Baby, You Can Drive My Car

The other day I was trawling through our collection of The New York Times microfilm for an obituary and came upon a fabulous advertisement. Is this car not one of the most adorable things you've ever seen? It's tiny like a Mini Cooper and looks like a modified buggy, minus the horse, of course. Plus, they figured out a way to cram five speeds into a car that tops out at 18 mph. I'd heard of electric cars, but realized I knew absolutely nothing about them. The search was on!

• The 1903 Columbia Mark LX Electric Runabout (That name's quite a mouthful, isn't it?) could make it about 40 miles before its batteries needed a recharge. According to a Time article, that's about the same distance a 2007 Chevrolet Volt could go. Makes me wonder how much progress we really have made in the last 100 years!
• The driver maneuvered the car by two levers on the left hand side. One lever was for steering and the other controlled speed. (americanhistory.si.edu)

Check out this page for a little bit more on this classic car. I'm almost ready to trade in my Honda for one of these cuties!

http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_1299.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1669723_1669725_1669729,00.html