The citizens of Los Angeles and its visitors will once again have an opportunity to spend an evening with a knowledgeable guest at the Petersen Museum. On Tuesday, October 16 Charles Gould will present a unique collector's perspective on the preservation and restoration of microcars, as well as their history. Gould is an avid microcar collector whose collection boasts about 90 examples from around the world. The Museum is currently featuring a special exhibit called Microcars: The Minimum In Motoring. These little cars may look bizarre to North Americans but in many parts of the world they were a popular step up from bicycles and Scooters, and even now people from all walks of life drive microcars, especially in Japan and older European cities with extremely narrow streets.

According to the Petersen Museum's description "microcars have recently become the focus of a great deal of interest among modern collectors and enthusiasts for their uniqueness, minimal storage space requirements, and comparative low cost of acquisition, restoration, operation, and maintenance. Small and quirky, they offer a counterpoint to mainstream collectible vehicles." The vehicle in the photograph is a Zundapp Janus, named after the Roman god of doors and gateways whose two faces looked in opposite directions. With doors at both front and back the Janus has a similar two-directional appearance. If fuel prices keep climbing a modern microcar could have quite a following in North America, which seems like a Smart idea to us.

[Photo: Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum]