The Microdot is a concept design by
William Towns
William Towns (1936–1993) also known as Bill Towns was a British car designer.
Design career
Towns began his training as a designer at Rootes in 1954, where he was mainly involved in the styling of seats and door handles. Later he was also ...
for a small, economical town car. The car was first shown at the 1976
London Motor Show
London Motor Show, formerly the London Motorfair, is a motor show in England. It was held biannually at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, from 1977 to 1999. When the event won the support of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and P&O Ev ...
and was an evolution of his 1972
Minissima
The Minissima is a small concept city car that was designed by William Towns (as the Townscar) as his idea for a replacement for the Mini in 1972. It was displayed by BLMC on their stand at the 1973 London Motor Show after they bought the proto ...
car. The Microdot was a
petrol/electric hybrid vehicle with a small 400cc petrol engine powering a 3.5kW generator and, designed to carry three people side-by-side on short city journeys, with the driver sitting in the central position.
Mallalieu Engineering
In 1979 William Towns collaborated with prototype vehicle builders at Mallalieu Engineering,
Wootton,
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been admin ...
, with a view to limited production. The Microdot prototype, built by
William Towns
William Towns (1936–1993) also known as Bill Towns was a British car designer.
Design career
Towns began his training as a designer at Rootes in 1954, where he was mainly involved in the styling of seats and door handles. Later he was also ...
on a cut-down
Austin Mini
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
chassis, was given opening doors and a longer nose, to accommodate the
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
Reliant
Reliant Motor Company was a British car manufacturer based in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. It was founded in 1935 and ended car production in 2002, the company had been known as "Reliant Motor Company" (or RMC for short) until the 1990s w ...
car engine, one of the smallest and lightest UK car engines then available, instead of the original hybrid proposal. Mallalieu Engineering was best known for making Bentley Specials, the Barchetta and Oxford, based on the Mark 6
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North ...
.
The engineers had a target of 100 miles per Imperial gallon. Under the prototype label of "Matrix" a business plan, it was proposed by Mallalieu's managing director Noel Hodson, to sell several hundred "Chelsea" Microdots a year to POSSFUND, the venture-capital arm of the
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
pension fund
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.
Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...
, then one of the largest funds in the world, managed by Ralph Quartano.
The recession of the early 1980s, and the growth in small economical cars such as the
Austin Metro
The Metro is a supermini car, later a city car that was produced by British Leyland (BL) and, later, the Rover Group from 1980 to 1998. It was launched in 1980 as the Austin mini Metro. It was intended to complement and eventually replace the M ...
and
Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car marketed by Ford since 1976 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and has been positioned below the Escort (later the ...
, stopped the hybrid-drive project. Mallalieu Microdot (company number 01504509) was dissolved on 23 June 1987 and Mallalieu Engineering (company number 01215691) was dissolved in 1989,
and the project disappeared.
Design
Designers from film
special-effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
studios in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, who had created the original ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' spaceship interiors, created "alive" interior cockpit designs and motor industry experts from
Lucas
Lucas or LUCAS may refer to:
People
* Lucas (surname)
* Lucas (given name)
Arts and entertainment
* Luca Family Singers, also known as "lucas ligner en torsk"
* ''Lucas'' (album) (2007), an album by Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities
* ''L ...
and
Ever Ready advised on batteries, power-trains and instruments. Relying on
8-track stereo tape recordings by celebrities, it was planned that a Microdot would "talk" to its owner.
File:Microdot and Minissima.jpg, Together with the Minissima
File:Microdot Interior.jpg, Interior
File:Dashboard of Microdot concept (1975) by William Towns.jpg, Dashboard
References
*
Heritage Motor Centre
The British Motor Museum in Warwickshire, England holds the world's largest collection of historic British cars, with over 300 cars on display from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Heritage Trust.
History
The creation o ...
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Microdot (Car)
Concept cars
Microcars
Electric concept cars
Hybrid electric cars
Cars of England