To kick off Car Week 2024 in Monterey County, the town of Pacific Grove hosted a free, unpretentious Little Car Show on Wednesday, August 14. But despite modest expectations, it turned out to be, as Ed Sullivan said when introducing the Beatles six decades ago, a Really Big Show, including this classic dirt track racer serving as a signpost.
The DAF 600 van was made in more numbers as a sedan (1959-'63), and overlapped a 750cc version made until 1967 with the same 4-cycle, horizontally-opposed twin. Both shared the first continuouisly variable transmission (CVT) in a production car. As the cheerful owner explained, this gave the cars the same ratios backward as forward, and led to entertaining backwards races in the car's native Netherlands.
Fiat's Nuova 500 also had a air-cooled twin, but rear-mounted and inline, when it appeared in 1957, replacing a front-engined rear-driver. That means the current 500, still available Stateside as an electric, is the second New 500 for Fiat. Compared to this little beauty, though, it's kinda big...
The 1930 Austin Seven above featured an engine just under a 750cc tax limit, and led to licensed versions by American Bantam, the BMW Dixi (their first car), and the Rosengart in France. It also led to road racing versions like the 1934 Ulster boat tail below. Austin also made cars with cheery names like Nippy and Chummy...
This Singer Nine sports roadster was also made in 1934, and featured an overhead cam on its inline four of just under one liter size. The cars were popular in their native England, and led to Singer-engined road racers and hill-climb cars from HRG.
This Lancia Fulvia Coupe is the Series 3 version of the Fulvia, which was manufactured from 1963 to 1976 with six different displacements (ranging from 1.1 liters to 1.6) for the narrow-angle V4 driving the front wheels. The owner of this excellent specimen bought it to replace one lost in the catastrophic fire that destroyed Paradise, Califorinia in 2018.
The Honda Beat (1991-96) was a mid-engined sports roadster meeting the limits set for Japan's kei tax category. A 656cc inline 3-cyiinder drove the rear wheels through a 5-speed manual transaxle. The tight little package was wrapped in bodywork styled by Pavel Husek at Pininfarina.
Robert Opron's bodywork for Citroen's Ami 6 (1961-'78) was, ahem, a bit less successful. The 600cc air-cooled front-drive twin was essentially a restyled Deux Chevaux, and despite a glossy brochure produced for American car shows, the relentlessly eccentric little car found no market in the USA. Opron would go on to well-deserved fame as the body designer for the Citroen SM and GS models introduced in 1970.
Humor was not in short supply at the Little Car Show, and the owner of this 1961 MGA got into the spirit of things with a sculptured hound rendering judgment on his red roadster...
The Lotus Elan below met 2 requirements set by the Little Car Show organizers; it was little and its Ford-based engine with twin-cam Cosworth head was under the limit of 1.8 liters. Elans were introduced in 1962 with a 1.5 liter four, but this soon grew to 1.6 liters. Series 1 gave way to Series 2 in 1964, and in mid-1966 the Series 3 roadsters adopted the fixed steel window frames of the fixed-head coupe, which cluttered up the clean visuals of the Series 1 and 2 roadsters.
Pinin Farina gave us this design for the Fiat 1200 sports roadsters in 1959, back before he combined his first and last names for the company ID. This clean body design on this black example was also applied to the OSCA-engined, twin-cam 1500 and 1600 roadsters and hardtop coupes.
Peugeot introduced the cabriolet version of its 404 sedan in 1962, and followed it with a coupe in '63. Pininfarina's lines continue themes and details established on the smaller Fiat project above, and the car found success, at least in its native France.
This big-bumper Porsche 911 would have exceeded the 1.8 liter limit in original form, but its conversion to electric power got it into the show under the "of special interest" category.
Dante Giacosa's design for the Fiat 600 Multipla offered a space-efficient van version of Fiat's 600 in the same way that VW had spun its Beetle into a Microbus. Multiplas were bult from 1956 t0 1967.
Though the overhead-cam, 750cc sedans and wagons built by Crosley Corporation, headquartered in Cincinnati, from 1947 through '52, have been forgotten by the non-car wonk public, they appeared in force at the Little Car Show. This 1949 wagon with surfboard rack is a reminder that the wagon was the most popular Crosley.
The convertible version below was also from 1949, and was essentially a version of the sedan with full-length sunroof, a theme echoed on the 1950 Rambler convertibles.
Besides the convertibles, sedans and wagons, Crosley made nearly 2,500 Hotshots and Super Sports roadsters between 1949 and '52. Super Sports models had doors; headlight details on both presaged the Austin Healey Bugeye.
This Stebbins Special is a reminder that the SOHC Crosley enigne formed the basis for plenty of specials in the SCCA world of amateur racing in the 50s and 60s. Some were etceterini powered by the Italian Bandini version of the Crosley, with twin cam heads. The owner dates the Stebbins to 1948, and it has an Italmeccanica version of the Crosley four.
The Formosa 120 GR was one of only two we've seen, with fiberglass bodywork made in England placed on a Triumph Herald chassis with swing-axle rear (like the Spitfire), but with a 1.6 liter Triumph six (see Vitesse in last 2 photos) replacing the Herald four.
The Ford Escort Twin Cam, offered from 1968-'71, was less familiar to Americans than its bigger brother, the Lotus Cortina. Both shared the Cosworth-designed, dual overhead cam aluminum head on the Ford 105 series engline block. 
The Subaru 360 (1958-'71) was the company's first mass-produced car, and featured a rear-mounted 360cc two-cycle inline aircooled inline twin. Offered as a sedan or "cabrio coach" with full sunroof as well as a van-like wagon, it didn't find much success in the US when introduced in the late Sixties, owing to its tiny size, low power and un-Subarulike fragility.
Renault's Turbo and Turbo 2 (shown) were rally homologation specials with mid-mounted turbocharged fours of 1.4 or 1.5 liters driving the rear wheels through a 5-speed transaxle. Bodywork was taken from the front-drive Renault 5 (Le Car in the US), with mods and interiors by Bertone, and the mechanicals were stuffed into that little car's rear seating area.
BMW's 700 was built in sedan, coupe and cabriolet form with unit body (a company first) developed from sketches by Giovanni Michelotti. The coupe version is shown below; engine was a 700cc twin derived from the R67 used in motorcycles and the 600 Limousine.
To give that Limousine designation perspective, we present a 600 variation on the Isetta bubble car made by BMW from 1957-59. It doubles the number of passengers the Isetta offered to 4, and the number of doors to 2 (one at the front, one at the right side). Compared with the Isetta bubble car, it perhaps seemed like a limousine...
BMC's trend-setting transverse-engined Mini, introduced way back in 1959, showed up in multiple versions. Ten feet long and riding on 10" diameter wheels, it's perfect for a Little Car Show.
The Lotus 7, introduced in 1957, checks all the boxes for exhibiting at the Little Car Show. It's small, lightweight, spindly, kind of uncomfortable, and quick...
Fiat's mid-engined X1/9 spider was based upon the transverse inline OHC four and 4-speed transaxle of their front-drive 128. Built by Fiat from 1972-'82 and by Bertone from '82-'89, the car was initially offered as a 1.3 liter. When the 1.5 liter cam along in 1978, so did a 5-speed transaxle.
Morris Minors showed up, with this wood-bodied Traveller wagon in non-standard stain colors getting plenty of attention. The Minor appeared in 1948, and the last Traveller rolled off the line in April 1971, 5 months after the last saloon.
Another car competing for Unfamiliar to Americans honors with the DAF and Ami 6 was this Triumph Sports Six, called the Vitesse in England. Essentially a factory hot rod, it offered a 1.6 liter or 2.0 liter inline 6 crammed into the engine bay of the Michelotti-styled Triumph Herald, which originally went with a 1.2 liter four. Despite the lack of fame Stateside, over 51,000 found homes (mostly in the UK and Europe) from 1962 to '71.
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All photos are by the author.
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