[redneck]

The answer is....

Midget Motors Corporation



They produced approximately 8000 vehicles between 1946 and 1970.

Excerpt,

The King Midget's fuel economy and stamina were becoming legendary. The simple drivetrain and the car's light weight offered fuel economy that even imports couldn't match. Owners routinely reported gas mileage in the 50- to 60-mpg range. Orcutt and Dry hadn't invented any radical new technology, they just used common sense and very careful engineering to keep weight down.

The frame was steel tubing and channel steel, drilled for lightness but sturdy nonetheless. Advertisements showed it supporting the weight of 20 men weighing a combined 3,237 pounds, yet it was light enough to be lifted by a single man. Assembled cars weighed about 600 pounds, which is why they could get by with so little power. The Wisconsin engines were tough yet simple, and provided adequate though hardly exhilarating performance. Still, the King Midget appealed to a thrifty crowd that reveled in fuel economy numbers rather than acceleration statistics. Many Midget owners, in fact, wrote to the factory with tales of their experiences.


Consider a man from Oklahoma. He bought a King Midget in Ohio and drove it a distance of 1,079 miles, spending just $5.25 for gas. He wrote, "The following Sunday I had the tank filled with gasoline and drove from Enid to Canton, Oklahoma, and again had the tank filled to the top. It seems impossible, but it took only seven-tenths of a gallon to fill the tank to the top, which would be 90 miles to the gallon. You certainly have produced a wonderful little car."

A man from Indiana said, "My only regret is that I did not buy a King Midget sooner." A rancher from Oregon wrote that "In spite of hard use. King Midget shows no sign of wear or needing repairs." Consider this boast from those pre-radial tire days: "I now have about 70,000 miles on the tires on my King Midget. It is a wonderful little car." Another Ohioan stated, "Never thought I would own a car that it would be a pleasure to fill with gas. This one is, it takes so little."

Their most popular model was the Model 3 introduced in 1957 at a cost of $900.




Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Dry were definitely the ecomodders of their time...

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