Monday, August 5, 2013

Ahead Of Its Time

Metropolitans never gained the popularity of VW's, but they were pretty common fifty years ago, and you still run across one every so often. This one was at the Boonville steam and gas engine show. The bad thing about these is the unit body. If they rust out, you don't have much to work with.
The interior looks really good, but that speedometer seems a bit hopeful for the little four-banger. Metropolitans have been popular in movies; not quite as much as Model T's were during the silent era, but pretty close. Do a search for movies with Nash Metropolitans, and you will at least be surprised, if not amazed. I remember seeing a movie on TV when I was a kid, that was located in Berlin, and involved some kind of business with Coca Cola. There was a really wild chase scene through Berlin with one of these, and I remember an East German border guard being handed a bottle of Coke, knocking the top off, and drinking from the broken-topped bottle. The music behind the scene was the Sabre Dance, but darned if I can remember the name of the movie. It was funny then, but I was around ten years old.
Well, what do you know?! They made these with a hybrid option!

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