Question of the Week: What’s Your Favorite Sub-Liter-Powered Vehicle of All Time?—WINNER’S UPDATE You Should Know
WINNER’S ANNOUNCEMENT:
We’re back to announce the winner for our Question of the Week, where our victor will accept a $25 credit for a hat or T-shirt from the BaT Gear Store and the acclaim of their peers.
Our question this week was: What’s your favorite sub-liter-powered vehicle of all time?
Thanks to everyone who chimed in! After tallying up the nominations, the Fiat 850 Spider and Mini tied at the line with five nominations each. So this week, we’re exercising our Editorial Privilege and handing the prize to our favorite of the two—the Fiat 850 Spider! BaT member @mr_smee was the first to mention it, along with the Pontiac Firefly Turbo:
“Fiat 850 Spider, but if we allow 1cubic cm to 1.0L then the Pontiac Fireflfy Turbo.”
The Bertone-designed 850 Spider was initially powered by a 843cc four-cylinder. By the early 1960s, Abarth devised a series of hopped-up Fiats based on the 850, and the 1000 OT Spider was born in 1965. It featured a hotter 1.0-liter four-pot and showed what kind of hot stuff it could be with a whole liter at full tilt. They’re always fun to see buzzing around the circuit at vintage races with their decklids open, Abarth-style. Congratulations, mr_smee! Be sure to check your email to claim the prize.
Now, let’s take a look at some other popular nominations from this week’s discussion thread:
“The Austin 850 Mini of course!”
The 850 Mini, in particular, was the other popular choice this week.
“Honda Beat I drove from Tokyo to Mt. Fuji and back. It’s been more than three decades since then, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday.”
You can’t, ahem, beat a memorable drive like that.
“Honda Trail 70. Big fun in a small package. Crashed one in High School, oops. There is a reason there are so many available on BAT. Honda sold lots of them.”
A variety of two-wheeled conveyances kicked off this week’s discussion. The Honda Trail series, among other bikes, were one of the more popular picks.
@alexmiller writes:
My first car was a 39hp 997cc 1963 Ford Anglia and I loved it. Rallied it extensively and even won a few. Wasn’t fast at 0-60 in 23 seconds but handled well and was very tossable as a rally car. The hydraulic clutch leaked and would occasionally run dry, requiring that I shut it off at stoplights and push-start the car by opening the door and jumping out, pushing it by the windshield frame, getting it moving, jumping in, and jamming it into second gear to bump-start the engine. Did that one time for a whole week.
Easy to work on, inward slanted rear window, so no need to clear the snow off the back window. Eventually, I found that a 1600cc Cortina GT engine in a wrecking yard with only 10,000 miles that had 100hp and a two-bbl Weber carb. Exactly the same on the outside as the 997cc engine, including the bell housing, engine mounts, etc, so a drop in fit. Swapped engines with my brother’s help in 20 minutes. Only the throttle linkage needed to be fabricated. Added a used set of Formula Ford wheels and tyres and transformed the car. Kept it until it rusted out, almost 10 years later.
“SAAB 850 Monte Carlo 850cc triple 2-stroke with 3 carbs a real snow mobile”
A hand full of Saabs rounded out the two-stroke oil burners this week, and the Monte Carlo was the more popular choice.
“Honda S800 or nsu Ro 80 my choices ……”
And the NSU covered the Dorito engine class this week.
@Egglectic nominated the:
1953 Moretti 750 Gran Sport Berlinetta Coupe.
A dual overhead cam engine in 1953 that produced 71 hp, while screaming at 7000 RPM! Small in size but beautifully proportioned. Italian elegance and style packaged with thrilling performance. And Moretti designed and built their own motors, not a massaged or modified FIAT.
My dad and had the chance to take our Moretti 750 GS coupe on the California Mille in 2024, and it was the time of our lives! You should have seen the grin on his face as he drove through the Joshua Tree National Park. The engine freely revving up, the effortless steering as the car handed turn after turn, gliding across the smooth desert roads.
Bellissima!
“Abarth double bubble zagato 750. Never should have sold it. unfortunately, the buyer wrecked it within 2 weeks, fortunately, he wasn’t hurt.”
“Crosley Hotshot America’s first postwar two‑seat roadster sports car powered by a 44 cubic-inch (724cc) inline- four. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1949-crosley-convertible/“
“Autozam AZ-1, Mazda Suzuki gullwing goodness, of course.
“Briggs & Stratton Flyer. Looks terrifying but also fun.”
Briggs & Stratton set out to build the most inexpensive automobile ever, and at $150 in 1922, that would be a little over $2,800 in today’s money. Though we wouldn’t mind paying a bit more for some additional safety features…
“The 1966 Honda RC166 Grand Prix bike had a 250CC four stroke six-cylinder with six carburetors, four cams, and 24 valves. These little screamers revved to close to 20,000 RPM and made a reported 65 horsepower, good for around 160 MPH. For me 100 HP per liter has always been a benchmark when you are getting into high performance engines. If 65 HP is a real number, it means that Honda had found 260 HP per liter in 1966.
Mike Hailwood won the 1966 and 1967 World Championships on variations of…”
A video needed to accompany this nomination for all the automotive audiophiles out there. Enjoy!
“The Austin 7, Saloon. Around 700 cc’s. Designed to get around the horsepower tax (sound familiar?): D X D X n/2.5
The answer to the Model T, it was manufactured in the ‘20s. It was a perfect mix of automobile, motorcycle and airplane. Like a motorcycle, early models had foot pedal operated rear brakes and hand operated front brakes. Like an aircraft the body was dope and fabric over stringers. Like a car it was enclosed and road-going and it had a very cool hand-beat aluminum trunk…”
“The Hillman/Sunbeam Imp! An 875cc Coventry Climax “fire pump” engine on a tidy little sedan.
Also the donor of the engine and trans in the D Sports Racing car I raced in to ’70s.
I can see that the Saab, Fiat or Mini 850 will win, but someone has to root for Rootes here!”
And we’ll conclude this week’s discussion with a comment from @Frank_Barrett:
That’s it for this week’s Question of the Week! Thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations once again to our winner, mr_smee. We’ll be back with a new question soon.
ORIGINAL POST:
Welcome to the BaT Question of the Week! For those unfamiliar, here are the rules: we ask an automotive-themed question, and the author of our favorite answer from the comments is awarded a $25 credit to the BaT Gear Store.
Some will say we’ve been hanging around the soda pop aisle at the grocery store for far too long, but that’s what inspired this week’s question: What’s your favorite sub-liter-powered vehicle of all time?
Fun-size engines go back to the earliest days of the automobile and motorcycle, beginning in the 1880s, and spunky, little sub-1000cc engines have found their purpose in everything from motorcycles to kei cars and “Giant Killers.” While these pocket zingers eventually retreated to more niche corners of the automotive world, they still stick around in small econo cars and as range-extenders.
We’ll refrain from providing any examples so as not to spoil the fun, but it’s worth mentioning that every cc counts here—we’re talking one-liter and below. Now tell us:
What’s your favorite sub-liter-powered vehicle of all time?
Let us know in the comments, and give a thumbs-up to any other nominations you deem worthy. We’ll announce the winner next Monday.
No question about it: the Citroen 2CV!
The 2CV is fun to drive; reliable; inexpensive to buy, operate, and maintain; inexpensive to insure; and they seem to be gaining in value. Bought on BaT 11 years ago, my 1986 draws interest like no other car. At shows, I’ve parked it next to Lamborghinis and Ferraris, and it gets way more attention than they do. It’s an unassuming car that punches way above its level.
OK, performance is (ahem) underwhelming, but still, on a level road with no headwind, mine will do 75 mph at 5,000 ft altitude, so I have no problem keeping up on tours. Gas mileage is off-the-charts good. Even in the U.S., parts are easy to get, and of course, inexpensive. You can’t drive a 2CV anywhere without someone wanting to talk about it. I’ve had people jump out into the street to stop me. Women love the car, perhaps because it’s non-threatening. One woman even chased me through a parking garage!
I’ve had other cars: American V8s, Porsches, an Alfa, a Lancia, and a 500-hp AMG, but this is my definite favorite.