Georgia museum auctions off 'little cars'

Travel

Photos: On Feb. 15-16, 2013, the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum is auctioning more than 200 tiny cars east of Atlanta in Madison, Ga.

Reporter Mark Davis takes the wheel of a 1958 Messerschmitt. Nearly all of microcar collector Bruce Weiner’s cars were shipped here from European nations. Now, Weiner prepares to auction off most of his collection.

In a two-story brick structure 60 miles east of Atlanta, the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum is auctioning more than 200 tiny cars, plus other memorabilia from an era now gone. The auction happens Feb. 15-16. Why is Weiner auctioning off most of his collection? “It’s time to downnsize," he says.

Bruce Weiner climbs out of an Isetta truck. He'd travel the globe, looking in villages and barns, asking about cars -- little cars. Was there an Isetta hidden anywhere, its bugeye headlights filmed in dust? “The hunt,” he says. “I love the hunt.”

A visitor inspects car information at the museum. “Many of these postwar cars are telling you something about mankind,” says Weiner. “These cars show you how resilient mankind is. We can bounce back from anything.”

It’s hard not to love microcars, with their bulgy headlights and squat little bodies, their breadbox-size motors that go bappity-bappity-bappity. They are red and green and yellow and brown, creamy white and deep black.

Many of the early cars were three-wheeled, bypassing taxes levied on four-wheeled cars.

A bubble shaped 1966 Peel Trident (left) sits next to a 1950 Peel P50 at Bruce Weiner's Microcar Museum in Madison.

A row of Messerschmitt KR-200s make for a rainbow of automotive style.

Most of Weiner's microcars – vehicles with an engine of 700 CCs or less, which would power a mid-size motorcycle – were built in the 1950s and ’60s.

Bruce Weiner talks about the Velocar, that bridged the gap between a light car & cyclecar, which had pedals and a small motor.

One of only two 1949 Champion CH-2 (foreground) known to exist is housed at Weiner's Microcar Museum.

The little cars have a growing fan base, according to Jim Janecek, editor of Microcar News. At least 1,500 people across the nation have at least one microcar, he says.

"I hope I get to drive one of the things," AJC reporter Mark Davis said before heading out to Madison. (Looks like he got his wish.)

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Reporter Mark Davis takes the wheel of a 1958 Messerschmitt. Nearly all of microcar collector Bruce Weiner’s cars were shipped here from European nations. Now, Weiner prepares to auction off most of his collection.

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