The car was driven into an office building, into an elevator, and then down a hall and into an office. If you haven’t seen the episode, you know that it had to be a small car based on the chain of events. Small, yes, but neither small nor light enough to be quite literally carried into an office. If that’s the type of small car you crave, Mazda had a concept for it in the early nineties.
Known only as the “Amazing Suitcase Car,” it was a creation that came about during a contest “to see which group of employees could come up with the most innovative and creative solution to producing a moving machine.” Innovative and creative it is. Don’t want to wait for a cab? Open up your luggage and hop on. Can’t find a parking spot? Fold your car up and take it inside with you. It’s genius, really. I guess it takes about a minute to set it up. Just open it, fold the handlebars up, fold the front wheel down through a hatch, and plug the rear wheels and axles in through access holes in the sides. That’s it. Just pull the rope, and you’re ready to go. It’s powered by a 33.6cc, 1.7hp two-cycle engine that would typically power a pocket bike and run for a couple of hours on a tank full of fuel supposedly, top speed being thirty kilometres-per-hour. The Manual Transmission Testing and Research Group at Mazda supplied a team of seven engineers to the Fantasyard event where this idea was originally created. Obviously, this design was never intended for production, as it would be wildly unsafe on the open road, not to mention the lack of any pollution control on a two-cycle engine. Regardless, Mazda did allow two cars to be built, tested, and they still put their name on it to this day. It’s even on their official website. Apparently, one of the cars was destroyed “accidentally,” whatever that means, but the other one is still out there, and apparently, it still runs. Pocket bike parts are plentiful, and the engineering looks ingenious but simple, so it could probably run forever with basic care and maintenance. Next time you see a bar stool racer, tell them you’ve seen something cooler, or better yet, get out the sketch pad and draw up something cool and gas-powered for yourself. If you can drive a Samsonite suitcase, you can drive anything.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
