![\"1958](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rickdebruhl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/DSCF5356.jpg\")
<\/a>It has no speed because the Isetta has a one cylinder engine that pumps out a whopping 13 horsepower. On a good day, with a tail wind, you might hit 50 mph.<\/p>\n
It has no beauty because, well, it’s doesn’t.\u00a0Oh sure, I’ll hear the word “cute” a lot. “Funny looking” will be close behind. As I climb in the single door that is the front of the bubble-shaped\u00a0body, the words “odd” and “downright ugly” will be uttered\u00a0after I hopefully can’t hear.<\/p>\n
So why did I buy an Isetta? Because I had to.<\/p>\n It all started at Canoga Park High School back in the early 1970s. Our principal, Hugh Hodgens owned an Isetta. He’d bring it to football games on Friday nights. Every time our team would score a touchdown, he’d\u00a0pop a cheerleader out the sunroof and drive around the track.<\/p>\n Ever since then I’ve had a fascination for the tiny cars. I remember regularly\u00a0seeing one parked close to Highway 101\u00a0near\u00a0Anderson’s Pea Soup in Buellton, California\u00a0(just north of Santa Barbara). As I’d drive back and forth to college I’d ponder how it would be fun to own an Isetta.<\/p>\n Fortunately, it was not an obsession.\u00a0My automotive tastes are a lot more mainstream.\u00a0Mustangs\u00a0and Corvettes are more my style.\u00a0The smallest car I owned was a 1959 Bugeye Sprite. But while it was small, it was\u00a0sporty and a lot of fun.<\/p>\n Over the past five years I’ve seen the Isettas become a popular fixture at the Barrett Jackson auctions. There’s always one or two and they bring impressive money. Apparently cute sells.<\/p>\n Of course, not even that was enough to make me want to buy one.<\/p>\n Until\u00a0I found it. “It” was a 1958 Isetta sitting just outside of Sacramento. It was restored about six years ago and has less than 100 miles on the odometer since the work was done. Nicely\u00a0finished with red paint and a red and white interior, the frame was in great shape and the engine started right up.<\/p>\n But that’s not what made this Isetta special.\u00a0It was special because of its owner: Hugh Hodgens. That’s right, the principal. It was the same car I’d seen him drive around the track at football games.<\/p>\n The\u00a0path to my purchase\u00a0started one\u00a0day when an email was forwarded to me from a family friend who used to work at the high school. I happened to notice that Mr. Hodgen’s (I can’t call him anything else)\u00a0email was included. Having plenty of happy\u00a0high school memories (after all, that’s where I met my wife), I decided to send him a message, and mentioned that I had a fondness for Isettas. His return message included the nugget that he still owned the car. My next email concluded with one of those brash statements, “If you ever decide to sell the Isetta, let me know.”<\/p>\n Turns out\u00a0that Mr. Hodgens, after owning the car for\u00a046\u00a0years, was ready to sell. It was always a novelty, but also a part of his family.\u00a0Still, it had reached the point that he wasn’t using\u00a0the Isetta\u00a0much. It was garaged at some property he owned near Sacramento. My offer came at just the right moment. More importantly, it\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0from a stranger. It was from\u00a0a member of the Canoga Park High School family.<\/p>\n Suffice to say that one thing led to another and before long we had a deal. Mr. Hodgen’s son brought the car down to Los Angeles where I picked it up and trailered it back to Phoenix.<\/p>\n So now I own an Isetta.<\/p>\n What am I going to do with it? Well, it’s hardly transportation, at least not the way we think of it today. Back in the 50s, it was designed to be a step up from a motor scooter, if not quite a full car. It\u2019s surprisingly comfortable and roomy, but it\u2019s also a rolling death trap. I pity anyone who was hit in one of these back in its day. And then there\u2019s the speed, or lack of it.<\/p>\n My wife and I will putter around the neighborhood. We\u2019ll take it to church, although I’m a little worried about driving it to the grocery store. I\u2019m not concerned about someone trying to steal it (first they\u2019d have to figure out the backwards shift pattern), rather some pranksters might try to pick it up and move it\u00a0for fun\u00a0(just like kids did back in its high school days). We\u2019ll definitely hit some car shows where we stand a great chance of winning the \u201cPeople\u2019s Choice\u201d award.<\/p>\n One thing we will do is make people smile. The few times I\u2019ve driven it, people stop and point. They wave and tell their kids to come take a look. They desperately try to whip out their camera phone and take a picture.<\/p>\n Maybe that will be the legacy of this car. It made me smile in high school, and now I get to pass those smiles on to a new generation. How many cars can make that claim?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>