glasshouse was enormous for a small car, and included full Plexiglas doors for excellent forward and side visibility (the rear window was a tiny oval porthole). The remainder of the body was built of aluminum, hand-formed into a dimply egg shape, similar to that of the Porsche Gmünd cars which came a few years later. The Egg tapered to a blunt point at the rear, where the aluminium covered the third wheel and electric motor.
The whole ensemble was amazingly lightweight. The body was only 60 kilograms, weight increasing to 90 kilograms with the electric motor. With batteries added, the whole car weighed only 350 kilograms – about the same as a pre-war cycle car.
The interior was minimalist in the extreme – a simple bench seat over a wicker frame, a steering wheel, and no gauges or instrument panel. All other interior fittings were also omitted to save weight.
Only an engineer like Arzens could have scrounged the materials for the Egg during the privations of wartime Paris. However, the value and scarcity of aluminum and Plexiglas meant that only one prototype could be built. Nonetheless, Arzens received quite a bit of attention for the Egg, which he claimed could travel some 100 km at 70 km/hr, or at 60 km/hr with two people in the car.
After the war, Arzens stepped away from the electric car and proposed a simple ICE vehicle to be built for a minimal price. But it was never developed, and by 1947, Arzens was working for the French National Railway Company (SNCF) designing locomotives and rolling stock. Even here, at an entirely different scale, his experience with electric cars would influence his designs, and one of his locomotives, the CC7107, would set a speed record for electric locomotives that would stand for over 25 years.
But Arzens never forgot his beloved Electric Egg. He kept it in his collection for the rest of his life, taking it out for the occasional drive. The Egg has since been passed on to the Cite de L’Automobile museum in Mulhouse, France, where it awaits restoration. It was recently loaned to the ‘Dream Cars’ exhibition which toured in the United States; visitors to that show voted the Egg one of their favourite cars on display, citing its simplicity, large glass area and effervescent joie de vivre as reasons they would buy one today, if available.
And therein lies the enduring lesson of the L’Œuf Electrique, the tiny bubble car now almost seventy-five years old: simplicity, lightness, urban scale, and most of all, that joie de vivre, are the elements we must bring to design of the city cars of tomorrow.
This is brilliant and amazing. In that picture it looks as if it travelled in time from 2042.
The orange shaped much hated (by the politically correct ones) Outspan Mini
The Outspan Mini isn’t hated, it’s more the association of Outspan oranges with the South African apartheid regime that’s hated. If being politically correct is disagreeing with the way that black South Africans were treated until -very- recent memory, then count me in.
The Renault Goelette Van from the fifties which was shaped as a barrel to support the Tour de France by Byrrh a wine maker
But the real egg car(s) -he made more of these- are made by Indonesian sculptur Ichwan Noor, I like the black one best.
Not eggs, but might be of relevant interest… https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2009/02/21/le-freak-not-so-chic-tour-de-france-promotional-vehicles/
1994 Plymouth Expresso
Wasn’t there a early 1950’s Ferrari coupe racing car called “L’Ovo”?
Where’s the Toyota Previa?
Someone around here had a hopped-up one with a vanity license tag “FASTEGG”