Mazda's 'Suitcase Car'

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This was a Mazda concept built in the early 1990s from an in-house competition about personal mobility, writes Brian Byrne. The engineers involved made it from a production 'pocket' motor bike, and the largest Samsonite hard-shell suitcase they could buy.


After the minute or two required to assemble, the 32kg contraption could carry its single passenger along at speeds of up to 30km/h, powered by a 34cc two-stroke engine.

It was never designed for production, but they built three for display, only one of which remains in existence — the original was accidentally destroyed, one exhibited at the 1991 Frankfurt Motor Show 'disappeared under unknown circumstances' and the surviving version is in the US.

 

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